The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-01-07
INCREASE EFFORT TO
SAVE REDWOOD TREES
Nature Lovers Join to Buy
California Forests

San Francisco-Increasi effort,
with prospect of success, is being
made to preserve from extinction the
corld's tallest and most beautiful
zee, the Sequoia sempervirens, or red
wood.
Spread over the northern hemi-
sphere of Europe and America when
the earth was young. the tree was
secured from the globe by ancient ice
sheets until there remained only a
forested belt of few hundred miles
along the coast of northern California
and BIT of southern Oregon. There
in cathedral grandeur it raises it's
lofty spires $50 feet and more Its
name, sempervirens-ever living
arouses the imagination, for it is from
1000 to 5000 years old, only thou
sand years younger than it's cousin
the Sequoia ggantea, of the Sierra
Nevada mountains.
League Buys Groves.
Magnificent TIMBER resisting mois-
ture and decay for centuries, though
fallen, it was cut and shipped through
out the United States and abroad in
such quantities as to endanger it's ex-
haustion.
Aroused. the ve-the-Redwood
league. composed of such nature low
ers as Franklin X. Lane, DR.. John G.
Merriam. William Kent and others,
actuated by love of beauty, in recent
years has raised money to buy some
groves and induce the state of Cali
fornia and various organizations to
preserve others.
Today, 1875 acres have been freed
from the woodsman's menacing ak.
In addition, the league has initiated
a program for a national redwood
park of 10000 acres of trees that were
a half-thousand years old when the
star appeared over Bethlehem.
The lumbermen have sympathized
with the spirit of conservation, and,
moved greatly by considerations of
financial advantage, began reforesta-
ton so extensive as to promise COM
plete replacement of trees cut down.
Merchantable redwood timber in the
forests estimated at 0,000,000,000
feet board measure, will be repro
duced by planting at the rate of $780,
OO0000,00O feet board measure year.
ly, assuming the present rate Of cut
ting and reproduction. Lumbermen
figure from this that the second
growth of redwood will be ready for
cutting in 100 years at the same time
that the virgin timber has disap-
peared.
Trees Aid Reforestating Plan.
The tree itself is a great factor in
Its perpetuation, for sprouts spring
rom it's stumps so profusely and per-
sistently that M. B. Pratt. state for
ester, says:
"If planting by the lumber compa-
MES is continued on the present scale,
I consider that adequate means will
have been taken to reforest the cut
over lands. particularly since these
lands are reforesting more or less by
themselves by means of stump
sprouts
The redwood belongs to the pine
family or cone-bearing group. In the
fall of the year the cones are gath
cred from the ground and taken to
the nurseries Of the lumber compa-
MES at Scotia, Fort Bragg and Cas-
par, Cal. Seeds removed from the
cones become trees Of six or seven
inches in one or two years. Trees
thus grown in 1925 numbered 3,25O,O0O.
In the winter of two years ago
start Of replanting was made when
300 acres were reforested. Last win
ter 5000 acres were planted. and the
program for the present winter en-
braces 5000 acres. When the total
reaches 10000 acres yearly, this with
natural reproduction, 1t is hoped, will
preserve the redwood for posterity.