It’s a labor of love for Luen Miller, 54, and Clark Magruder, 59. For the past three years, the two men have been collecting redwood cuttings from trees across the county and raising them at Miller’s nursery. Some of them are already 8 feet tall, and just about ready to be replanted along the Highway 1/17 Merge Lane Project.
It’s a labor of love for Luen Miller, 54, and Clark Magruder, 59. For the past three years, the two men have been collecting redwood cuttings from trees across the county and raising them at Miller’s nursery. Some of them are already 8 feet tall, and just about ready to be replanted along the Highway 1/17 Merge Lane Project. Though landscaping had always called for redwoods to be planted there, Caltrans officials originally planned to use a single tree as their source. The effect, says Magruder, would be to create a redwood “hedge,” hardly what they wanted to see along the highway. Caltrans landscape architect Bryan Parker agreed, and supported the idea of using local trees, instead of clippings from a tree in Humboldt. By adding oaks, native grasses, wild flowers, and vines, they hope to recreate the natural environment of the Santa Cruz mountains.
Their project has already won the support of Lincoln Taiz, professor emeritus of molecular, cell and developmental biology at UCSC. He points out that trees situated along highways are under more environmental stress than they would be under natural conditions. The genetic diversity that Miller and Magruder offer, he says, makes it more likely that at least some of the trees will survive and flourish.
Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
