Coast Redwoods, Tall Trees Grove, Grove of Titans, Atlas Grove, Lost Monarch, Hyperion, Del Norte Titan, Iluvatar, Redwood Parks

Text Box: Let ‘redwood-ed’ help you understand and enjoy those magnificent ‘RED-GOLD’ GIANTS THAT POPULATE THE COASTAL REDWOOD FORESTS OF CENTRAL AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. WITHIN These MANY PAGES OF INSIGHFUL INFORMATION AND PICTURES, ed strives TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR QUEST TO MORE THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY, ECOLOGY, BEAUTY AND LIFE-SUSTAINING IMPORTANCE OF THoSE MARVELS OF NATURE, AND TO help you PLANT YOUR FEET WHERE so FEW HAVE VENTURED.

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Text Box: The Largest Coastal Redwood Trees The currently known twenty-four (24) largest coastal redwoods, by total wood volume in the main trunk and appendages, combined: Rank Tree Name Location Volume Height Diameter (dbh) (cu-m) (cu-ft) (m) (ft) (m) (ft) * ‘Iluvatar’ was featured in the October 2009 issue of

Text Box: Ed Gilbert, aka ‘Redwood-Ed’, is a forest naturalist, advocate and experienced hike leader. Ed has vast experience exploring the 450-mile redwood belt from the ‘Big Sur’, in central California, to the ‘Chetco River Basin’, in southern Oregon’s ‘Siskiyou National Forest’. Ed’s thousands of hours of hike leading and exploring in the redwoods have been devoted to the study and interpretation of the forest’s ecology and history, both natural and man-made. He has organized and led hikes for more than three hundred groups, including tourist, corporate, environmental, senior, youth, avid hikers and state parks staff. He has trained redwood forest hike leaders and interpreters, has served more than 25 years as a California State Parks’ volunteer, has first-hand knowledge of past logging and lumbering practices, and has studied forest ecology, plant identification and nature interpretation. Ed, a recipient of the Santa Cruz County ‘Be the Difference Award’ and the ‘California Poppy Award’, for exemplary volunteer service to California State Parks, is the former owner, president and CEO of ‘DSC Diamond-Bilt’. He has a ‘BS-Engineering’ degree from Oregon State University, and he is a registered ‘Professional Engineer’. Ed’s past and present endeavors and affiliations include:

Text Box: Gilbert Redwood Excursions (Owner & Chief Hike Leader) The Advocates for The Forest of Nisene Marks (Vice-President & Director) The California Department of Parks and Recreation (25-year Volunteer) The California State Parks Foundation (Member) The Mountain Parks Foundation (Member) The Nature Conservancy (Member) The Save-the-Redwoods League (Member - Redwood Circle & Legacy Circle) The Sempervirens Fund (Member) The Sierra Club (Ventana Chapter Wilderness Hike Leader) The Yosemite Conservancy (Member)

Text Box: Informational Notes With the exception of the 15th, 16th & 30th largest, and the 16th tallest, the exact location of the largest & tallest coastal redwood trees are kept secret to protect the trees from ground compaction, and incidental & flagrant damage to the shallow roots and the trunks, which could impair & shorten their lives. The ‘Diameter (dbh)’ represents the ‘average diameter of a tree’ when measured at ‘breast height’ or ‘4.5 feet above average ground level’. Some information on this web-site was derived from postings by others. All of the ‘color’ photographs are ‘Ed Gilbert’ originals, unless otherwise noted.

World’s tallest: ‘Hyperion’

A fire-hollowed giant & me in the ‘Goose-Pen’ cavern

$Text Box: The Coastal Redwoods . . . The ‘Red-Gold’ Living Legends In the most favorable parts of their range, California’s magnificent coastal redwoods can grow to more than 380 feet high (about as tall as a 38-story building) and with trunks up to 30 feet in diameter at breast-height, and they can live for more than 2,500 years. However, ancient coastal redwoods are rare - less than 5 percent of the original forest remains today. These ancient forests contain the highest standing biomass (total of all aboveground organic matter) of any forest on Earth and, therefore, store incredible amounts of carbon. The coastal redwood is one of the world’s fastest growing conifers. In contrast to the tree’s size, redwood cones are very small - only about an inch long. Each cone contains 14 to 24 tiny seeds: It would take well over 100,000 seeds to weigh a pound! In good conditions, redwood seedlings grow rapidly, sometimes more than a foot annually. Young trees also sprout from their parent's roots, taking advantage of the energy and nutrient reserves contained within the established, shallow root system. In recent years, scientists have discovered that life abounds in the canopy and on the forest floor. Canopy research supported by the ‘Save the Redwoods League’ has revealed many species that live their entire lives in the redwood canopy, including worms, salamanders and plants such as Sitka spruce, ferns and huckleberry. Frequent, naturally occurring fires play an important role in keeping the coastal redwood ecosystems healthy because they rid the forest floor of combustible materials. In contrast, decades of fire suppression practices usually result in the accumulation of dead plant material that may fuel intense, destructive fires. Coastal redwoods grow naturally only in a narrow 450-mile strip along the coast from central California to southern Oregon. In this ‘redwood belt’, temperatures are moderate year-round. Heavy winter rains and dense summer fog provide the trees with much-needed water during the otherwise drought-prone summers. In fact, redwoods create their own ‘rain’ by capturing the fog on their lofty branches, contributing moisture to the forest in the driest time of year. While these climate and terrain conditions foster the growth of the redwoods, other factors come into play to enhance their chance for long term survival and immense growth. First off, their very spongy and up to one-foot thick bark gives them the capacity to absorb and hold a large amount of water. This, combined with the lack of flammable resins in their makeup, makes them very fire-resistant. Secondly, the tannic acid in their genetic makeup, which acts as a natural insecticide and fungicide, protects them from attack by pests and disease. You will never see moss or fungus growing on a healthy redwood tree. Thirdly, their very shallow root-structure extends outward, radially, for a long distance from the tree base. Those extended roots attach to the roots of the other redwoods in the grove and provide them all with the stability to resist falling during periods of high wind and ground saturation from heavy rainfall. And finally, if they do become stressed from fire damage, or felling from wind or logging operations, they will most often, by their genetic nature, repair their damage or grow multiple new vertical trunks, with like DNA, surrounding the damaged trunk or stump. This new growth sprouts from ‘burls’ in the surviving root system and is commonly referred to as a ‘fairy ring’. All of the above factors, when combined, provide this small part of the world with a natural specie of nature that, despite climate change, catastrophic events and the ‘hands-of-man’, has been able to survive around the world, in various related forms, for more than 200 million years. The native people of California usually did not cut down coastal redwoods, but used fallen trees to make planks for houses and hollowed-out logs for canoes. When gold was discovered in 1849, hundreds of thousands of people came to California in need of food and housing, and redwoods were logged extensively to satisfy their needs. By the 1960s, only a small fraction remained of the original 2 million acres of ancient coastal redwood forest. The largest surviving stands of ancient coastal redwoods are in Redwood National Park and Jedediah Smith, Prairie Creek, Humboldt and Big Basin Redwoods State Parks. Many others are protected in numerous other city, county and state parks and forest reserves.$

