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Charity Navigator, an independentevaluator of more than 3,000 charitableorganizations across the U.S., recentlyawarded Save-the-Redwoods League itscoveted 4-star rating.

Trent Stamp, Executive Director ofCharity Navigator, said this about theLeague: “Receiving four out of a possiblefour stars indicates that your organizationexcels, as compared to other charities inAmerica, in the area of strong fiscalmanagement.”

Here at the League, we strive to be a goodsteward of the money you give and tomaximize the impact of your donation.We are proud that our work has receivedsuch a positive independent endorsement. Visit www.charitynavigator.org to review their report.

Charity Website Gives the LeagueFour Stars! Save-the-Redwoods League

Fall Bulletin 2004

Butano State ParkPhoto by Abigail Levine

A Gift to Honor a Lifetime Love of the RedwoodsMary Keith Osborn’s first introduction to redwoods was summertime at her family’s property inCalistoga. “I have such happy childhood memories of living in our log cabin surrounded byredwood, oak and Douglas fir. Since those early days, I have developed a passion for the naturalworld and have been an active member of numbers of environmental organizations.”

One of these organizations is Save-the-Redwoods League. A supporter since 1988, Mary Keithparticularly enjoys League events where she meets other members of like mind. “A recent tourof Butano State Park was particularly enjoyable,” she said. “League activities are always so welldone. We were guided through the beautiful redwoods of Butano, a park that I had driven pastmany times but did not know was there until I visited with the League. I really enjoy these educational hikes as wellas donor receptions where Executive Director Kate Anderton speaks about recent land purchases.”

Mary Keith has recently prepared her estate plans and has included a gift to the League in her will. “I care deeply aboutconservation. I believe it is very important to leave something to a well established organization such as Save-the-Redwoods League. Although my estate will not be large, I believe every bit will help the League support its future.”

The League thanks Mary Keith Osborn for her generosity and dedication. For information about making a gift to theLeague through estate plans, please call Catherine Fox, Director of Development, at 415-362-2352.

Mary Keith Osbornin the forestPhoto by LeagueStaff

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Letter from the Executive DirectorT he speed and intensity of daily pressures often eclipses the natural

tempo of our lives. The frenetic energy with which we compute,work, eat, launch wars, travel, and communicate takes over. Recently,riding to work through the Bay Bridge’s commuter traffic, the car radioreport on continued fighting in Iraq broke for a story about a new,faster supercomputer capable of completing 75 trillion calculations persecond! Still more, faster still!

When I walk in the ancient redwood forest, myattention is drawn back through time to an era beforehigh-tech devices dominated our lives, before thearrival of the first human settlers, before the extinctionof the California grizzly bear, before the demise of thegreat salmon runs and the sky-darkening birdmigrations. The forest quiets me, connects me to aslower, natural tempo.

It is frightening to consider how close we came tocutting that connection to the past and to losing thepeace it offers. Less than a century ago, the old-growthcoastal redwood forests were being logged so fast thatthe ancient trees would have been gone in a matter ofyears. Faced with this sure knowledge, the League’searliest leaders resolved to help preserve representativeexamples of the original redwood forest throughout itsrange. It is, in large part, due to their efforts that westill have ancient redwood forests to walk throughtoday. More than six out of ten acres in California’sstate redwood parks have been protected with theassistance of the League since its founding in 1918.

In spite of our efforts, however, less than five percent ofthe original two million acres of ancient coast redwoodforest remains. These surviving old forests stand at theheart of the League’s conservation mission. Some ofthem are secure. Many are not. We know that we cannever do enough to ensure and advance this protection,so it is necessary for us to proceed strategically, to beprepared to respond to situations as they arise, andalways to develop opportunities for furtherconservation.

Toward those ends the League has been developing aMaster Plan for the Coast Redwoods. Our first step was

to divide the redwood ecosystem into seven regionsreflecting the genetic and species diversity in the forestand the different pressures facing those forest regions.Second, we identify the pressures that threaten tointerrupt the tempo of the forest in each region:suburban sprawl, accelerated logging, furtherfragmentation by roads, and in some cases, overuse bywell-meaning visitors. We have just completed the firstof our regional plans. It is for the Santa CruzMountains region, which contains about 200,000 acresof redwood forest, 9,000 acres of which is old growth.It also contains Butano State Park, featured in thisBulletin’s center spread. By building buffer zones andcorridors through purchases and easements, by addinglands to existing parks, and by working in partnershipwith landowners, local conservation organizations, andstate and federal agencies, the League is taking aleadership role in restoring and securing the ecologicalhealth of the entire bio-region.

