The giant forests are also a focus of political rhetoric. John Ellis, the cousin of "W," has been fear mongering about these forests. He writes for the Sacramento Bee and would like his readership to cut down the forest as a prophylactic measure to prevent fires.
The thieves threaten the tallest trees in the world with their chain saws. (click here)
It is poachers.
According to forestry estimates (click here) in Burns and Honkala (1990) there
remained by the end of the twentieth century a total of 260,200 ha of
commercial forest with “more than 50% redwood stocking”, while a further
80,940 ha was ‘old-growth redwood’ mostly within protected areas. If
the latter forests were also 50% redwood, this would translate in a
minimal area of occupancy (AOO) of 1,400 km², to which would have to be
added an unknown figure for redwoods occurring as a minor component. The
AOO is thus likely to fall below 2,000 km², the threshold for
Vulnerable.
Past decline is, as always, difficult to estimate as there were no accurate estimates of an AOO when logging operations began. It is almost certainly in excess of 50% over three generations, which in the case of this very long-lived species takes us back to the period before Europeans and their impact on the forest arrived in northern California.
Continuing decline is inferred from the fact that the proportion of redwood in commercially exploited forests containing this species is still declining, due to deliberate or accidental replacement by more competitive species in the early phases of succession after clear-felling, especially Pseudotsuga menziesii. Under the A2 criterion this species should therefore be listed as Endangered.
The thieves threaten the tallest trees in the world with their chain saws. (click here)
It is poachers.
Past decline is, as always, difficult to estimate as there were no accurate estimates of an AOO when logging operations began. It is almost certainly in excess of 50% over three generations, which in the case of this very long-lived species takes us back to the period before Europeans and their impact on the forest arrived in northern California.
Continuing decline is inferred from the fact that the proportion of redwood in commercially exploited forests containing this species is still declining, due to deliberate or accidental replacement by more competitive species in the early phases of succession after clear-felling, especially Pseudotsuga menziesii. Under the A2 criterion this species should therefore be listed as Endangered.
