The Redwood Curtain Bicycle Run, Part II

From Trees Foundation "Forest and River News"
Spring 2010
by Jeffery
May 11, 2010


Never judge a book by its cover...

We left our biking activists last issue en route from Arcata to San Francisco, on a publicized tour in support of Richardson Grove State Park and against a Caltrans proposal to widen the highway through it, which would entail the loss of ancient redwoods and untold damage to the ecosystem.

The locals lumbering out of the woods were very cordial, and interested in what we were about. Who wouldn't be interested, with our banners and bikes. So we gathered in a circle in the middle of the intersection at the Pepperwood exit and the Avenue of the Giants to talk about redwood trees.

A recent local concern is the dying-back of the tops of ancient redwood trees along the Avenue of the Giants. The Avenue (much of it part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park) is the former two-lane route 101--the main road before the mid-sixties, now a scenic alternative to the four-lane highway. The Avenue features narrow roadside sections of old-growth redwoods highly visible to 101 traffic, a prized remnant of the last 3% of our ancient redwood forests. But in some median and roadside areas, particularly where pavement impacts surface contact for roots, the crowns of the giant trees are losing their foliage in an apparent die-back of the formerly healthy trees, creating what has been called "Avenue of the Spike-Tops." It's a tragic sight for anyone traveling highway 101 or that part of the Avenue. Our actions affect our environment, the root issue of the Richardson Grove Improvement Project (RIP).

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Thank you Trees Foundation!