Tall Trees Walking Tour Stop 7

Fire caves like this one are usually caused by smoldering embers over a period of months.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

41.20830554270, -124.01107687300

Goosepen

The fire cave you see in front of you is often referred to as a goose-pen because early settlers once used hollows like this to roost their chickens and geese. Old-growth redwoods have thick, fire-resistant bark, and although they will burn, they most often just smolder. Large goose-pens are often the result of more than one fire. Hollows like these offer important refuge for wildlife, including bears, birds, and bats.  Fire caves in the canopy may offer nesting areas for the endangered California Condor. Imagine how many generations of animals a single redwood can serve during its entire lifetime.

Redwoods are the stewards of all that thrives in this ecosystem. They can withstand fires, floods, gale-force winds, and earthquakes! The ability to clone new trunks from injured ones adds to this tree’s namesake: sempervirens (“everlasting”). As such, old-growth redwood forests allow for a quick recovery when damaged by natural disasters. They can survive most everything except the saw and the axe; and even then, a recently cut stump might respond with a new sprout!