Prelude to Preservation
As early as 1852, Assemblyman Henry A. Crabb of San Joaquin County asked the California legislature to secure into public ownership all of the state's redwood forest lands. His resolution failed. Even so, there was considerable success in the late 19th Century in preserving some California redwood land. But this success was limited almost entirely to saving the remaining giant sequoia of California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

By 1900 there had still been no effective effort to preserve the majestic coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. Logging of these trees continued at a frantic pace to supply redwood lumber to the new towns and cities of a booming California. In his book The Redwood Forest, Reed F. Noss describes the very beginnings of efforts to permanently preserve California's coast redwoods:

"As a new century began, it was time to save some portion of California's coastal redwood forest. The campaign got underway in April 1900 when Andrew P. Hill, a well-known painter and photographer, led a group of educators, writers, and women's club members on a three-day exploratory expedition to the Santa Cruz Mountains -- to the area we know today as Big Basin. While there they decided to form an organization, the Sempervirens Club, to lobby for preservation of the area as a public park. The campaign was crowned with success in 1902 when the state's first coastal redwood park was created."
Photographer Turns Conservationist
In 1899, San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill was taking pictures of some ancient redwoods when the owner of the grove accused him of trespassing, and demanded the negatives. Hill refused and, though he hadn't thought of himself as an environmentalist, returned to San Jose and started a crusade to save the coast redwoods of the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains. He wrote that "these trees, because of their size and antiquity, were among the natural wonders of the world and should be saved for posterity."  MORE

The Sempervirens Club begins…
Andrew P. Hill's crusade led to the formation of a group of people who, on a first visit to the private grove, also fell in love with the trees. Concerned that these ancient redwoods were to be cut down, they passed a hat among themselves and collected $32 to bankroll their efforts. They called themselves the Sempervirens Club.

…and Big Basin was born!

Two years later, in 1902, their work paid off and Big Basin Redwoods State Park was created.

Click on images to enlarge
Sempervirens Fund… a reprise
Sixty-six years after the creation of the state park, the Big Basin redwoods were once again threatened. On the slopes of Mt. McAbee, the watershed land immediately adjacent to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, developers wanted to clear trees and build a mountain home community on 320 prime redwood acres. The entrance road was proposed to run right through existing parklands! With the assistance of Howard King, a noted redwood photographer, and Tony Look, an ardent conservationist, a modern conservation campaign began. The charter of the original Sempervirens Club was renewed and the organization was revitalized with a new name, Sempervirens Fund.

"I saw what happened when they bought trees for a park, but not the watershed. Logging and fires caused erosion below, and trees started falling. Then I saw that development was beginning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the same thing could happen there."
                                                                  Tony Look, founding Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund, 1971
An New Ecological Ethic
Ecology was still an unfamiliar word in 1968, when Sempervirens Fund sought to save the redwood lands of Mount McAbee. But it was a new ecological ethic that drove the thinking of Sempervirens Fund. Look and King joined forces with another organization, Conservation Associates, to work toward preserving the regional ecology by protecting the entire Waddell Creek watershed and by establishing a new state park 14 miles northeast of Big Basin. Awareness grew, membership grew, and Mt. McAbee was saved. A state park was created at Castle Rock. And a commitment was made to "complete" both Big Basin and Castle Rock state parks.
Recent Accomplishments
The organizers of Sempervirens Fund may have been unaware of the "great park" envisioned by Sempervirens Club's founders at the turn of the Century. Yet their modern concern for preserving the regional ecology was what led them toward that exact same goal. Sempervirens Fund has now earned quiet but consistent success in saving redwood lands throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. More than 21,000 acres have been spared from the logger's axe. An integrated "eco-belt" is beginning to become a reality. For more details, see Completed Projects.
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