Mother of the Forest
The ancient redwoods in Big Basin state park are not gone.
…an Associated Press reporter and photographer hiked the renowned Redwood Trail at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Monday and confirmed most of the ancient redwoods had withstood the blaze. Among the survivors is one dubbed Mother of the Forest.
“That is such good news, I can’t tell you how much that gives me peace of mind,” said Laura McLendon, conservation director for the Sempervirens Fund, an environmental group dedicated to the protection of redwoods and their habitats.
The infrastructure is destroyed.
“But the forest is not gone,” McLendon said. “It will regrow. Every old growth redwood I’ve ever seen, in Big Basin and other parks, has fire scars on them. They’ve been through multiple fires, possibly worse than this.”
When forest fires, windstorms and lightning hit redwood trees, those that don’t topple can resprout. Mother of the Forest, for example, used to be 329 feet tall, the tallest tree in the park. After the top broke off in a storm, a new trunk sprouted where the old growth had been.
Trees that fall feed the forest floor and become nurse trees from which new redwoods grow. Forest critters, from banana slugs to insects, thrive under logs.
They’re called semper virens for a reason.
Reminds me of the efforts to save the Wollemi pine.
Banana slugs? Great, two of my least favourite things combined into one critter. No thanks.
Slug Fun Fact!
The banana and Leopard slug varieties (seemingly growing to 12 feet or more to the point where they would eat small dogs and children if they could catch them…) are the ones that are indigenous to our beloved PNW. The more numerous ‘garden variety’ slugs that eat our hostas are imports.
I am so relieved that the trees are OK. I suspected they might be, having survived thus far, but was really worried they wouldn’t be.
Same here. I was hopeful because they do survive fires but worried because climate change has made the fires worse so who knows…
Banana slugs are probably my favorite animal chosen as a mascot by a college.
I used to hike Big Basin. I’m so very glad the forest will live on.
Catwhisperer, I too hate slugs and snails, but when I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains I got used to banana slugs (one must; they’re everywhere). They are a striking yellow color, and the only place you’ll find them is Santa Cruz.
12 foot long carnivorous slugs? You have to be shitting me! Almost as bad as going to Australia.
Slug not-fun fact: if you accidentally step on one with bare feet, you will spend a considerable amount of time trying to scrub slug slime and innards from between your toes with a nail brush.
Also, they like cat food. I used to feed some strays and the slugs came from far and wide to finish off the leftovers (or just ooze all over the empty bowl. Slug slime stinks, especially when you are trying to wash it off a cat bowl using hot water.)
Speaking of giant slugs, I once went downstairs at night to find my brother laughing helplessly by the back door. Turns out he had been watching one of the catfood-scavenging giant slugs crawl up the vertical part of the garden step. He was trying to see if the head would reach the top of the step before the tail left the ground, as a way of measuring it. Suddenly (or rather, gradually), the slug’s head parted from the concrete, and then the whole slug peeled away, and fell onto the ground with an audible “slap”. We didn’t find out if the size of the slug was “longer than the height of the step” , but it seems it’s weight was ” too much to be able to stick to a vertical surface”.
That’s both funny and gross.
I did some wiki reading on the banana slug. Surely you meant 12 inches?
As far as I’m aware the only slugs we get in NZ are fairly small brown ones that eat vege gardens.
A friend told me a story about living in the UK (near Oxford). He said they used to get large (10cm) white slugs come into the kitchen at night. One night he and his girlfriend were awoken by a blood curdling scream from their (french) flatmate. He’d gone downstairs wearing only terry cloth socks to get a glass of water and, in the dark, trod on one of these slugs. Socks not considered salvageable. Image of naked Frenchman screaming and hopping around trying to remove slug impregnated sock, priceless.
Ew ew ew ew the poor man how can you be so callous?!
Okay, now you all have done it. It was bound to happen. I just included a banana slug in my latest novel. Funny thing is, I didn’t have to work to make it fit. It is a weird novel.
Callous? Moi?
Iknklast, I need an advance copy of that. does the protagonist step on one, or get eaten by it?
Rob@11:
That story is completely unbelievable.
Surely only the English would walk around wearing only socks?
I lived in more than a few student houses that were invaded by slugs at night.
Rob, she crawls through a tunnel side by side with one; it is giant. Of course, she is in the land of the dead, so giant banana slugs aren’t that surprising.
Just so you all know, they would eat us if they could. As least, snails would – I don’t touch slugs unless it’s unavoidable but I’ve moved snails to safety and if you keep them in your hand long enough for them to feel safe, they will start munching away at your fingers with their little raspy jaws. Ungrateful little gits.
Oh hey I move snails to safety too. After a rain they pop up on the sidewalks and I transfer them to some vegetation. I’ll have to try the munch experience.
The Munch Experience is the name of my prog rock band.