Navarro Redwoods (From the Ashes of Clear-Cut Logging) by Gerald F. Beranek

Forest activists and environmentalists instill a belief that a logged over forest is incapable of ever becoming an old-growth forest again. But all forest habitats are capable of full recovery following the worst possible disaster events: natural and man-made alike. It makes no difference. The state of our natural and managed forests are not in peril like forest activists and environmentalists claim.

150 years ago Navarro Redwoods was clear-cut logged and burned, and today it is spectacular. This forest illustrates so eloquently the strength and resilience of the redwood habitat: to rebound back from nothing but bare dirt and ash. Second-growth though it be, Navarro has reached a climax condition. Every living thing in this forest unfolds and works exactly the same as it does in the old-growth habitat it all came from. Other than being a younger forest, it is complete. Navarro Redwoods will grow on to become indistinguishable from any old-growth redwood forest there ever was.