The Redwood Trees

Photo by Victor Grigas.

       The redwoods and big trees of our western United States are the oldest and the largest of living things. Some of these trees are more than two thousand years old and exceed three hundred and fifty feet in height. They grow only in a few places now. Redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, meaning evergreen sequoia, are found close to the Pacific Ocean in a strip about five hundred miles long and thirty miles wide, stretching northward from central California into Oregon. This is a rather low fog belt and redwoods seem to thrive in the moisture. Big trees, Sequoia gigantea, signifying giant sequoia, grow higher up in the mountains and are found only in a few isolated places farther east in California.

       There are no other living sequoias in the world today. But at one time in the past the same kinds of trees were growing in Europe, Central Asia, and scattered throughout North America.

       Those early redwoods were growing at the time of the last flying reptiles and dinosaurs, about sixty-five to eighty million years ago. They lived on through the years when mastodons, mammoths, and saber-toothed tigers roamed the earth. Then the great ice glacier probably destroyed all these enormous trees except the two small groups still growing in the western United States. The oldest of these trees living today were probably alive when the pyramids of Egypt were built and before the time of Christ.

       What kind of tree is this great redwood? It is an evergreen tree, with flat, needle-like leaves and small cones. The slender leaves remain green for about two years before they turn brown, and they may stay on the tree two more years before they drop. They are constantly falling, but at certain times of the year more leaves are shed. However, the tree is never entirely without leaves, for it is an evergreen.

       The great trunks, as much as twenty feet in diameter, are covered with rough, reddish bark and often have burls that look like huge warts. These round trunks stretch up straight and tall for many feet before the branches thrust out to the sunshine above. With rays of sunshine slanting between them, the tall, bare trunks topped with small crowns of branches look like magnificent colonades.

       Redwoods show great vitality. They can sprout from the seeds, roots, burls, or trunks. Few insects and diseases attack the trees, and the wood is slow to ignite because of the little resinous matter it contains. However, few sequoias have been known to die a natural death of old age. Most of them have been destroyed by glacier, wind, or severe forest fire or cut down for lumber. Although these trees have been able to live for many years, they can grow only in certain altitudes with the right temperature and moisture.

       The common name, redwood, refers to the color of the wood. This wood is often used for building purposes, especially the highly ornamental wood of the burl. As this beautiful wood becomes better known and is more in demand, there is always the danger that too many trees will be felled for commercial purposes and that seedlings will not be started or allowed to replace the cut trees, so that the few remaining stands of these great trees will eventually disappear. Many people have been interested in protecting the sequoias from further destruction and possible extinction. As a result, state and national parks have been established and private organizations formed.

• Booking Across the USA: California's Redwoods - extend your lesson on these trees just like Akene Everitt did, using paper tubes and green construction paper to make the trees. She also recommends a book called "Redwoods by Jason Chin" and also lists 51 links to similar state inspired lessons from fellow bloggers for kids.