Redwood

The redwood is a giant evergreen tree that grows along the Pacific coast of North America. Redwoods are the tallest trees on Earth. They live in a narrow strip of foggy forest in northern California and a small part of southern Oregon. Most full-grown redwoods are between 200 and 300 feet tall, with some reaching almost 380 feet. That is taller than a 35-story building.

There are two main kinds of redwoods. The coast redwood is the tallest. The giant sequoia, a close cousin, grows in the mountains of California and is shorter but much wider. A giant sequoia named General Sherman is the largest tree on Earth by volume. Its trunk weighs more than 1,300 tons, about as much as ten blue whales.

Redwoods can live for a very long time. A coast redwood can live 1,200 to 2,000 years. Some giant sequoias are over 3,000 years old. That means a few living trees were already growing when the pyramids of Egypt were new.

The bark of a redwood is its secret weapon. It can grow more than a foot thick, and it contains a chemical called tannin that bugs and fungi do not like. The bark also resists fire. Forest fires often burn through redwood groves without killing the big trees. Many redwoods carry black scars from old fires and just keep growing.

Redwoods do something strange to get water. Pulling water 300 feet up from the roots is hard, even for a tree. So the leaves at the top drink fog directly out of the air. Cool ocean fog rolls in over the California coast almost every summer day. Without that fog, the tallest redwoods could not survive.

A redwood forest is its own little world. Ferns, mosses, and huckleberry bushes grow on the forest floor. High in the canopy, scientists have found whole gardens of plants growing on the branches, plus salamanders that may live their entire lives without ever touching the ground.

People nearly destroyed the redwoods. During the California Gold Rush and the years that followed, loggers cut down most of the original old-growth redwood forest for lumber. Today, only about 5 percent of the original old-growth coast redwood forest is left. The rest has been logged at least once. Most of what remains is now protected in places like Redwood National Park and Sequoia National Park.

Walking into a grove of old redwoods is a quiet experience. The light turns green, sounds get soft, and the trees overhead were already old when your great-great-great-grandparents were born.