As quickly as wild game. It takes hundreds of years to grow a redwood tree and 3 years to get a mature lion. Moreover it is like cutting down 1% of the redwoods now, selling the wood for lots of $$$ and using the money to plant 10 times as many redwood trees as you harvested so that 100 years from now there are more redwoods then when you started. Also you comparison fails because the mature lions that are past mating age keep the younger studs from breeding. Keeping tons of mature male lions around only decreases the population. Finally your redwood example would only be reasonable if there were nations of lumberjacks who could sneak onto public land and harvest redwoods at will without being caught. By making a season and allowing the locals to profit, the locals actually help police the poachers and the number of harvested lions each year is controlled. Deal with facts: the licensing programs for game are proven conservation techniques.