Reviving the Redwoods

A high vantage of a fog-shrouded forest at one of the Redwood National and State Parks near Orick, California. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

IN WHAT what was once an old growth redwood forest that was heavily logged in 1968, a National Park Service forester points to an unruly tangle of spindly trees, 900 to the acre and so jam-packed it is difficult to walk through.

Not far away is a section that thinned 20 years ago, when the number of trees per acre was reduced to fewer than 300. The redwoods in this area are much larger in diameter and far more robust, the understory greener and more diverse.