From Southern California, the redwood forest of Humboldt and Del Norte counties is a two-day drive. It might as well be another country. …At the time of statehood in 1850, something like 2 million acres of northwestern California were covered in redwood. By 2000, only 5 percent of this old growth remained, effectively all of it protected in public reserves. That’s the “redwood forest” famous around the world. There’s also a second, much larger “redwood forest”: cutover land regrown as plantations. …The 2×4 redwood boards you see at Home Depot come from the second-growth forest. Although young redwood is very good material, it’s not superlative like the old stuff. …For the building of California civilization, old-growth redwood “outranked all other natural resources.”