Rain doesn’t delay Sonoma County redwood planting

Despite torrential rain and high wind, about 100 nature lovers gathered over the weekend to plant 1,350 redwood seedlings at St. Dorothy’s Rest in Camp Meeker, a protected 580-acre retreat center originally intended for terminally ill children to spend time in a healing environment of a “magical” forest community.

The effort was the annual reforestation project of Forest Unlimited, a Forestville-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting and enhancing forests and watersheds in Sonoma County. Most of the land that was acquired recently at St. Dorothy’s Rest had been badly logged. The redwood planting will help reforest these areas.

“It’s really a community effort,” said Carl Wahl, a volunteer for Forest Unlimited who managed the project for more than 15 years. “We make sure the seedlings are planted in a location where they can basically survive unattended by humans.

In addition to Camp Meeker, Forest Unlimited has installed more than 27,000 trees over the years on private properties off Coleman Valley Road near Occidental, at Graton’s wastewater treatment plant, at SRJC’s Shone Farm near Forestville, Wildwood in Guerneville and in the hills of Cazadero. Above, a young volunteer and a chaperon prepare the ground to plant the redwood seedlings.