Coast Range Conifers

Coast Redwoods and

Closed Cone Pines

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

Sierra Big Trees

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

Coast Redwood

Forest

• In narrow 14 mile belt just inland from coast,

• from southern Oregon to Big Sur

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

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

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.

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

“Virgin” Old Growth forests, 1620

“Virgin” Old Growth forests, 1998

Felling The Redwoods

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.

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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YearFig. 23.14b, p. 601

Some Important Parks

• Muir Woods, Marin County

• Armstrong Redwoods State Park, Guerneville

• Redwood National Park

• Big Sur State Park

• Big Basin State Park

Douglas Fir

• Most common timber tree in the west

• Found associated with many other trees

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.

Selective Cutting

Clear-Cutting

Strip Cutting – small clear cut areas

30-40 yrs Cut Cut Cut 40 plus yrs.

10-20 years ago3–5 years ago 1 year ago

North Coast Marine Terraces

Upper Terrace In Big Basin

Closed Cone Pines• Fire adapted- fire opens cones.

– Most will open when old, if fire doesn’t 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.html

Point Reyes 1995 Fire & 3 years after

Smoke plume from

fire

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

Bishop Pine

Knob Cone Pine

Monterey Pine

Monterey Cypress