Text Box: The Tallest Coastal Redwood Trees The currently known twelve (12) tallest coastal redwoods: Rank Tree Name Location Height Diameter (dbh) (m) (ft) (m) (ft) 1 Hyperion RNP 115.92 380.31 4.84 15.2 2 Helios RNP 114.95 377.01 4.88 16.0 3 Stratosphere Giant HRSP 113.84 373.49 5.18 17.0 4 Nugget RNP 113.52 372.44 4.39 14.4 5 Paradox HRSP 113.32 371.78 3.90 12.8 6 Icarus RNP 113.14 371.19 3.78 12.4 7 Lauralyn HRSP 113.03 370.83 4.54 14.9 8 Orion RNP 112.88 370.34 4.18 13.7 9 Millennium HRSP 112.85 370.24 2.71 8.9 10 Minaret HRSP 112.47 369.00 3.26 10.7 11 Mendocino MWSR 112.28 368.40 3.08 10.1 12 Apex HRSP 112.23 368.20 3.38 11.1

Text Box: 1 Grogan’s Fault 2 Melkor 3 * Iluvatar 4 Del Norte Titan 5 Lost Monarch 6 El Viejo Del Norte 7 Howland Hill Giant 8 Sir Isaac Newton 9 Terex Titan 10 Adventure Tree 11 Bull Creek Giant 12 Arco Giant 13 Drury Tree 14 Westridge Giant 15 Big Tree 16 Giant Tree 17 Brown Creek Tree 18 Elk Tree 19 Fanghorn Tree 20 Atlas Tree 21 Foothill Tree 22 Redwood Creek Giant 23 Godwood Creek Giant 24 Sacagawea

Text Box: —— Undisclosed —— 93.0 305 7.89 25.9 RNP 1109 39,100 106.3 349 6.82 22.4 PCRSP 1064 37,500 91.4 300 6.25 20.5 JSRSP 1055 37,200 93.6 306 7.22 23.7 JSRSP 1206 36,500 97.8 321 7.19 23.6 JSRSP 1002 35,400 98.7 324 7.04 23.1 JSRSP 953 33,580 100.6 330 6.02 19.2 PCRSP 942 33,192 91.1 299 6.85 22.5 PCRSP 919 32,384 82.3 270 6.49 21.3 PCRSP 912 32,140 101.8 334 4.95 16.5 HRSP 882 31,144 102.7 339 6.79 19.4 RNP 871 30,699 79.8 267 6.85 22.7 PCRSP 845 29,744 83.8 275 5.85 19.2 PCRSP 839 29,541 74.4 245 7.01 24.4 PCRSP 812 28,619 87.2 286 6.58 21.6 HRSP 789 27,800 108.2 355 4.95 16.5 PCRSP 781 27,515 77.2 245 6.41 20.7 PCRSP 793 27,944 94.7 300 5.88 19.0 JSRSP 766 27,000 75.6 248 6.40 21.0 PCRSP 764 26,938 87.8 295 6.40 21.0 PCRSP 752 26,500 91.7 301 5.81 19.0 RNP 742 26,193 110.4 362 5.21 17.1 PCRSP 726 25,636 107.9 353 7.47 25.0 JSRSP 698 24,649 97.8 321 6.92 22.7

‘National Geographic’

Text Box: Live feed during daylight hours

Text Box: Smith River in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Text Box: If trees gave off ‘Wifi’ signals, we would plant so many trees that we’d be helping save future life on this planet. Unfortunately, redwood trees only produce the oxygen that we breathe. There’s seldom a ‘Wifi’ signal in our coastal redwood forests, but those trees promise you, you won’t find a better ‘connection’ anywhere!

Text Box: The Largest & Tallest Redwood Tree Locations HRSP - Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, CA JSRSP - Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte County, CA MWSR - Montgomery Woods State Reserve, Mendocino County, CA PCRSP - Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, CA RNP - Redwood National Park, Humboldt County, CA

My name-sake:

‘Redwood-Ed’ - the tree!