The oldest coast redwoods were already ancient when Rome fell. They are functionally immortal — until a chainsaw or a crown fire ends over two thousand years in a single afternoon. Fewer than five percent of the original old-growth forest still stands.
Defend The Redwoods exists to change the math. We locate the last champion trees — the largest, oldest, most resilient survivors — and clone their genetics before they can be lost. Then we replant them across the forests that once held them.
This is not symbolic work. Every program is measured in acres surveyed, feet climbed, cuttings archived, and seedlings returned to the ground. Every claim we make is backed by a number, because the stakes — over 2,000 years of genetic memory — leave no room for vagueness.
We hold the long view, because the trees demand it. What took two millennia to grow should never be lost in an afternoon.
