Redwoods Threatened

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31359, 3 May 1967, Page 12

Redwoods Threatened

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. Man, not nature, is threatening the Californian coast’s giant redwood trees, one of which is 385 ft high. The trees, free from insects and disease and literally fireproof, once grew in thick forests extending from Monte-

rey Bay, less than 100 miles south of San Francisco, north to Oregon.

But the population increase along the northern Californian coast and the demand for redwood lumber have reduced the nearly 2,000,000 acres of trees to 300,000 acres. Two Bills Only a small part of the 300,000 acres is virgin forest. There are now two bills before the House of Representatives which would create a redwood national park. One of the bills is sponsored by the Johnson Administration and the other by Mr Jeffrey Cohelan, a Californian Democrat. The Administration measure proposes that a 43,392-acre park be formed close to the Californian-Oregon border by joining two redwood State parks, del Norte Coast and Jedediah Smith. The Cohelan bill would develop a 90,000-acre park south of the Californian-Oregon border.

Logging Continues It is unlikely that there will be action on either of the bills for some months, in spite of pressure from conservation groups. President Johnson has asked

the lumber companies to halt their operations, but logging has continued. The conservationists are not asking that every tree be saved, only that virgin forests be preserved for park purposes.

Mrs Johnson, who is engaged in a campaign to beautify the United States, referred to the redwoods in a speech when she opened the Point Reyes national seashore in California in September, 1966.

“These trees are immortality amongst us,” she said.

Redwood forests are thick with lush undergrowth of sword fern, clover-like redwood sorrel and wild flowers. The name sequoia was given to the trees by an Austrian botanist in 1847. He chose that name in honour of an American Indian Sequoyah, who devised the Cherokee alphabet. Redwoods are not bothered by disease or insects and because of their high moisture content and low resin content in the bark, the redwoods are fireproof. It has been said that many of the trees, struck by lightning, have smouldered for months until- heavy rains or snowfall extinguished the fire.