---
title: what an 1874 painting reveals about funding forests
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/only-5-percent-old-growth-redwoods
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/only-5-percent-old-growth-redwoods.md
subtitle: bierstadt painted the redwoods before they were cut. now his art makes the case for a different kind of market.
category: act
---

# what an 1874 painting reveals about funding forests

*bierstadt painted the redwoods before they were cut. now his art makes the case for a different kind of market.*

In 1874, landscape painter Albert Bierstadt finished *Giant Redwood Trees of California*—a monumental oil painting of ancient coast redwoods in their untouched glory.

He painted what he saw. Then most of it was cut down.

The painting hung in the Berkshire Museum for over a century. In 2018, the museum sold it. Art changes hands. Markets move value around. That's what markets do.

Here's the interesting part: the same market logic that sold a painting of redwoods could fund the actual redwoods. And now it does.

## what bierstadt saw (and what's left)

Bierstadt captured coast redwoods before widespread logging—trees over 350 feet tall, older than the Roman Empire. His painting is now evidence of scale.

Today, Save the Redwoods League estimates about 5% of the original old-growth forest remains. The rest is either gone or regrowing (young forests take 500+ years to develop old-growth characteristics).

That 5% still functions as a climate-and-water system: pulling moisture from coastal fog, storing carbon in massive trunks, creating habitat across centuries. It's not just tall trees—it's infrastructure.

## a market for what remains

The **giant redwoods** coin is a general ensurance instrument. It creates a market mechanism for funding forest protection.

| how it works | what it means |
|--------------|---------------|
| **indirect funding** | not a donation to one park—supports natural capital across the protocol |
| **circulation creates proceeds** | every trade generates funding for protection |
| **price discovery** | market activity makes nature's value visible |
| **perpetual mechanism** | funding continues as long as the coin circulates |

Bierstadt's painting was sold once. The giant redwoods coin can trade forever—and every trade funds protection.

### where proceeds go

Initial supply and trading fees route to **HEADWATERS**—the primary flow funding natural capital across the ensurance protocol.

### current market

| metric | value |
|--------|-------|
| ensurers (holders) | 90 |
| market cap | ~$4,300 |
| total volume | 2.77 ETH |

90 people have joined. The market cap for the tallest organisms on earth is currently less than a used car.

## how to participate

1. **Buy the coin** — Join 90+ ensurers funding redwood protection
2. **Trade** — Circulation generates proceeds; movement creates funding
3. **Share** — More participants, more market activity, more proceeds

[View the giant redwoods coin](/general/0xdb8d1d81bee70e634a220d71391e72d38428c67a?from=guide)

[See where proceeds flow](/proceeds?from=guide)

## frequently asked questions

### how is this different from donating to a conservation org?

Donations are one-time transfers. This coin creates perpetual funding—proceeds generate every time it trades. You're building market infrastructure, not making a gift.

### where do the proceeds actually go?

Proceeds route to HEADWATERS, which funds natural capital protection across the ensurance protocol—including specific natural assets and broader ecosystem services.

### can old-growth redwoods recover?

Young redwood forests are growing. But old-growth characteristics—complex canopy structure, deep carbon storage, multi-century habitat—take 500+ years to develop. The remaining 5% is irreplaceable on human timelines.

### what happened to the bierstadt painting?

The Berkshire Museum sold it in 2018 as part of a controversial deaccession. The painting now lives in a private collection. Its subject—the forest itself—is what we can still fund.

## sources

[Save the Redwoods League](https://www.savetheredwoods.org/) — old-growth statistics and conservation work

[National Park Service — Redwood Ecology](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/old-growth-702702702702702702702702702702.htm) — forest ecology and history

[Berkshire Museum Deaccession](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/berkshire-museum-sells-norman-rockwell-paintings-and-more-despite-outcry-9849/) — context on the 2018 art sale

## also in this series

This post is a redwood door — a painting, a remaining stand, a funding question. The living-stock definition lives in [what forests actually are](/guide/what-forests-actually-are?from=guide). A planted bag is not that stand. A carbon credit is not that stand. Types and who pays are next to the pillar.