National park of Redwood

Created in 1968, the National park of Redwood ( National Redwood Park ) is a national nature reserve located at the the United States, on the northern coast of the California, between Eureka and Crescent City. Since 1994, the park is managed with three other Californian parks: Meadow Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. These four natural parks concentrate 45 % of all the Sequoia S ( Sequoia sempervirens ) Californian. They present varied natural environments, such as meadows and approximately 60 km of littoral completely preserved of the human activities. The park of Redwood is a reserve of the world Biosphere and a site of the world heritage of UNESCO. It accommodates each year approximately 400 000 visitors and tries to preserve an exceptional fauna and a flora.

History

Before the arrival of Europeans and Americans, the primary Forêt occupies approximately 800 000 hectares of the littoral of the California of North. The area is then inhabited by Amerindian tribes (Yurok, Tolowa, Shasta, Karuk, Chilula, Wiyot) since more 3 000 years. The census of 1852 indicates that Yuroks are most numerous, with 2.500 people left again in 55 villages. They use the wood of sequoia which they easily output in boards to arrange of the huts or the boats.

As from the 16th century, the Spanish, Russian and English explorers attend the littoral close to the current park and practice the Traite furs of Phoque S with the Amerindians. Until the arrival of Jedediah Smith in 1828, no European has explores the interior of this area of the north of California. In the middle of the 19th century, a Gold rush causes the surge of minors and loggers who start to deforest. The noble metal is discovered in Trinity Creek and its exploitation upsets the area. The Amerindians are driven out and sometimes massacred. About 1895, only a third of Yurok survived the diseases and violences. In 1919, all the members of the Chilula tribe were compared to other groups or were quite simply killed. The wood of the sequoias is then used to build the huts of the minors, and, at the end of the gold rush, some of them become loggers.

In 1911, the appointed of California John E. Raker is the first politician to propose the creation of a national park to preserve the forests of sequoias. But it does not find any support for Washington. The completion of the littoral Route 101 allows personalities like the paleontologists John C. Merriam, Henry Fairfield Osborn or the lawyer Madison Grant to traverse the area and to become aware of the urgency to protect the sequoias. In the Years 1920, the Déforestation is denounced by an defense organization of nature, the league of protection of the sequoias (in English “Save-tea-Redwoods League”), which succeeds in saving three sectors. The latter are the embryos of the three parks of state created in 1927 (Meadow Creek Redwoods, Del Norte Coast Redwoods, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods). Because of the wood strong demand generated by the Second world war then by the Urbanization of the Years 1950, the creation of a national park is deferred. The combined efforts of the league of protection of the sequoias, the Sierra Club and the National Geographic Society lead finally in the Années 1960. Under the pressure of the lobbies ecologists near the congress, a law is adopted to create Redwood National Park. The text is signed by the President Lyndon Johnson the October 2nd 1968. The protected area increases thanks to the policy of acquisition of the league of protection of the sequoias. In 1978, the park gains 19 000 hectares; however, only a fifth of these grounds are covered with primary forests, the remainder having been retimbered. In 1994, the National Park Service and the California Department off Parks and Recreation decide to federate the four parks, thus inaugurating a single device of coadministration in the United States.

The September 5th 1980, the the United Nations decide to register the national park on the Liste of the world heritage of humanity. The park of Redwood is thus recognized for its natural treasures but also for its prehistoric inheritance. Lastly, the park belongs to the area of the coastal Chaînes of California, which constitutes a Réserve of biosphere recognized by UNESCO the June 30th 1983.

Administration of the park

The parks of State and the national park of Redwood are managed by the National Park Service, an federal agency of the Département of the Interior of the United States and California Department off Parks and Recreation, which has an annual budget of 7 380 000 US$. These institutions work in co-operation for the protection of the sequoias, the littoral and the archeological sites. Their actions concentrate on the restoration of the primitive state of the sectors touched by deforestation.

