A conference in Sequoia sempervirens country

The titans of the tree world reside in Northern California. Coastal redwoods, or Sequoia sempervirens as they are known scientifically, scrape the sky like the tall buildings of Manhattan. The most magnificent redwoods grow more than 300 feet tall, few other plants on the planet can defy such a feat.

Unfortunately, my trip was not about redwoods, but was a "Data Management Summit" that just happened to be where the worlds tallest trees congregate. Arcata is home to Humboldt State University, part of the CA state university system and sits in an area of quite unique natural beauty. Our work was conducted in the Redwood Sciences Research Laboratory, a pretty neat place which sits on a hill overlooking the Humboldt campus and Arcata.

Getting to Arcata took 3 legs and a long day, but it was well worth the trip. It was tough sitting in the conference room with one entire wall a view into the Arcata Community Forest. So at lunch we all went for walks in the forest behind the lab. In my experience taking photos in the redwood forest is notoriously difficult, the lighting is terrible for point-and-shoot cameras like mine.


In a few areas of the forest, there was only second growth, which means the original forest was cut once for timber and then allowed to grow. In these parts, redwood trees have astonishing growth rates.


Above is my colleague August enjoying our short, lunch jaunt into the redwood wonderland, or as he would say "E-wok forest" of Star Wars. My last night in Arcata, August was even nice enough to take me to the rugged beach so I could touch the Pacific before I went home. The sand was black and very fine and the water was freezing! No surprise there.