Redwood Conservation Movement Research Paper

The first redwood conservation group to drive the movement was the Sempervirens Club in 1900, which fought to preserve redwood predominantly in San Jose and the rest of Southern California. Later, in 1918, the Save-the-Redwoods League was established and took charge of the redwood conservation movement in Northern California. From the very beginning, however, various women’s clubs and organizations both helped the Sempervirens Club and Save-the-Redwoods League as well as campaigned actively for the tree’s preservation. Both in San Jose and Humboldt County of Northern California, women were key in the success of the movement. Thanks to the various redwood conservation groups and their interactions with women’s conservation clubs and groups,

Hill and the formation of the Sempervirens Club in what is now Big Basin Redwoods State Park Hill convinced his friend Josephine McCrackin to “write about the plight of the trees for the Santa Cruz Sentinel.” Headlined “Save the Trees” in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a popular daily newspaper, on March 7, 1900, McCrackin’s article the vineyard owner’s exploitation of the redwoods as “‘utterly un-American’” and “‘un-Californian.’” It is of little surprise that this evoked a passionate response from Southern Californians, many of whom shortly thereafter took up the rallying cry ‘save the redwoods.’ The presence of clubs such as the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and California Historical Society reflected this strong sense of Californian identity. As concern over the preservation of redwoods in Southern California mounted, a survey committee, led by Hill and San Jose Woman’s Club member Carrie Walter, assembled for the purpose of evaluating the condition of the redwoods of Big Basin. On May 18, 1900 while camping under the trees, the group of academics, sportsmen, and activists decided to form a club for the purpose of preserving Big Basin and its redwoods for future generations. This would be known thereafter as the Sempervirens

Hill immediately went to the San Jose Woman’s Club for support in lobbying congress. Although the men of the Sempervirens Club made use of their high-level connections to further the movement, they did not have nearly the ‘grassroots politicking’ power of women, who eagerly “wrote letters, gathered signatures, and networked among themselves.” Women in California even independently organized campaigns. For instance, in Humboldt county, a spread of housewife groups came together to form the Humboldt County Federation of Women’s Clubs (HCFWC). In 1908, the HCFWC led a campaign to educate thousands of children about forestry in Humboldt public schools. The women wasted no time in presenting a petition of over 2,000 of children’s signatures to the U.S. Forest Service, and even prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to speak out in support of the preservation of