RNSP Installs New Viewing Platform to Protect the Stout Tree, ‘Improve Visitor Experience’

This is a press release from Redwood National and State Parks:

Crescent City, CA— Visitors walking the popular Stout Grove Trail in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park section of Redwood National and State Parks will discover a new wooden viewing platform has been built at the base of the venerable Stout Tree. The new platform was funded through donations and constructed by California State Parks employees. It is wheelchair-accessible and provides opportunities for park visitors to get close to the tree without damaging its bark, fragile base and root system.

Stout Grove was created when Clara Stout, widow of lumberman Frank Deming Stout, donated a tract of old-growth redwood forest to Save the Redwoods League in memory of her husband who died in 1927. In 1929 Stout Grove became the first dedicated grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Stout Tree is the largest tree in that grove. Since the 1929 dedication, nearly ninety years of well-intended footsteps, group photos, and tree hugs have culminated in severely compacted soil, damaged roots, and removal of the tree’s protective foot-thick bark around its base.

As massive and timeless as coast redwood trees, the tallest living things on Earth, may seem to be on the outside, beneath the surface the roots of the tree are somewhat fragile. Most of the roots of a redwood tree are only three to ten feet below the soil surface. The shallow root systems extend over one hundred feet from the base, intertwining with the roots of other redwoods. This increases their stability during strong winds and floods. In addition, of course, the roots are an integral part of the tree’s ability to pump water and nutrients into the tree to help it grow. Soil compaction caused by standing next to a redwood harms the roots. Damage is also caused by people stepping directly onto the tree. Broken bark leaves the redwoods vulnerable to insects and disease.

The new viewing platform protects the base of the Stout Tree while providing a fun, safe location for visitors to get closer to the trees they love. Just not, too close.

Please stop by any Redwood National and State Parks visitor center or learn more at the park website at:  www.nps.gov/redw.

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Timberfaller
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Timberfaller
5 years ago

I’m glad they put that nice light deck around that tree wouldn’t want those heavy people compacting the soil

Timberfaller
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Timberfaller
5 years ago

It’s like putting 10,000 plants in one small container that’s why they die from the top down they don’t have enough room for all the roots

Local
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Local
5 years ago

Looks like they must of had some leftover clear old growth redwood from their mansion like offices in Arcata and Orick

Lone ranger
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Lone ranger
5 years ago
Reply to  Local

Nope, they just cut down a tree in the park and milled it there, very close in proximity , less of a carbon footprint that way.

ESFOAD
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ESFOAD
5 years ago

I swear sometimes reading the comments is like reading the comics section in the paper LOL

Anti troll league
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Anti troll league
5 years ago
Reply to  ESFOAD

Life is a joke that not everyone gets.

Dan Fuller
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Dan Fuller
5 years ago

Lots of them “Get It” but it just goes in one ear/eye or W/ E you have handy & out the other!!! Absolutely NOTHING between their ears to soak it up!!!