Where have all California's big trees gone? (San Jose, Oakland: 2015, house)

[Tulemutt]

The middle class may be fleeing in droves - but the big trees are fleeing in groves. And not for reasons you might guess easily:
California

[Ruth4Truth]

No mention that the redwoods are going anywhere.

Yet.

[Tulemutt]

No mention in that article. But I have read others than indicate the redwoods are also suffering loss of liquid refreshment with the reduction of coastal fog due to climate change. Maybe I'll dig up the dope on that and post later.

[TheDragonslayer]

The redwoods up here in the redwood empire are doing just fine. I myself am doing my best by starting cuttings and currently have 7 that are between four and six feet tall and another 12 that are around two feet tall. There are many of them around here up north, some quite large and the last time I was in Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz the redwoods seemed to being doing well. What observations do you have that they are not doing well?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

The redwoods up here in the redwood empire are doing just fine. I myself am doing my best by starting cuttings and currently have 7 that are between four and six feet tall and another 12 that are around two feet tall. There are many of them around here up north, some quite large and the last time I was in Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz the redwoods seemed to being doing well. What observations do you have that they are not doing well?

I hope your experience and observations are correct. I have no expertise to claim otherwise. I recalled reading about some challenges. So I just Googled a bit. Seems a mixed set of theories at work. Here's some examples:
Clearing and Present Danger? Fog That Nourishes California Redwoods Is Declining - Scientific American

Fog decrease harming California redwoods

On the other hand there's this:
Global warming may be helping redwoods and sequoias grow, new study shows - San Jose Mercury News

It would seem, comparing the articles, that the redwoods are doing really well, as you say. But there is a very measurable reduction in coastal fog in recent decades that studies suggest will have deleterious effects in the future.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

The redwoods up here in the redwood empire are doing just fine. I myself am doing my best by starting cuttings and currently have 7 that are between four and six feet tall and another 12 that are around two feet tall. There are many of them around here up north, some quite large and the last time I was in Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz the redwoods seemed to being doing well. What observations do you have that they are not doing well?

I've lost 5 of the 12 I planted in 2010.

To be fair... the deer took a toll too.

[2sleepy]

We have a redwood tree that's about 50 feet tall in our front yard. The original owner of the house got it as a seedling from the California State Fair the year after the house was built in 1955.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I've lost 5 of the 12 I planted in 2010.

To be fair... the deer took a toll too.

Venison is great. Good healthy, lean red meat. Just sayin'.

[JGC97]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

The redwoods up here in the redwood empire are doing just fine. I myself am doing my best by starting cuttings and currently have 7 that are between four and six feet tall and another 12 that are around two feet tall. There are many of them around here up north, some quite large and the last time I was in Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz the redwoods seemed to being doing well. What observations do you have that they are not doing well?

I was curious about that, too. What are the indications that a tree's health is in trouble? A few months back, there was a news report on how the drought in California was affecting our trees. It was on local news so I don't have a link but I did find this one. It has a pretty good explanation about the effect lack of water and climate change has on a tree.

Interestingly, there is a test done to measure the stress level a tree might be going through which could affect its health.

A snippet from the article:

To determine whether the redwoods are under stress, the scientists took clippings from the tops of the trees and placed them in a pressure chamber to determine their moisture levels. The more pressure needed to draw water from the clipping, the thirstier the tree.

First, I didn't know how trees were tested and found this pretty interesting. Second, the results weren't encouraging.

Researchers Probe Drought Impacts on the Redwoods | Save the Redwoods League

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by HereOnMars

I was curious about that, too. What are the indications that a tree's health is in trouble? A few months back, there was a news report on how the drought in California was affecting our trees. It was on local news so I don't have a link but I did find this one. It has a pretty good explanation about the effect lack of water and climate change has on a tree.

Interestingly, there is a test done to measure the stress level a tree might be going through which could affect its health.

A snippet from the article:



First, I didn't know how trees were tested and found this pretty interesting. Second, the results weren't encouraging.

Researchers Probe Drought Impacts on the Redwoods | Save the Redwoods League

From my experience as both a gardener and hiker both in the Oakland hills and up here is that when there is an extreme drought, the redwoods go through a partial drop of their leaves, it happened here last summer for the first time, but I used to see it often in the bay area. It is true that the stress of drought can make the redwoods prone to the sudden oak death syndrome. The redwoods have been around since the days of the dinosaurs, used to cover a significant portion of Western north America. But the latest studies show that this past century has seen phenomenal growth in the trees that has not been seen in several thousand years, most of it due to the warming of the climate and an increase in carbon dioxide. This change in climate with the fog disappearing from central coastal California may spell the end for the redwood as a reproducing species in that area and force it northward, as it has done with many bird species.