There are still wonders: World's tallest living thing discovered (redwood)

[n2doc]

Eureka: New tallest living thing discovered
HYPERION: At 378.1 feet, new champion in Redwood National Park on North Coast towers 8 feet above the Stratosphere Giant
Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
Thursday, September 7, 2006

The Stratosphere Giant, the world's reigning tallest living tree, seems to have lost its title -- to not one but three contenders.

Like the 370-foot Giant, the three trees are coast redwoods. They were discovered this summer in Redwood National Park near Eureka by a team of California researchers who spend most of their free time bushwhacking through North Coast forests in search of taller and taller trees. So far, the group has found about 135 redwoods that reach higher than 350 feet, said team member Chris Atkins, the man credited with finding the Stratosphere Giant in August 2000 in nearby Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The tallest of the three new finds, a redwood named Hyperion, measures about 378.1 feet. Next in line, Helios, stands at 376.3 feet; Icarus, the third, reaches 371.2 feet. Redwood experts say the discovery is a bit surprising considering that so much of the state's redwood forests have been logged. Although officials decline to pinpoint the exact locations of the tall trees, the stand found by Atkins and fellow amateur naturalist Michael Taylor were protected less than 30 years ago by an expansion of the national park's boundary.

Atkins and Taylor discovered Helios and Icarus on July 1 and Hyperion on Aug. 25. They took initial measurements with hand-held lasers before returning with Steve Sillet, a Humboldt State University biologist known for his work on the ecosystems of ancient forest canopies, and Robert Van Pelt, a forest ecologist at the University of Washington. The foursome shot more measurements using a tripod-mounted laser fitted with a remote trigger designed to eliminate human-induced wobbles. Atkins said Hyperion soon will be measured again with a tripod laser or with a "tape drop" -- in which someone climbs the tree and drops a measuring tape to the ground -- before its record-breaking status is confirmed. Tape drops can't be conducted for at least two weeks because of National Park Service restrictions to protect the marbled murrelet, a small seabird that nests in old-growth redwoods. If and when the measurement on Hyperion is confirmed, it is likely to supplant the Stratosphere Giant in the Guinness Book of World Records. To change the record, the tree's dimensions must be sent to Guinness, which will forward the information to its record verification department in the United Kingdom. It could take several weeks to confirm the new record, Guinness spokeswoman Kristen Opalach said.

George Koch, a biology professor at Northern Arizona University who specializes in plant ecophysiology, called the find incredibly exciting. "With so much of the old-growth redwoods gone -- more than 90 percent -- you wouldn't necessarily expect a discovery like this," he said. The find is all the more remarkable, Koch said, because the trees are in a tract added to the park belatedly, during President Jimmy Carter's administration. "They aren't all that far from an old clear-cut," he said. "Basically, they were almost nuked. The fact that they weren't is amazing." Koch said the trees are also noteworthy for their location. It had long been assumed, he said, that very tall redwoods favor creek bottoms where rich, alluvial soils and abundant water allow for extravagant growth. The newly discovered trees live on slopes. "It seems that they were close to tributary stream courses, however, so they probably were able to keep their feet wet," he said.

more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/archive/2006/09/07/TREE.TMP

[ClintonTyree]

1. And Bush will sell the rights to clear-cut this forest...........

for $1 to one of his political supporters. :eyes: I wouldn't put it past him.

[n2doc]

2. He tried to do it with the sequoias n/t

[YankeyMCC]

6. You beat me to it...but perhaps that's another reason they're keeping

the exact location secret :)

"The tree's precise location has not been revealed and probably won't be. The Stratosphere Giant's location is generally referred to as the Rockefeller Forest."

[n2doc]

10. This is also to keep the freepers from killing it

They have been known to "ring" a tree to cut the living skin and therefore kill it. Really sick Bas**rds out there...

[YankeyMCC]

11. You're F-ing kidding me!!

I haven't heard of that. I'd call them 'rat bastrds' but I've to much respect for Rats!

[n2doc]

12. A few years ago they did this to the tree that was a site of a protest

http://www.mindfully.org/Heritage/Luna-Chain-Sawed.htm
Vandals Slash Giant Redwood

Tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill's former home chain-sawed

Glen Martin / SF Chronicle 28nov00

An environmental saga that transfixed the world took an ugly turn yesterday when it was revealed that Luna, a 1,000-year-old redwood that was home for two years to tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill, has suffered a deep chain-saw cut that could prove fatal.

No suspect for the act of vandalism has been identified, but authorities say an investigation is continuing.

The giant Humboldt County tree was protected under an agreement reached with Pacific Lumber Co. last year when Hill ended her protest. The company agreed to preserve Luna and a 200-foot buffer zone in exchange for a $50,000 payment from Hill and her legion of supporters.

In a statement issued yesterday by the Circle of Life Foundation, an organization Hill helped establish, she condemned the "vicious attack" on Luna.

"I feel this . . . as surely as if the chain saw was going through me," she said. "Words cannot express the deep sorrow I'm feeling, but I am as committed as ever to do everything in my power to protect Luna and the remaining ancient forests."

Reached by phone yesterday at her grandfather's house in Fairhope, Ala., Hill said she was too over whelmed to elaborate. "I just don't really feel like talking," said Hill haltingly. "I'm just trying to work through what is going on."

The gash to the 200-foot-tall redwood was discovered Saturday by one of Hill's supporters. Observers at the scene said the cut measured 32 inches deep and 19 feet around the base, somewhat less than half the circumference of the tree.


Fresh sawdust at the scene and the precise placement of the cut indicates that the vandalism occurred within the last week by someone adept at sawing large trees, authorities said.

A timber faller who examined Luna yesterday said no logger in the course of his work would climb a tree that had endured such a cut, because the tree could fall at any time -- particularly in a high wind.

It remains unclear whether anything can be done to save the redwood.

[YankeyMCC]

13. No words indeed...

I can empathize with how Miss Hill must've felt. I know it's hard for many people to understand the deep connection, respect and well reverence (a word that as an atheist I use sparingly to say the least) some of us feel for such majestic representatives of the wild natural world but to me such feeling is crucial to my understanding of the world around me.

[jody]

3. Thanks. n/t

[Botany]

4. Thank you

[mccoyn]

5. I once lived near the top of a 20 story building.

If this were outside that apartment I could look up the tree as far as I could look down.

[YankeyMCC]

7. Can the age be estimated from the hieght and diameter?

I guess it can't be acurately stated unless they take a core but roughly how old would a tree this large have to be I wonder.

[n2doc]

9. Probably at least 500 years old

The Coast Redwood
The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) towers over all other trees in the world. At 112.1 meters (367.8 feet) the coast redwood discovered on the banks of Redwood Creek by the National Geographic Society in 1963 was the tallest known tree and played an important role as a rallying point for the park's establishment in 1968 and expansion in 1978. The giant sequoias, cousins to the coast redwoods, grow larger in diameter and bulk, but not as tall. Coast redwoods survive to be about 2,000 years old-perhaps half the age of giant sequoias-and average probably 500-700 years. The living tree has no known killing diseases, and the insects associated with it cause no significant damage. Fire is the worst natural foe, but usually to young trees which lack the thick bark protection. As with most conifers, redwoods lack a taproot, and their broad shallow root system sometimes provides inadequate support for the massive trunk. Wind topples many mature trees.
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/redw/

But you are right, without a core no way to know for sure. Since these are in wet areas they will grow faster than other trees in the area.

[xchrom]

8. isn't that wonderful? n/t