Natural environment

On the lost coast, the Pacific is essential on America

In the north of Eureka, not far from the state of the Oregon, in National Redwood Park, the east coast so wild that it is called the Lost Coast, “the lost coast”. One finds there Puma S which drive out Daim S. At the end of the summer, the Californian ones come to observe there the Baleine S which leave to clear in the South Seas.

Vegetation

It is estimated that the primary forest of sequoias formerly covered the littoral of California of North on a surface of approximately 810 000 hectares. Currently there remain only 34 about it; 000 hectares, is 4 % of the original forest. The natural parks preserve approximately 45 of it; %. The trees present on the coast until in Oregon are close to the giant sequoias which push in the center of California, in particular in the chain of the Sierra Nevada. On the other hand, they are rather different from the Métaséquoïa S which one finds in China in the Sichuan and the Hubei.

The sequoias are the largest trees of planet. The record height is held by a tree baptized “Hyperion”, name of a Titan of the Greek Mythologie, which measures 115,5 meters height. He was discovered during the summer 2006 by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor in the National Redwood Park. Other specimens exceed the 100 meters height, such the “Large Tree” ( Tall Tree ) which is located at Prairie Creek (112,11 meters). The largest sequoia is the “Giant of North” (" Del Norte Giant"), which pushes in Del Norte Redwoods State Park: its volume reached 1 044 m ³).

The sequoias live on average 600 years but some reach 2.000 years, which arranges these trees in the category of the living beings having greatest longevity on planet. This exceptional lifespan is due to their resistance to the diseases and the fires. These trees profit from a protective bark and a strong content of Tanin. They prefer the sheltered places, push on the slopes of the hills and close to the rivers. They benefit from the moisture brought by the Pacific Ocean and the Courant of California in the form of fog. The sequoias are the trees whose growth is fastest in the world. The sequoias develop an important network of roots which enable them to rise very high. It happens that in the event of dryness, the top of the sequoias dies, without the remainder of the tree not decaying. Secondary trunks, called reiterations, can produce another individual starting from the same tree.

Other trees populate the national park of Redwood: it is about the fir tree Douglas which can reach until 90 meters height, or the Picea sitchensis which are well adapted to the climatic conditions of California of North. The Lithocarpus densiflorus, with persistent sheets, produced nipple S similar to those of the oak. One still finds other species such as the Arbousier, the maple with large sheets, the Laurier of California or the red Aulne.

On the ground, one also meets shrubs with bays (Myrtille S, common Ronce, Framboise S, etc) but also the American Lysichiton. The Rhododendron of California flowers in the park, in particular in the primary forest. The fern ( Polystichum munitum ) opens out close to the sources and in the Fern Canyon (Meadow Creek Redwoods State Park).

Fauna

The national park of Redwood protects several species threatened of extinction: the brown Pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ), the Gobie ( Eucyclogobius newberryi ), the Sea eagle with white head, the Salmon chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), the mottled Owl, or the Sea lion of Steller.

More than 40 species of mammals are listed in the natural park, among which the black Ours, the Puma, the lynx, the beaver, the common otter, the Coyote and the Wapiti. On the shore, the Otary of California and the common Phoque often rests on the beaches or the rock islands which strew the littoral. One can also see with far from the Dauphin S and of the gray whales in the Pacific Ocean. The animals easiest to observe are the Wapiti S which generally go in herds.

Small mammals live in the trees: it is the case of the bats and the squirrels (in particular the Tamiasciurus douglasii and the Grand polatouche.

The brown pelican and the Cormoran with brushes attend cliffs along the coast, whereas the Goéland is present until the interior of the grounds. Close to the rivers are the Goosander, the Osprey, the Grand héron and the Geai de Steller.

The family of the reptiles and Amphibians includes/understands the Diadophis punctatus, the salamander (Dicamptodontidae and Taricha granulosa).

Fauna of the park:

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