Mystery Coast Redwood #11

Redwoods are not gentle giants

Continued from: Coast Redwoods Main Page

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Copyright 2017 by Mario Vaden

 

The photo below was taken back in March, 2015. The view seems unusual because it's not a common sight to find young vibrant redwoods fallen next to one of the largest standing strong. A number of things may have toppled the young redwood. Studying my images again, it looks like a Douglas fir died, decayed and fell on the redwood. Sometimes the largest redwoods break, dropping limbs weighing thousands of pounds, crushing anything smaller below. Redwood are not "gentle giants" as some people like to believe. Redwoods just grow and respond to what nature made available where they exist. Redwoods are not wise. They don't think or prepare. It's a very simple way of life, for they also lack worry, anxiety, fear and anger. These groves have no manners either. The hemlocks don't say please, and the redcedars don't render respect to the redwoods. The life forms provide each other some benefits, but not by choice because there is no freewill here.

This bushwhack was just 7 weeks after spotting a new champion called "Hail Storm". And this is how the giants are found. One new valley, one new hill, one new watershed at a time. We just pick a new place, enter the unknown, and hopefully enjoy ourselves. All the places are beautiful. But some terrain can be brutal to cross. This environment never evolved for human activity. This is a land for stationary plants.