California is home to the Redwood, some of the tallest and largest trees on earth. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, there were approximately two million acres of Redwood forest in Northern California alone. However, after settlements began to emerge, demands for wood as a commercial resource rose. With the arrival of the Gold Rush during the mid 19th century, the demand for wood rose even further.
As technology advanced into the 20th century, logging became much easier. Machinery like motorized engines, chainsaws, and bulldozers sped up the process as a whole. The post World War II economic boom took advantage of the new technology to build up housing areas. As a result of the ongoing deforestation, around 90 percent of the original redwood forests were removed by 1960.
In 1902, a group called the Sempervirens raised money in order to buy a redwood covered area of the Santa Cruz mountains. Their goal was to acquire the land in order to protect it from further logging and deforestation. They were successful in their efforts and transformed the area of land into Big Basin Redwoods State Park. In total, the group has saved over 36,000 acres of redwood forest. Other groups like Save the Redwoods League have contributed in preventing deforestation in similar ways.
Today, the primary threat to these forests is not logging, but climate change. Fifteen of the twenty largest fires in California have occurred after the year 2000, and ten of the most destructive have occurred since 2015. The 2020 wildfire blazed through the Santa Cruz mountains, burning around 97 percent of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. By the time the fire was extinguished, around 97 percent of the forest was burned. Thankfully, redwoods are a very strong tree, with many of the trees still standing. Other areas of the park were finally able to be reopened to the public after four years of restoration.