CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Redwoods National and State Parks, home to the world’s tallest trees, remained largely unscathed by relentless storms that struck California.
Multiple rounds of storms drenched parts of the Golden State as a recent series of atmospheric rivers brought heavy rain and caused dangerous flash flooding.
CALIFORNIA SCENES SHOW DEVASTATION FROM FLOODING, SINKHOLES AMID BARRAGE OF ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS
The excessive amounts of precipitation destabilized the soil in some areas, leading to sinkholes, mudslides and felled trees.
The trees at Redwoods National and State Parks in northern California, however, were mostly spared from the storms, with a few having fallen on roadways.
In fact, the trees that have fallen are not the “old growth” redwoods that the parks are famous for, according to Patrick Taylor, the interpretation and education program manager at Redwoods National and State Parks.
Rather, the damaged trees are “second growth” redwoods, which are younger as they were planted about 100-150 years ago. For comparison, the average age of Coast Redwood trees in the park is between 800 and 1,500 years old, according to NPS.
“Broadly speaking, the trees have been here for billions of years,” Taylor said. “They’re pretty well adapted to the extreme weather that we’re having right now.”
According to Taylor, one of those adaptations is that their roots grow in a network with other redwoods. Despite the root systems only being about 10 feet deep, their connections give the trees a strong footing.
“They have this lattice network where each tree is helping hold and support the trees around it,” Taylor said. “The trees tend to help anchor each other in place.”
Another adaptation is that the old-growth redwoods tend to drop their bigger branches, even from 200 to 300 feet in the air. This allows the trees to become more aerodynamic and resistant to powerful winds.
Taylor said that due to the wind advisory in current weather forecasts, his team in the northern national and state parks will wait to conduct fuller surveys until after the wind advisory has passed as a safety precaution.
FOX Weather reached out to other state parks to check on the redwoods further south in California and will update the story.