Type Private preserve | Area 50 acres (200,000 m) | |
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Location North Carolina, United States Address Buck Island Creek, Sauratown Mountains, Danbury, NC 27016, United States | ||
The Crescent Ridge Dawn Redwoods Preserve is a privately controlled 50 acre (20 hectares) redwood preserve in the Sauratown Mountains of North Carolina dedicated to re-establishing dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) to the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Appalachia. The preserve was established in 1995, by actor D.A. Hänks.
Dawn redwoods are growing in a natural habitat, which has not occurred naturally in this part of the world for about 35 million years. The trees are thriving here, due to better growing conditions than those found in China. CRDRP lies in a crescent-shaped area along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that has a climate particularly suited to these trees.
The purpose of the Crescent Ridge Dawn Redwoods Preserve is to re-introduce the dawn redwood to its former environment and to allow this critically endangered tree to be studied in a natural setting outside China. The preserve, tentatively scheduled to open to the public in 2035, will have walking trails and a visitors' center, with fossils, historical documents, etc.
Photographs of trees and fossils from CRDRP's website have been featured in the British high school magazine, Biological Sciences Review, and on a permanent outdoor display at Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park in Carlsbad, CA.