Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) trees through the preemptive purchase of development rights of notable areas with such forests. It relies on donations from private individuals as well as funding from foundations, corporations, government agencies, and investments to buy, restore, and provide public access to redwood forest lands. The League has protected more than of forestland. As of 2018, the League has helped create 66 redwood parks and reserves, including Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwood National and State Parks. In addition to purchasing and protecting land, Save the Redwoods League supports restoration, research, and education programs, and gives small grants to other organizations involved in ecological conservation. Save the Redwoods League maintains and updates a website which offers information, photos, and progress reports. History In 1917, National Park Service Director Stephen Mather asked conservationists John C. Merriam, Madison Grant, and Henry Fairfield Osborn to travel to northern California to investigate the status of the old-growth coast redwoods that were reportedly being logged in vast numbers for building materials. All four of these men were members of the Boone and Crockett Club. After witnessing the devastation of the forests on their trip, Merriam, Grant, and Osborn decided that protecting the ancient redwoods by purchasing groves and creating a public park was an urgent endeavor, and in 1918 they established Save the Redwoods League to achieve this goal. The first donors to the League were Stephen Mather, E.C. Bradley, William Kent, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Madison Grant. In 1919, Newton B. Drury became the first Executive Secretary for Save the Redwoods League. He provided leadership to the League for the next 58 years, also serving as a National Park Service and California State Parks leader. Also in 1919, members of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs established the Women’s Save the Redwoods League in Humboldt County. This group had roots over a decade in the making. It was in 1908 that the Humboldt County Federation of Women’s Clubs sent a children's petition with over 2,000 signatures to the U.S. Forest Service requesting that President Theodore Roosevelt establish a national redwood park. Newton B. Drury and the League were instrumental in uniting and forming the California State Park system with the passage of two bills in the California State Legislature that were signed