Pygmies and Giants

Our post-graduation retreat outside the town of Mendocino was nestled between the Pygmy Redwood Forest and new growth redwoods, which are very large and very tall, but not as big as the old growth redwoods, which are even larger and even taller. Unfortunately, in that part of the state of California, all you get to see are the stumps of the old growth redwoods, dwarfing the adolescent redwoods that surround them. It's a bit of a bummer to wander around the forest in those parts and notice stump after stump after stump. You figure the loggers must have forgotten one, right? But they didn't. You have to head north to Humboldt county to see the big giants, which have been preserved up there in state parks, like old growth redwood zoos.
The Pygmy Forest, on the other hand, turns out to be a fascinating little ecosystem unique to Mendocino in which 100 year old trees measure only a few feet tall and about 10 centimeters in diameter. This photo doesn't quite do them justice, but you can see the pygmy pine (aka Mendocino pine) on the left, and a normal, fully-developed tree on the right. Something to do with the acidity of the soil in those parts -- I don't know, I'm not an arborist. But I like trees. I'm an arboriafficionado!