Redwood National and State Parks

Tall trees...we could leave it at that. The coastal redwoods, kin to the giant sequoias of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, are the tallest living species on the planet. Reaching as high as 379 feet, it is like sitting in an Imax theater. This park was established with the pen of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 after intense advocacy to "save the trees" (and found its first fan, coincidentally, in Lady Bird Johnson who after a tour in 1969 during the dedication ceremony became the namesake for one of its most famous groves). It was formed from land purchased to protect these giant wonders and because of this is scattered along the northern coast of California, pieced together as a semi-continuous forest. We spent two days making our way from groves in both the national park and the state parks. It was during our second day that we ran across our largest trash find yet - over 300 pounds of wet clothes, a tire, and water hose, in Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park - a sad site of what seemed to be a garage sale dumped over the side of Howland Hill Road. After an hour or so of collecting this eye sore, we continued our journey of amazement through this eerie place (did you know that the Ewoks, of Star Wars fame, who lived on the forest moon of Endor actually just lived in the Redwood forest?; signs even suggest that the Ewoks have a neighbor - Big Foot). Read more about the trees, and not Big Foot or Ewoks, here: http://www.nps.gov/redw/

Approximate trash/recyclables collected: 440 pieces

Description: corners of plastic wrappers, cigarette butts, bags of wet used clothes, tire, and water hose

Dates visited: March 28-29, 2009