Cox grew up in San Francisco and Marin County, nurtured by what he calls a "bohemian patrician" family, surrounded by the redwoodforest, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.
Some of the trees that will be saved are more than 2, 000 years old and taller than 300 feet (91 metres), and they are among the very last sentinels of what was once a vast redwoodforest.