![I grew up close to these trees. Really close: one was planted in my front yard the year I was born, and it grew taller than the 4-story house next door. Unfortunately, we had to slay it a few years ago… These trees grow in groves, with shallow roots holding hands under the soil, one of the reasons they can afford to grow so tall and not get knocked over by storms’ winds. As a lone soldier, its roots grew to clasp at whatever they could, including the not-so-nice neighbor’s pipes, and so its life had to come to an end, sadly.
I was able to experience the redwoods size and presence in person many times as I grew up; they are a calming symbol of home for me. When I went to Bariloche here in Argentina over the new year, I commented on how much it looked like California — but it lacked the redwoods! I have educated myself about these forests over the years, learning about their friendly root systems, how the trees can take in water through their leaves to hydrate themselves from the coastal fog, and about the threat of the logging industry. I hadn’t realized, however, that I was living near rainforest. My brother sent me this link to an NPR article that taught me more today, and so now I share that with you. (Read the whole transcript here or by clicking on the photo.)
“…California has rainforest in it. These are temperate rainforests where it doesn’t get too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. Forest canopy scientists — the people who study the great green ocean over our heads — have largely focused on the tropical regions of the earth: the rainforest of the Amazon, for example, or Central America. It was always thought that that was where the most biodiversity was, and also because the tropical rainforests are so threatened by logging and burning and agriculture.
“Nobody had really paid any attention to the fact that North America also has rainforests that are also very threatened and are filled with biodiversity and biomass. [The] redwood rainforest has five to 10 times the biomass — that’s the sheer weight of living material — of say, deep tropical rainforest in the Amazon basin. Redwood rainforest is also anywhere from two to three times taller than tropical rainforest. But very little research has been done into them. We know precious little about what really exists in the air above California.”](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ky1nfn5mCn1qzb580o1_400.jpg)
I grew up close to these trees. Really close: one was planted in my front yard the year I was born, and it grew taller than the 4-story house next door. Unfortunately, we had to slay it a few years ago… These trees grow in groves, with shallow roots holding hands under the soil, one of the reasons they can afford to grow so tall and not get knocked over by storms’ winds. As a lone soldier, its roots grew to clasp at whatever they could, including the not-so-nice neighbor’s pipes, and so its life had to come to an end, sadly.
I was able to experience the redwoods size and presence in person many times as I grew up; they are a calming symbol of home for me. When I went to Bariloche here in Argentina over the new year, I commented on how much it looked like California — but it lacked the redwoods! I have educated myself about these forests over the years, learning about their friendly root systems, how the trees can take in water through their leaves to hydrate themselves from the coastal fog, and about the threat of the logging industry. I hadn’t realized, however, that I was living near rainforest. My brother sent me this link to an NPR article that taught me more today, and so now I share that with you. (Read the whole transcript here or by clicking on the photo.)
“…California has rainforest in it. These are temperate rainforests where it doesn’t get too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. Forest canopy scientists — the people who study the great green ocean over our heads — have largely focused on the tropical regions of the earth: the rainforest of the Amazon, for example, or Central America. It was always thought that that was where the most biodiversity was, and also because the tropical rainforests are so threatened by logging and burning and agriculture.
“Nobody had really paid any attention to the fact that North America also has rainforests that are also very threatened and are filled with biodiversity and biomass. [The] redwood rainforest has five to 10 times the biomass — that’s the sheer weight of living material — of say, deep tropical rainforest in the Amazon basin. Redwood rainforest is also anywhere from two to three times taller than tropical rainforest. But very little research has been done into them. We know precious little about what really exists in the air above California.”
