I love trees. From the time I could climb them before I could articulate why they feel so special... from reading 'The Giving Tree' and 'The Overstory'. Pretty much everything about them. There's something about them that pulls me in and forces me to pay attention. Their timeless beauty, life-sustaining power, the role they play in natural and built environments. 

Chief among them is the redwood. 

Since March 2021, I've been logging every California Coast Redwood (sequoia sempervirens) I come across in southern California on this interactive map. Redwoods aren't native here. To my surprise, there's heaps of them — I've mapped over 2,600 and counting.

So why do I do this? 

1. No one else has. 

2. And I was curious to keep an account of these impressive trees (California's state tree and the world's the tallest and oldest... not to mention fire/pest/rot resistant) that don't naturally grow in Southern California. Their habitat range extends from the southern Oregon border to a grove near Big Sur ~250 miles NW of Downtown LA. They favor environments where they can grow communally on sloped gullies with plenty of moisture. It makes absolutely no sense to cultivate these thirsty giants around LA, yet people have. Usually alone or as decorative landscaping.

3. Maybe one day an arborist or climatologist can use this map as a resource for a larger study on how species adapt to our changing climate and increasingly developed worlds.

This is a growing, living map. I find and log redwoods when I'm walking around or driving, but I encounter most of them while zig-zagging neighborhood streets on runs and bike rides. Sometimes I'll zoom around Google satellite maps.

You'll also find logs for the two other Sequoioideae species — Dawn Redwoods (metasequoia glyptostroboides) and Giant Sequoias (sequoiadendron giganteum).

EDIT: Google map short links are incorrect. Realizing description shortened URLs have an expiration date to their uniqueness. Some of the older URLs don't link to their original street view.