Giant sequoia forest preserved in landmark conservation deal

In a deal to preserve some of the planet’s rarest and most massive living things, a Bay Area conservation group has signed an agreement to purchase the second-largest grove of giant sequoia trees left in private ownership in the world.

Save the Redwoods League, based in San Francisco, will pay $3.3 million to buy 160 acres of sequoias — some more than 250 feet tall and 1,500 years old — in an area known as the Red Hill property. The trees sit in a remote, mountainous part of Tulare County adjacent to Giant Sequoia National Monument in the Southern Sierra, and survived a logging boom that decimated similar ancient trees from the 1850s through the 1950s.

(beware the link, a bit, though; sometimes the Mercury's ads can be really obnoxious, with autoplaying video or full-window modals over top.)