Here is a concise summary of the provided text:
**Title:** Harvesting California's Giant Redwoods
**Summary:**
The text describes the process of logging California's giant redwood trees, from building railroads to transport the trees, to felling, cutting, and transporting the logs to a sawmill. It highlights the:
1. **Logging process**: Building railroads, surveying, felling trees with precision, and transporting massive logs (up to 50 tons) using donkey engines and heavy cables.
2. **Tree characteristics**: Redwoods' remarkable size (up to 350 feet high, 20 feet thick), age (up to 2,000-4,000 years old), and durability (resistant to insects, fungi, and fire).
3. **Conservation**: Many old-growth redwoods are preserved in parks, while harvested trees are transformed into valuable lumber.
4. **Sawmilling process**: Logs are unloaded, cut into enormous boards, processed to remove defects, graded, dried, and seasoned for global shipment.
**Overall theme:** The text showcases the intricate process of harvesting and processing California's giant redwoods, emphasizing both the industry's complexity and the trees' natural magnificence.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text, numbered and in short sentences:
**Logging and Lumber Production**
1. A railroad is built to transport giant redwood trees to mills for cutting into lumber.
2. Surveyors lay out lines for the railroad before tree felling.
3. Ties and rails are laid before trees are felled.
4. Trees marked with an "X" are used to move other felled trees.
5. Logs are cut to desired lengths for mills and carpenters.
**Tree Characteristics and Age**
6. California's coast redwoods can live up to 2,000 years old.
7. Redwoods are considered young at 350 years, mature at 1,000 years, and old at 1,500 years.
8. Some redwoods may have lived through all of recorded human history since Christ.
9. Redwoods can withstand forest fires.
10. Sierra Nevada redwoods can grow up to 40 feet thick at the base and live up to 4,000 years old.
**Geographic Range and History**
11. Redwoods are native only to California and a small section of Oregon.
12. Thousands of years ago, redwoods were found throughout Europe and Asia, including now-cold regions like Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland.
13. The history of redwoods dates back millions of years to the time of the dinosaurs.
**Lumber Uses and Milling Process**
14. Redwood lumber is resistant to insects, fungi, and fire.
15. Redwood is used for lumber, including timber for mines, railroad ties, and other applications.
16. At the sawmill, logs are unloaded into a mill pond and then cut into boards using a band saw.
17. Boards are checked, graded for quality, dried, and seasoned before shipping.
18. Seasoned redwood lumber is shipped worldwide.