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(More customer reviews)This 45 minute length documentary will not tell you all you might like to know about redwood trees, but the cinematography is spectacular. I have never seen such incredible footage of redwood forests before. This National Geographic special focuses on the work of Steve Stillet of Humboldt University. Stillet is a pioneer of redwood research having climbed hundreds of them beginning back in 1996. Apparently he is the first scientist to have scaled a redwood, but has done much more than tree hugging. Stillet has analyzed the canopies of the redwoods and studied the unique ecosytems atop such giants making new discoveries regarding the flora and fauna far up in the air. This documentary simultaneously tells the story of Mike Fay, an interprid explorer and chronicler, who treked across the length of equatorial Africa back in the year 2000. Fay now applies the same spirit of determination and exploration to do something unique: trek the length of the redwood forests that stretch from Big Sur in southern central California to southern Oregon. Fay and his partner locate the southernmost redwood and then hike for eleven months covering almost 2,000 miles of terrain to chronicle the state of the redwood forests in California before reaching the last redwood in southern Oregon. The conclusion of Fay is that redwoods have begun to thrive once more for the first time in 150 years after the devastating effects of indiscriminate logging. Meanwhile Stillet has canvassed a 2.5 acre area of redwood forest in an undisclosed location measuring and analyzing every inch in an 8 year time frame.
The documentary is strongly conservationist in tone and portrays some ugly scenes in the 1990s and later where activists fight to preserve one of the last of the ancient, first growth redwood forests in 1997. Arborists are sent in to dislodge the protesters from the ancient trees and local sheriffs apply pepper spray to the activists eyes in some shocking footage. The activists, however, were triumphant forcing the state of California to pay a hefty 440 million to a logging company that owned the land. Logging of redwoods continues, but the documentary emphasizes selective forestry whereby only a few redwoods are felled such that new trees may sprout up thanks to the additional sunlight at the forest bottom. Also, fascinating is the study of how the redwoods manage to live in a cold coastal environment during the winter while enduring dry, hot summers without the benefit of much rain. Redwoods have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and once dominated much of North America. The last ice age limited their range to this narrow strip of land along the californian coast and this documentary tells the story of those most determined to preserve this last vestige of living antiquity on american soil.
Scientists and conservationists would be more capable of commenting on the accuracy of the statements made in this documentary, but the spectacular footage alone makes this doc worth a peek.
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Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music)Release Date: 02/02/2010Run time: 50 minutes
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