As I walk through the ancient redwoods, slowing to thenatural tempo of the forest, I feel a connection to thepast. But coming upon a grove of younger, second- orthird-growth trees inspires a different perspective: thepromise of the future. These will be the big old trees ofcenturies to come. They will never be the same as theold growth of earlier millennia, but hundreds orthousands of years from now, if we are successful today,they will be ancient trees that, in their youths,witnessed the birth of a great human movement toprotect and restore the Pacific Coast’s most spectacularnatural treasures. Thank you for being part of thatmovement.

Photo by Abigail Levine

In little more than an average’s person’s life-span, nearlyall of Mill Creek’s 25,000 acres of ancient forest waslogged. As a result, a once wildly complex anduninterrupted landscape was simplified and fragmented.Today, thanks to the generous contributions of theLeague’s members and conservation partners, thisremarkable landscape is in the protective hands ofCalifornia State Parks who, with the League, iscommitted to repairing the damage. The process,known as forest restoration, will require a long-termcommitment to the trees and the multitude of creaturesthat depend on them. Fortunately, many of our partnersand supporters have answered the call for help. Recentawards include $50,000 from the Bella VistaFoundation, which supported the project last year,$500,000 from the “Preserving Wild California”program of the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, andover $140,000 in donations from League members.

How does one restore an ancient forest you might ask?Ironically, the answer involves many of the samemachines used to build the roads and log the forest, fora distinctly different purpose. Over the past severaldecades, conservationists and forest managers havedeveloped methods to remove forest roads whileprotecting the sensitive streams to which wild salmonreturn each year to spawn. These “decommissioned”

dirt roads are brokenapart using bulldozers,and the resulting earthrearranged to match thenatural landscape.Often, the restoredhillside is covered withnative soil and nativeseeds to facilitate itsrecovery. Machines are also used to thin the young,dense, dark forests – the kind that often developsfollowing a clearcut. While protecting the big trees thatremain, some of the small trees are removed to let morelight into the forest. Long-term studies have shownthat such ecologically focused thinning can help thenative bird, wildlife and plant populations recover.

The promise of successful forest restoration has far-reaching implications for the redwood region, whereless than five percent of the ancient redwood forestremains. Today’s old growth is not a renewableresource. The “old growth” of the future will never bethe same as today’s ancient forest. But the League andits partners remain committed to the work called forfiguratively by conservationist Reed F. Noss, “Growmore old-growth.”

Mill Creek Redwoods Restoration Moves Forward

Photo by Stephen Corley

First Mill Creek Grove DedicationThe first grove of old growth redwoods at Mill Creek was dedicated onJune 12, 2004. The grove was dedicated to the people of California inmemory of Jerome and Sylvia Cherin with a gift from their trust.Jerome’s sister, Cherin Jones, facilitated the gift as per the wishes of herbrother, Jerome, an avid outdoorsman. Over thirty one groves arecurrently available for dedication at Mill Creek. As the first grove to beestablished at this property, the Jerome and Sylvia Cherin grove was animportant one for the family as well as the League. “We hope that ourfamily’s gift will honor the beauty of the redwoods and inspire others togive a gift as well. Whether a gift is large or small it is important inkeeping the forest going,” remarked Cherin. The League is grateful to theCherin family for their generous gift to Mill Creek.

The Save-the-Redwoods League inaugurated its Honor and Memorial Grove program in 1921. Gifts to the grove program create a living legacy. For more information please contact Angela Dugan, Major Gifts Officer,at 415-362-2352, ext. 303.

Above: Relatives of Jerome and Sylvia Cherincommemorate the dedication.

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utano State Park is only a 45-minute drive from downtown Palo Alto,but it is another world. In its ancientredwood groves, time bends; eons passin moments and moments seem toendure for eons. Light is reified; itsshafts slice the forest in beams that seemas solid as the trees themselves. Thesounds are otherworldly too: you canhear the whoosh of an owl’s feathers;the shifting duff under a banana slug;the beat of your own heart.

According to State Park Ranger MichaelGrant, the name Butano (pronouncedBeaut en oh) may stem from a localNative American word roughly meaning“gathering place of friends.” Indeed, it isthe gathering of several friendlyecotones, the zones in which twohabitat types meet, complementing thebeauty of 1,700 acres of redwood forest,that makes Butano so extraordinary.

The main, northern portion of the parkis divided by Little Butano Creek,which flows southwest through thevalley it has followed and helped tocarve over the centuries. The park’s4,000 acres contain more than thirtymiles of trails through six distincthabitat types: coastal grassland, alderwoodland, vernal wetland, oakwoodland, and chaparral, as well as the

Douglas-fir andredwood forests.In some cases theecotones changeabruptly whensoil-type or otherconstrainingboundaries arecrossed. Forinstance, there is

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As you may remember, in2002, the League purchasedeighty acres of old-growthredwoods along Girl ScoutCreek near Butano State Parkin the Santa Cruz Mountainregion south of San Francisco.Many members and newdonors gave generously tohelp secure protection for thisforest which had beenidentified by the League’sMaster Planning process asparticularly valuable for themarbled murrelet.

