Why were redwoods cut down?

It was the post World War II housing and economic boom caused the majority of old-growth redwoods to be clear cut. In just a few decades, hundreds of thousands of acres of old-growth redwoods on private lands were logged. By the 1960s, industrial logging had removed almost ninety percent of all the original redwoods.



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Many of California's old-growth redwoods — the world's tallest living things that can grow to more than 300 feet high and live 2,000 years — were cut down between the 1800s and the 1970s for decks, paneling, and even fence posts and railroad ties. Modern environmental laws and the creation of public parks ended it.

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Logging on this land stretches still further back to the mid-1800s, when white settlers seized it from the Coast Yuki and Northern Pomo tribes, who had called the land home for thousands of years. After the land came under the ownership of Caspar Lumber Company, loggers clear-cut nearly all of the old-growth forest.

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Coast redwoods sometimes regenerate as seedlings but more often grow from sprouts, which start easily on lateral roots or from stumps or downed logs. Young redwoods grow quickly—two to six feet a year—so that a 20-year-old tree will often be 50 feet tall and about eight inches in diameter.

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Visit our restoration webpages to learn more about this exciting work. How many acres of old-growth forest are left? Fewer than 120,000 acres, or 5 percent, of the original redwood forest remains today.

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As its nickname suggests, giant or coastal redwoods thrive in the moist, humid climate of the Northern California coast, where marine fog delivers precise conditions necessary for its growth. The fog adds moisture to the soil and helps trap it there by lowering the rate of evaporation.

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They Live for Thousands of Years Although a redwoods' ability for a long lifespan contributed to its Latin name, Sequoia sempervirens—sempervirens means evergreen or everlasting” in Latin—most of the remaining redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains are “second-growth”, about 50-150 years old.

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Save the Redwoods League Continues Logging the Sequoia Forests California. September 2023: Save the Redwoods League is actively clearcut logging upper Long Meadow Grove and will be begin logging Packsaddle Grove next.

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1: Redwoods Only Grow on the Northern Pacific Coast Slowly, over time, climate change and coastal rain patterns limited redwood forests' range to their current boundaries. If you travel inland more than twenty-five miles inland the redwoods start to thin out.

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North Coast, Humboldt County, California Just south, this California coastal area is often called Redwood Country thanks to its thriving forests. The area is home to 45 percent of the remaining old-growth redwoods in California, and Redwood National and State Parks shelters some of the tallest trees on Earth.

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In their native California, the humid summer fogs combined with winter rainfall allow redwoods to grow to immense heights. Did you know? The largest redwood in the world lives in Sequoia National Park, California.

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