The Tree Farm

Our timberland has been part of the American Tree Farm System since 1990.  We are certified by the ATFS and are authorized to display the logo, below.  The ATFS mission is to promote the growing of renewable forest resources on private lands while protecting environmental benefits and increasing public understanding of all the benefits of productive forestry.  Visit the  National Tree Farm System.  We are currently looking into additional certification, and have been operating our tree farm on a sustainable yield basis since it was purchased in the late 1960’s.  We are blessed with some of the best growing grounds in the world for redwood trees, as every forester that we’ve met has told us.  We are personally committed to improving our forests and leaving them to future generations in better condition than when we started, using recognized sustainable practices.

One of the aspects of Sequoia Vista is the manufacture of softwoods and west coast hardwoods, some of which would be dumped at local landfills, or burned as firewood. Our milling operations often render "nuisance" materials into high value wood products suitable for quality applications, and because California has no real hardwood industry, this raw resource is often overlooked. Sequoia Vista is investigating the process of becoming a SmartWood certified operation. Smartwood offers one kind of certification and the American Tree Farm System offers another.

We reclaim and manufacture wood because it makes us proud, and we feel a sense of accomplishment in being able to bring our customers incomparable woods that are not available to responsible consumers, if at all.  When we harvest trees on the family property, we also salvage pieces left in the woods by the first loggers 150 years ago. Some of the original old growth redwood logs were too difficult to move because they were so big. Some were overturned with the roots still attached to them. For whatever reason, they were left dead on the ground, and long since forgotten. With a lot of work, these massive high-quality logs and pieces can be maneuvered and turned into beautiful lumber and slabs. Our lumber division can custom cut beams, and table slabs from this "guilt free" old growth redwood, several hundred years old.

Wood tells stories, and one can't help but be fascinated by the history embedded in each piece.  Every year we meet people who share our values of conservation and our belief in the ethic of re-purposed wood, and that's a lot of fun.  As a country, we first “consumed” our old growth forests in the eastern and southeastern United States.  For this reason, reclaiming wood first came back into practice in these areas some 30 years ago.  On the other hand, the forests of the west were thought to be inexhaustible until just a few years ago.  Unable to see the obvious warning signs, foresters, lumber corporations and consumers did not believe that our great western forests had practical limits.  Old growth redwood is a perfect example of how within the last few years our consumption has come to an end; precious few old growth redwood trees exist today, except in protected areas where the last few percent are preserved.  Today, it's become a cultural thing, and many people in our society are waking up to realize that key natural resources are in danger due to overuse.  In the building industry people are making a dramatic departure from old ways of looking at construction resources, and wood use issues are often at the forefront of these conversations.  With the growing environmental awareness, re-purposed wood products are poised to take a larger role than ever in the way we live and build.