Marbled murrelets are afederally-listed threatenedseabird which nests in thedense structure found in theancient redwood forest. Thepopulation of marbledmurrelets in the Santa Cruzmountain region is thesmallest in the United States.The forests of Girl ScoutCreek and nearby Butano andBig Basin State Parks provideessential habitat for marbledmurrelets, so-called “flyingpotatoes,” because of theirsquat dimensions and quick,dodgy flight patterns.

In late June, final funding wassecured from a partyresponsible for an oil spill thatkilled murrelets. This wasmatched by contributions ofLeague membersand grants from theCoastalConservancy andthe San FranciscoFoundation. Thankyou to all memberswho supported theGirl Scout Creekacquisition.

Butano is less visited than itsneighbors, Big BasinRedwoods and Ano Nuevostate parks, but it is no lessfascinating or beautiful. Infact, Butano’s seclusion makesit both superlative wildlifehabitat and a fine place forhumans to seek the solace ofthe wild. In the heat ofsummer the beautiful Creekand Nine Bridges trails coverredwood habitat that’s oftenseveral degrees cooler than thesurrounding areas. In the falland winter it is possible to seesteelhead swimming up LittleButano Creek on their way tospawn. The rare and beautifulcalypso orchid bloomsFebruary through April.Mushroom watching is alsogreat in the park; red caps andredwood rooter mushroomsare abundant in the duff andorange chanterelles color thefloor of adjacent oakwoodland. Wildflowers carpetthe grassland and vernalwetlands in the spring. Twohundred and ten bird specieshave been identified withinthe park, including pileatedwoodpeckers,winter wrens,andgrasshoppersparrows, aswell asendangeredmarbledmurrelets,peregrinefalcons, andseveral owlspecies. Camping is availablein the park as well, and themain campground is in theheart of an old-growth grove;for better or worse, murreletsnest in the canopy just above.

Butano State ParkA Hidden Sanctuary

an almost jarring transition whereknobcone pine forest ends and theredwoods begin. In other cases, onehabitat type melds slowly into the next.A hiker can start out on grassland andproceed through coastal scrub, into oakwoodland, and on into Douglas-fir andredwood habitat without noticing anysharp boundaries. One day’s walkinghere can contain a week’s worth ofquintessential Santa Cruz Mountainsights, smells, and sounds.

Each Butano ecotone has its ownextraordinary character and outstandingplants and animals. But it is the areas ofintersection, gradual or abrupt, thatbiologists find most interesting for theirunusual associations and high degrees ofbiological diversity. The grasslands, forexample, abut the redwood Douglas-firforest on the west end of the park nearCanyon Road, where characteristicgrassland species such as the jumpingmouse scurry through the shadows ofgiant redwoods.

Visit Butano

This mosaic of habitat types is not onlyenjoyable and interesting to hike andstudy, it is ecologically significant aswell. Many local animals use more thanone type of habitat to eke out a livingand raise a family. Others, like bobcatsand mountain lions, will use the fireresistant redwood forest as a temporarysanctuary when the chaparral ignites.And in the long term, it is often at theseboundaries between habitat types thatevolution’s adaptive processes are theirmost innovative.

Butano is one of several redwood parksin the area. Planning for a century fromnow, when there may be 50 million BayArea residents and all the land-usepressures they will bring, the League isworking with government agencies,private owners, and non-governmentalorganizations to maintain naturalconnections between Butano, Big Basin,and Portola Redwoods state parks, aswell as Pescadero Creek County Park.Together, these protected areas containnearly seven thousand acres of old-growth and thousands of acres more ofyounger forests. This is the largestconcentration of ancient redwoodgrowth south of Humboldt County.Ensuring the security and long-termviability of the protected old-growth inthese parks requires us to act on a largerscale – securing watershed protection,and buffering and connecting core areasof high biological value.

Make plans to visit Butano State Parkthis year!

Photos by Abigail LevineWritten by Gordy Slack

Girl Scout Creek and Murrelets

B

“One day’s walking here can contain a week’s worth of quintessential Santa Cruz Mountain sights, smells, and sounds.”

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You can feel the edge before you encounter it, but when you reach theboundary there is no mistaking the artificial line that has been drawnacross the landscape. In contrast to the natural ecotones (described in theButano article), this line is the result of timber harvest. Behind lies thecomplex ancient forest and ahead is a young forest plantation, or perhaps aroad or new home cut deep into the heart of the forest. With less than fivepercent of the ancient redwood forest remaining, these artificial lines are alltoo common.

