A Few Facts about Redwoods
(and why they would make a great housing collective)
Redwood trees share resources with each other.
"The roots of individual redwoods frequently grow intertwined with those
of their neighbors. By holding hands underground, the roots form a network
that allows the trees to withstand even
great storms." [1]
If an old redwood falls, it is reborn in a ring of new sprouts surrounding
it.
"Regeneration of the individual tree frequently occurs by crown-sprouting,
that is, sprouting from the root crown...Speaking generally conifers do
not crown-sprout; the felling of a pine or fir, for example, abruptly ends
the life history of the individual.Ê One notable exception is the
Redwood, which crown-sprouts very freely when cut down, fire-killed or
overthrown in old age...Sprouts from Redwood stumps grow into saplings
and poles, compete with each other like distinct individuals, the strongest
survive and we finallyÊ have a circle of trees about the parent stump...The
trees of these second-growth circles are sometimes felled, whereupon a
new and still larger circle of trees will arise in a similar manner outside
the first circle.Ê Regeneration in the primitive Redwood forest has
taken place, in the manner above described, for untold centuries.Ê
There are at the present time evidences of circles which began their history
500 to 1300 years ago.Ê Probably about 80 per cent of the adult Redwood
stand consists of trees which originated from crown sprouts and not from
seed.Ê The regenerative power of the Redwood is so great that it will
under natural conditions maintain possession of its area against all competition."
[2 pp. 159-160]
Redwood trees are quite resistant to many natural disasters...
"Insects do not attack live redwoods because the wood contains tannic acid,
which is bitter.Ê The bark can be up to a foot thick, which provides
the tree with excellent insulation from fires. Floods, which deposit soil
around the base of the trees, do not smother the roots. Other trees would
die when their roots are thus smothered. But, redwoods can grow new roots
up into the newly deposited soil." [3]
...and they even hold up in earthquakes.
"In Mendocino County a Redwood tree, which stood directly on the fault
line, had its trunk split upwards some 10 feet as a result of the strain
exerted by the two halves of its root system moving in opposite directions."
[2 p. 168]
Redwood forests have been called the cathedrals of America.
"Tens of thousands of people from the cities go to the Redwood groves of
Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino for three or four months of the rainless season,
setting up their household gods in the shelter of the second-growth circles
and living freely in the open air amongst the cinnamon columns and under
a green forest canopy." [2 p. 22]
And yet they exist only in Northern California, where they have developed
self-sustaining ecosystems with the largest known density of life.
"The enormous size of the trees, together with the rich variety of mosses
and other plants growing on the trunks and branches, means that per acre,
these forests contain the largest mass of living matter of any ecosystem
on earth. The redwood forests, where the most enormous trees are found,
can contain 8 times as much biomass per acre as can be found in tropical
rainforests!" [4]
[1] A Coast Redwood Primer, http://www.sempervirens.org/RedwoodPrimer.html
[2] Jepson, Willis Linn. Trees of California. Independent
Pressroom, San Francisco, 1923.
[3] Redwood Forest Ecology, http://members.tripod.com/tracker777/ecology.html
[4] Ancient Redwoods, http://www.ran.org/ran/ran_campaigns/old_growth/redwood/ecosystem.html
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