I asked him what the yellow tape around the same trees meant. He chuckled and said foresters had placed the yellow tape on the trees. It was meant to tell loggers on the ground that the tree was protected by the activists' network of ropes. To my amusement, any tree in the area that had blue spray paint also had yellow tape around it. Another thing that struck me was that the trees were so far apart.
Redwood trees grow in circles, usually around an older mother tree.
The three groves that were marked with yellow tape were at least 100 feet apart from each other in all directions. I expected we would go up the same way but quickly learned otherwise. Blackbird handed me a harness, gave me a quick crash course in harness safety and how to tie knots, and sent me up on my own with no assistance from above. Climbing 100 feet up a rope using nothing more than a harness, two smaller ropes and my own muscles was a very empowering feeling. Once I reached the platform at the top of the rope, I gave a powerful cry of victory.