Saving the Redwoods
“Any fool can destroy Trees” John Muir once wrote, “They cannot run away; if they could they would still be destroyed – chased and hunted down as long as a dollar could be got out of there bark. Urged on by conservationists the federal government came early to the rescue of the giant sequoias grove creating Sequoia National Park in 189 0(Leydet 1963). Protecting nearly 97% of the giant sequoias, no such protection was given to coast redwoods (Leydet 1963). Every redwood alive within the range had a permanent logging season threatening their existence. It took the Save the Redwood League nearly 45 years to protect just 75,000 acres, a fraction of the original Redwood forest (Leydet 1963).
By the late 1960’s nearly 90% of the original redwood trees had been logged. After much controversy and compromise with timber companies, Congress finally approved a federal park, and on October 2, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the act that established Redwood National Park. The new preserve placed 58,000 acres in the care of the National park Service (NPS.Gov). In 1977, Representative Phillip Burton introduced legislation to expand the federal park. Despite much opposition from the timber industry, in March 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the addition of 48,000 acres to Redwood National Park. This addition widened the protection in Redwood Creek, although 39,000 acres of the addition were already logged over. Restoration of these lands commenced and continues today (NPS.Gov).