California’s Redwood Forests Don’t Mind Wet, Windy Weather

When the rain is relentless and the wind is ferocious, there are plenty of imperiled things for Californians to worry about. The state’s iconic redwood forests are not among them.

“These trees live for thousands of years, and while these winter storms may seem catastrophic to humans, they are part of the normal experience of redwoods,” Stephen Sillett, a redwood expert and professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., wrote in an email.

It’s too early to know the exact extent of damage the storms have caused in the redwood forests, which stretch from Big Sur on the Central Coast northward into Oregon. But the toppled trees and snapped branches are more of a problem for people than for the forests.

“Generally rain — big storms — is a good thing for redwoods,” said Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration at the Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit conservation group. The trees are “incredibly adapted to a whole range of different things that can happen over a lifetime,” he added.

The storms’ downpours have soaked the soil up and down the state, allowing strong winds to topple all kinds of trees, from saplings to a 275-year-old oak, crushing houses and cars and snarling traffic. And redwoods in populated areas have not been immune: Last week, a 2-year-old boy was killed when a redwood tree fell on a mobile home in Occidental, Calif., about 65 miles north of San Francisco.

Some state and national parks that are home to redwood groves have closed at times because of storm damage, including toppled or weakened trees that could threaten visitors’ safety.

Muir Woods National Monument in the Bay Area reopened on Wednesday after being closed for most of the past week. Redwood National and State Parks on the North Coast of California said that several park areas were closed on Wednesday “due to ongoing storm impacts.”

With more rain on the way, Mr. Blom said, it was too early to know when the parks could reopen for good. “It’s not really safe until the soils dry out just a little bit and the winds die down,” he said.

Dan Porter, who leads forest strategy for the California chapter of the Nature Conservancy, said that rainstorms could cause problems for redwoods that are near rivers and creeks, especially those that have been altered by human activity, like logging.

“During big events like this, the water comes up and the sediment undercuts those big banks, and some of the ancient monarchs succumb to that — they fall into the river or into the forest,” Mr. Porter said.

Professor Sillett of Humboldt State said that he expected to find that a few trees down when he surveys redwood forests after the storms let up.

“Some trees have surely fallen, as happens during every rainy winter,” he said.

Climate change, he said, poses threats to the redwoods that are unrelated to the storms.

The natural range of the coastal redwoods is drying out because of warming temperatures, according to a study by Professor Sillett’s research team that was published in Forest Ecology and Management in December. That means that in a warmer future, redwoods may not be able to grow as tall or large as they have in the past.

“Our actions now determine the quality of forests to be enjoyed by future generations,” the authors wrote.