We were lucky to catch up with Jim Hamerly recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?
Sequoias, particularly the Giant Sequoias, are awe-inspiring trees with misconceptions about where they are found and where they thrive.
Jim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a many-time entrepreneur, businessman, corporate executive, college dean, teacher, and now a Sequoia forester. I am in my fifth career with about thirty-five different jobs behind me.
I am the founder of Sequoia Sentinels, a community-led effort to plant sequoia seedlings across private lands and forests in appropriate areas of Southern California, specifically the Palomar Mountain area. I also locate, count, and catalog thriving sequoias in five regenerating groves in southern California and communicate with nearly 100 growers worldwide. I have cataloged over 1,000 trees in southern California and know many more I have not yet seen.
Sequoia Sentinels has about 120 members. We hold planting days every spring and fall, provide educational resources on sequoias, and hold educational events.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In nature, a mature tree produces one billion seeds, of which only ten will mature into a successful tree. It took me more than five years of trial and error to learn how to get a sequoia seed to germinate. So, the conditions must be exactly right, with at least six months of careful preparation. Transplanting your young seedling is also extremely difficult, much more so than other plants. But once established, they grow extraordinarily fast and well without human assistance.
Why grow them? Aside from being beautiful trees, sequoias play a pivotal role in ecosystems by providing crucial habitat, stabilizing soil, sequestering carbon, and more. Giant sequoias are the world’s largest trees by volume, with immense trunks that taper very little. They can grow up to over three hundred feet tall and weigh over six hundred tons. I want to leave a legacy, and I want my trees to be here for my great-great-grandchildren long after I am gone.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The general population rarely recognizes sequoias and is told that they only exist in about 73 groves in northern California. More importantly, many foresters and northern California sequoia organizations do not know, or actively deny, that sequoias grow elsewhere. However, sequoias grow in nearly every state in the US, with large concentrations in Oregon, Washington, Michigan, and many others. Some of these areas and much of Palomar Mountain match the rainfall, snowfall, temperature, humidity, and irradiance of Sequoia National Park. In fact, the west side of Palomar Mountain gets 200+ days of coastal fog, which can make our trees even healthier since they get ~40% of the water from the air. The UK, for example, has well over 500,000 trees! Mexico City has a large population! You can find them in most countries, as they once covered the entire northern hemisphere.
I use five social media applications to connect with other sequoia growers, educate the public about their existence, and help others to appreciate their beauty and longevity. I use images of trees from all over the world and videos of groves I have visited.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sequoiasentinels.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sequoiasentinels/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sequoiasentinels
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhamerly/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JimHamerly/videos
- Other: NextDoor: https://nextdoor.com/profile/01hyLHXS_jRTjfWRy/
