National Day of Transformation
​Save American Forests
Support the American Forests site. In just 200 years, 90% of the old growth forests in the U.S. have been destroyed. See the informative video on the home page. The site offers many ways to contribute.
The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods describes the incredible dedication of Judith Butterfly Hill to save a giant 1,000-year-old redwood in Humboldt County, California. She spent 2 years living in the tree to save it -- successfully! The action was intended to stop Pacific Lumber fromclear-cutting the ancient redwood and the trees around it. The area had already been stripped. Because nothing was left to hold the soil, a huge part of the hill had slid into the town of Stafford, wiping out many homes.
Over the historic civil action, Hill endured El Nino storms, helicopter harassment, and a 10-day siege by company security guards. This story--written while she lived on a tiny platform 18 stories off the ground--is one that only she can tell.
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Her website encourages others to take a stand. See the video of her story below. See the photos further below of the magnificent old-growth forests.
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Juan Flores Salazar
The photos below show the awe-inspiring majesty and cathedral-like nature of these magnificent beings. Their average age is 500-700 years -- but, as the site below shows, some are thousands of years old!
The "General Sherman" site says:
"The tree called "General Sherman" is not only the biggest giant sequoia, but it is also the biggest tree in the world. For a long time it was thought that this tree had reached an age of 2,000 to 3,000 years. Others even spoke about ages of 6,000 to 11,000 years. Research from 2002 has shown that he is probably 'only' about 2,000 years old.
In the past, sequoias have been cut down that appeared to be 3,220 years old (by counting the tree rings) and it is assumed that there might be giant sequoias up to 4,000 years old out there, because the biggest are not always the oldest ones. General Sherman is the biggest giant redwood, but he is not the one with the largest girth, nor is he the tallest. Also note that the tallest tree on earth is almost half of General Sherman's height taller. He is often called the largest living thing on earth."
