Redwoods Rising: a collaborative journey to move from vast, second-growth-redwood ecosystems (Sequoia sempervirens) to a path for the old-growth forests of the future

Background/Question/Methods

Redwoods Rising—an interagency partnership between Redwood National Park, California State Parks, and Save the Redwoods League, a California non-profit conservation organization —comes together to build upon decades of restoration science and collaboration to implement landscape-level restoration. This partnership offers a unified approach to expand and connect the existing 40,000 acres of ancient redwood forest (45% of remaining old-growth redwood forest) and to accelerate the recovery of 70,000 acres of previously logged lands, setting them on the path to becoming old-growth forests. Through active restoration driven by ecological principles, the collaborative removes abandoned logging roads, conducts selective thinning of forests, restores critical wildlife habitat, and creates landscapes that will be more resilient in the face of current climate disruption and future changes. We seek to address the following questions:How do we further protect half of the existing old growth redwood forests in existence? How do we generate and support the old growth redwood forests of the future? How do we increase the pace & scale of restoration in redwood ecosystems? How do we take a holistic, landscape-level approach to restoration that integrates people & practices from the National Parks, State Parks, Indigenous tribes and non-profit conservation partners?

Results/Conclusions

Together, the partners are reversing past forest destruction and fragmentation and restoring redwood forest structure and function. We recognize and cultivate the power of partnership, with cultural humility. Our "Take Home Messages" below correspond to the questions outlined above: We further protect half of the existing old-growth redwood forests by considering not only protected-area boundaries but climate disruption; expected future drought stress in some parts of the redwood range; and increasing high-severity wildfire. Forest, watershed, and in-stream restoration sets a trajectory to old-growth redwood forests of the future. We contribute to the latest science in, e.g., gap sizes, thinning protocols, re-planting, and habitat quality, as well as new research on redwoods’ genetic diversity. We increase the pace and scale of restoration through partnerships and multiple lines of stewardship action. We integrate people and practices through having a clear governance and decision-making structure; respecting and welcoming the inclusion of sovereign Indigenous peoples within the partnership; cooperatively conducting restoration fieldwork; and engaging trained facilitators. Investing time at the start, for trust and connection, pays off in collaborative action and stewardship. Successful collaboration responds to and assesses group needs, creatively filling gaps and adapting as needs change.