Coast Range Conifers

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Coast Range Conifers

• Coast Redwoods and
• Closed Cone Pines

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Redwoods

• 3 Relict species left from when climate was
  cooler and wetter.
• now trapped in refuges where there are remnants
  of former climate
• Coast Redwood- Redwood lumber
• Sequoia sempervirens
• Sierra Big Tree, Giant Sequoia
• Sequoiadendron giganteum
• Dawn Redwood- (Now only in China)
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides
• Great web site http//www.nearctica.com

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Sierra Big Trees
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Metasequoia

• Once common in North America
• Only 5000 are left in the wild in a small area
  between the Sichuan and Hubei provinces in China
• A Deciduous conifer

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Coast Redwood Forest

• In narrow 14 mile belt just inland from coast,
• from southern Oregon to Big Sur

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Coast Redwood

• Needs cool summer weather, with fog to stay wet.
• Does not tolerate long freezing temperature
• Can not tolerate salt spry (dries out leaves)
  grows one hill back from coast
• Stump sprouts from cut trees forming circle of
  new trees Fairy Ring genetically identical to
  fallen log

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Coast Redwood trees

• Open Coned trees, but needs sterile (recently
  burned) soil for seeds to grow , or they succumb
  to fungal diseases.
• Needs full sunlight, drops branches that are
  shaded.
• Closed canopy forest dark understory that
  excludes other species, often a monoculture
• thick needle duff layer covers soil
• Bark resistant to fire, trunk can regrow branches
  that burn
• Sprouts new roots at trunk base after floods
• Roots graft together into a large network

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Coast Redwood Forest

• Dark damp understory
• Ferns, Marbled Murret, Sorrel, Oxalis, Azalea,
  Huckleberry, snowberry, etc
• Have large flat water needy leaves
• Little wind in understory so plants there use
  animals for pollination seed dispersal
• Most form berries for animals to disperse seeds.
  
• Trillium, and Viola form oily Elaiosomes on small
  seeds. Ants eat oil while carrying seeds and
  discard, dispersing seeds.

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Old Growth RedwoodForests

• Virgin forest never cut down.
• Many Trees thousands of years old.
• Only in old growth forests are all of the
  following characteristics present
• Large living trees and a multi-layered canopy
• Large standing snags
• Large down trees
• Large fallen trees in streams

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Virgin Old Growth forests, 1620
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Virgin Old Growth forests, 1998
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Felling The Redwoods
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Redwood Lumber

• Heartwood very resistant to decay.
• Used for earl development in California
• Many communities started as lumber villages
  around saw mills.
• Still used for outdoor furniture, fences,
  decks,etc.
• New lumber mostly younger secondary growth has
  little resistant heart wood, needs to treated to
  resist decay.
• Can be harvested every 40 years.

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Beginnings of Redwood Conservation

• Sempervirens Fund started in 1900 to preserve
  trees in Santa Cruz Mountains
• They pushed for making Big Basin State Park
  (1902) with its Redwoods

Save The Redwoods League - formed in 1918 to
save some of the remaining Old Growth Forests
Both groups still very active
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Timber cut (billions of board feet)
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4
2
0
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
Fig. 23.14a, p. 601
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350
300
250
200
Annual recreational visits (millions)
150
100
50
0
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
Fig. 23.14b, p. 601
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Some Important Parks

• Muir Woods, Marin County
• Armstrong Redwoods State Park, Guerneville
• Redwood National Park
• Big Sur State Park
• Big Basin State Park

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Douglas Fir

• Most common timber tree in the west
• Found associated with many other trees

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Sustainable Harvest

• Using a select cut, trees may be harvest from
  same site every 10-20 years indefinitely.
• Set up permanent, well design roads
• Remove only a few trees each round
• Remaining trees get more light and grow faster.
• Many timber companies use clear cut
• More economical
• Size of are important, small (1-2 acre areas)
  considered safe method. Large areas have
  problems.
• Tress stump sprout
• If small area, fog is enough to allow for
  recovery with out drying out.

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Selective Cutting
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Clear-Cutting
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40 plus yrs.
Cut
Cut
Cut
30-40 yrs
1 year ago
35 years ago
10-20 years ago
Strip Cutting small clear cut areas
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North Coast Marine Terraces
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Upper Terrace In Big Basin
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Closed Cone Pines

• Fire adapted- fire opens cones.
• Most will open when old, if fire doesnt happen
• Knob cone the most closed- needs fire to open
• Most of the forest is same-age trees dating to
  last major fire
• Point Reyes Bishop Pine Forest died in last big
  natural fire started in October 1995
• Test plots set up to study rejuvenation
• http//plantbio.berkeley.edu/bruns/postfire-bp.ht
  ml

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Point Reyes 1995 Fire 3 years after
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Smoke plume from fire
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Relicts of earlier climate

• 225-65 MYA (Million Years Ago) most of South
  Coast Range and Central Valley a shallow sea.
• Followed by a temperate (cool) rain forest
• 15 MYA climate gets colder and drier, drought
  adapted conifers move in from Idaho area
• Ice Age, and Sierras uplift, climate continues to
  get drier
• These trees are remnant populations trapped in
  pockets along cost with the cool, moist climate.
  Poor competitors use areas unsuitable for other
  wet area trees sandy and serpentine soils.
• Once may all have been one species, now separated
  and adapted to local areas

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Bishop Pine
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Knob Cone Pine
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Monterey Pine
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Monterey Cypress