Redwoods

[learnteach]

 According to the Guardian, there are more redwoods (coastal and sequoia) in England than in California (500,000 to 80,000)   That doesn't seem right to me,  but I can't find accurate numbers for either place.

The driving factor was a Victorian garden trend (or set of trends).   

The article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Redwoods_League   (Note the prevalence of Woman's clubs (and Garden clubs) in the preservation of habitat.)

Giant Sequoia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum

The Guardian article:   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/23/giant-redwoods-britain-uk-sequoia-specieswatch

Comments

Re: Pursuing this is fascinating

[learnteach]

Text: The combined impact of these two fires is estimated to be 2,261-3,637 sequoias over four feet in diameter that have already been killed or will die within the next three to five years. These losses make up an estimated 3-5% of the entire Sierra Nevada sequoia population over four feet in diameter. On top of the 10-14% of large sequoias lost in the 2020 Castle fire, these fire impacts represent a significant threat to large sequoia persistence.

From: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/2021-fire-season-impacts-to-giant-sequoias.htm

Back math: 2,261x20 (5% loss) is the lower end, with 44,000 sequoia. 3637x33 (3 percent loss) is the higher estimate of 100911 trees. This is old growth; sequouia trees over 4' in diameter. This does not include coast redwoods.

The Guardian is wrong. But not wrong enough. The fire season means the problem is going to get much worse.