Scientists are concerned with the ‘edge effects’ these harsh artificialboundaries have on the ancient forest. League-sponsored studies havefound significant differences in wildlife habitat and forest structure relatedto the distance from a timber harvest boundary line. These edge effectsdrastically reduce the amount of interior forest habitat available to theplants and animals that inhabit the ancient forest. Over time, the edgeeffect diminishes as the surrounding forest recovers and the young treesregain some of the stature of the ancient sentinels. However, given thegreat height of an ancient coast redwood, these effects can linger 50 yearsor more.

The League is working with scientists and foresters to develop techniquesto speed the development of old forest characteristics young forest stands.Foresters can manipulate a young forest to promote growth of larger treeswith spacing that imitates the ancient forest’s complexity; however, recentLeague-sponsored research is unearthing an amazing range of naturalprocesses and life forms associated uniquely with the ancient forest. Forinstance, tiny soil insects are more abundant and diverse beneath oldgrowth trees than in younger forests. These tiny insects that break downfallen leaves and enrich the forest soil are particularly sensitive to forest andsoil disturbance. We don’t know how rapidly these tiny insects re-colonizelogged sites and what their absence means for forest health. Thisuncertainty underscores the importance of protecting the remainingancient redwood forest and the surrounding landscape.

Working on the Edge

The League is pleased to announce the imminent purchase of a significant piece ofproperty inside Humboldt Redwoods State Park—the largest of California’sredwood parks, located in southern Humboldt County. This “inholding” is 112acres located near Myers Flat along the South Fork of the Eel River. This redwoodforest land is recovering from past selective harvesting by the previous owners.Preventing future logging in perpetuity in the heart of this critical reserve of ancientredwoods is our objective.

If timber production were to continue, waterways and already fragmented habitatswould be threatened, and the overall ecological process disrupted. Acquisition andaddition to the Park will allow the forest to recover fully, knitting together a seamlessfabric of forest on these slopes visible from Highway 101, the “Redwood Highway.”

Save-the-Redwoods League has received a generous grant of $148,000 to cover the full cost of the acquisition through the“Preserving Wild California” program of the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. When purchase of the property iscomplete, it will be transferred to California State Parks for permanent stewardship.

Restoring the Fabric of the ForestOn a crisp spring day high in the headwaters of the Mattole River inNorthern California, League staff and a group of local volunteers fromSanctuary Forest gathered to plant young redwood trees as part of areforestation project. The young redwoods being planted were grown atShadowbrook Nursery – founded through a grant from Save-the-RedwoodsLeague. The nursery, operated by California State Parks, is supported byLeague members through the honor and memorial tree planting program.

The Shadowbrook Nursery is the brainchild of Park Maintenance Chief JohnNeef. Each fall and winter, John painstakingly collects seeds from local StateParks such as Sinkyone Wilderness, Richardson Grove, and HumboldtRedwoods State Parks. The seeds are carefully germinated and grown ingreenhouses at Shadowbrook until they can be used in restoration andreforestation projects in the Parks from where they came. Collection andpropagation of seeds from local sources protect the genetic integrity of theseparks and reserves.

The trees planted in the Mattole headwaters help repair the impact of roadsthat are being removed to protect cold, clear streams critical to wild cohosalmon. By its very nature, road removal involves changing the vegetation andthe landscape. Young redwoods from the Shadowbrook Nursery are giving nature a jump start to recovery by restoringthe fabric of the native forest.

Above: Tasha McKee, Sanctuary Forest (left) andAngie Avery, Save-the-Redwoods League (right)Photo by Sanctuary Forest Staff

112 Acres Protected in the Heart ofHumboldt Redwoods State Park

Look For Us In Your Mailbox

Each year in the fall, we askmembers to renew their annualsupport of the League with amembership gift. Please keep aneye out in September for yourmembership renewal request for2005. Regular, annual supportenables the League to plan landacquisition, research, andrestoration activities for thecoming year.

As always, we are grateful for yourcontributions to the preservationof this magnificent part of ourAmerican heritage.

Join the EvergreenSociety

The Evergreen Society is a specialgroup of League members whodemonstrate their ongoingcommitment to redwoodpreservation with their ongoingsupport. Evergreen Societymembers make regular, monthlycontributions to Save-the-Redwoods League. The amountmay be relatively small eachmonth, but it’s a reliable source of income that the League candepend on for conservationprograms.

We recognize Evergreen Societymembers each year in our annualreport. You are invited to join theEvergreen Society today — you’llknow that you are making a

permanent contribution tothe future of theredwoods. For moreinformation, call ourmembership department

at 888-836-0005.

Humboldt County Industrial Timberland