Our Friends the Ancient Redwood Trees
Have you been lucky enough to visit a redwood forest? If not, I hope you do one day.
It's a magical and special place - filled with whispers, hugs, tree angels and fairy rings.
Come see...
By Bella Rose & Friends
Did You Know?
❶ The redwood trees are the tallest living things on Earth.
❷ The tallest redwood tree is 379.3 feet high - taller than the Statue of Liberty and about the height of a 38-story skyscraper!
❸ It takes a long time to grow that high.
❹ The oldest redwoods have been on Earth for 1500 to 2000 years!
Listen for Whispers & Watch for Tree Angels
Walking among the ancient redwoods is a wonderful experience. The tree's tall canopies shade and hush the forest floor - creating a soft and silent space.
If you listen closely, you'll hear the trees whisper as their branches sway in the breeze.
And if you're very lucky, you may even see a tree angel ...The tree angels watch over the redwood forests and live up high in the tall branches.
Spot the Hugs
Living happily in their magical forest, the redwood trees love and support each other.
Up high, their branches reach out and hug other branches. When enough branches hug together, they can hold pools of water!
Down below, the redwood's shallow root systems grow sideways - extending over 100 feet from the tree base - and weave together with the roots of other redwoods. These hugging roots provide stability and support, which helps groups of trees withstand strong winds and even floods and earthquakes.
Look for the Fairy Rings
The redwoods even grow in "fairy rings." When a redwood tree dies, new trees sprout around the tree's base.
The sprouts grow using the nutrients and root system of the decomposing tree. In time, the new trees mature, growing in a near perfect circle.
This special circle of new trees is known as a "fairy ring." Isn't that magical?
Visit a Forest - and Hug a Tree
I hope you get to visit the redwood forest. If you do, make sure you hug a tree! (The Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve near Guerneville, CA even has a tree-hugging platform)
Today's remaining Coastal redwoods live along a narrow strip of land about 435 miles long reaching from southwest Oregon to Big Sur, CA. You can look at California's Coastal Redwood Parks map to find a forest near you.
When You Go
When you go - remember to hug a tree, watch for angels and fairy rings, and listen for the whispers.
Love,
Bella Rose and Friends
"The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time."
― John Steinbeck
Sources:
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Coast Redwoods: Majestic Giants Benefit All Humankind, Mother Nature Network
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Giant Sequoias and Redwoods: The Largest and Tallest Trees, Live Science
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California State Parks - Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve
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