Redwood forests grow in moist climates, the Pacific Northwest (Northern California) is an ideal area, with an annual rainfall average of 75 inches.

We are the One who gives life and ordains death, and We are the inheritor’ (Qur’an: al-Hijr V.23)

Fallen trees are an important source of nutrients for the forest. Not only do small animals, and insects make their nesting grounds here, but also seedlings find a safe and fertile environment that allow them to mature and sprout into young trees. Logging corporations have pushed to “harvest” the fallen trees, and have made a case that doing so would prevent large scale forest fires. Infact, fallen or “dead” trees are an important part of a forest ecosystem:

They: 1) Return biomass to the land. 2) Store and slowly release nutrients to the recovering forest. 3) Retain moisture throughout the dry season. 4) Provide shade and favorable sites for the germination and early growth of seedlings. 5) Stabilize soil. 6) Provide unique habitats for a great variety of creatures on land and in rivers. 7) Stabilize stream banks, and promote quality salmon and aquatic habitat.

Vine Deloria, Jr. (Died 11/13/05)

“In recent years we have come to understand what progress is. It is the total replacement of nature by an artificial technology. Progress is the absolute destruction of the real world in favor of a technology that creates a comfortable way of life for a few fortunately situated people. Within our lifetime the differences between the Indian use of the land and the white use of the land will become crystal clear. The Indian lived with his land. The white destroyed his land. he destroyed the planet earth.”

“Scientists, and I use the word as loosely as possible, are committed to the view that Indians migrated to this country over an imaginary Bering Straits bridge, which comes and goes at the convenience of the scholar requiring it to complete his or her theory. Initially, at least, Indians are homogenous. But there are also eight major language familied within the Western Hemisphere, indicating to some scholars that if Indians followed the trend that can be identified in other continents, then the migration went from east to west; tourists along the Bering straits were going TO Asia, not migrating FROM it.”

Vine Deloria, Jr., Standing Rock Sioux, 1970, 1994

see Writeous Sister’s blog for more on this wonderful Native American scholar/activist.