Redwoods

Redwoods. The story of the redwoods is well known. Two hundred million years ago, the ancestors of the sempervirens we know today covered the continents and would dwarf the dinosaurs. By the time the trees of California were discovered by American pioneers, eons of change had reduced their habitat substantially. Humans would nearly erase them, cutting down 95% of what nature had preserved.

Heroic conservation efforts would save the last remaining stands. To walk among these elegant giants today is to feel insignificant. The forests we still have today almost feel endless, and the notion that these forests once extended twenty times over is almost incomprehensible. But they are not endless. And it is only by our efforts, only by our resolve, only by our dedication to the environment that soothes our soul, that we can ensure their chance for survival.

Their survival is not entirely up to us. But for millions of years, they flourished in the face of a raging planet's climatic and seismic upheavals. What is up to us is to not impose a fatal cost of coexistence.