Six giant trolls have invaded the San Francisco Peninsula. 

Their aim? To lure visitors to the Arcadian redwood forest at Filoli, the Georgian revival estate with sprawling gardens in Woodside. Children – and intrepid grown-ups – are encouraged to climb on the structures, which are hidden throughout a mile-long looping walking path.

The exhibition marks the latest chapter in Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s worldwide sculptural fairytale. In this installation, he has given the tangle of trolls a mission. (There is no accepted collective noun for trolls, but “tangle” sounds nice.) The trolls have noticed that humans are harming the planet and have become increasingly disconnected from nature, so they have come to the redwoods to entice people back.

One troll has turned a derelict smart car into a flower bed. Another carries a rucksack full of birdhouses. Just beyond Filoli’s formal gardens, a troll presses its ear to the forest floor beneath the sweeping canopy of a bay tree, listening for the heartbeat of the Earth.

The trolls are built from reclaimed wood — old fences, scrap lumber, fallen branches — as part of Dambo’s mission as a recycling art activist. They are part of “Trolls: Save the Humans,” a traveling exhibition that positions them not as mischievous monsters but as wise, gentle stewards of the Earth.

More than 100 trolls are in place from South Korea to Chile, Australia, and across the United States. Now, Filoli is the latest chapter in Dambo’s expanding universe of environmental storytelling and marks the first time the trolls have visited redwoods. Dambo will be at Filoli on Monday to speak about his inspiration and process.

“I’m so happy my Trolls get to spend some time amongst the giant redwoods at Filoli,” Dambo, 46, said in a statement. “I spent a day hiking in the forest, and it is a magical place where I know my Trolls will feel at home.”

The trolls represent Filoli’s most ambitious art exhibition yet, in terms of both scale and interactivity, according to a spokesperson.

Built in 1917 as a private home, Filoli is nestled on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 25 miles south of San Francisco. Open to the public since 1975, the estate is known for its house and 654 acres of land — of which 16 acres are formal gardens. 

The property has significantly ramped up in visitorship over the last six years. In 2023, the estate had more than 400,000 visitors. For the next five months, visitors can commune with nature with a passel of trolls.