THE WORLD'S 2ND BIGGEST TREE CAPTURED IN ONE SPECTACULAR IMAGE

[Cattledog]

These staggering numbers represent one single tree, a giant sequoia called The President. Whats even more mind-blowing is that the tree is more than 3 thousand years old, and comprised of some 54,000 cubic feet (1530 cubic metres) of wood and bark. Photographer Michael Nichols photographed the 250ft behemoth in Sequoia National Park.



https://brightvibes.com/1303/en/the-president-the-worlds-2nd-biggest-tree-captured-in-one-spectacular-image?fbclid=IwAR2OxKOBuhklv64spbQFsXBM4YKbTsDTdB-v8l0flGJiqUSlckB9nsXxbAo

[MuseRider]

1. What a grand old tree.

It should be celebrated (not with visits, people would take pieces and it would die) but just from photos and stories. Trees are special beings. I have some very old, large trees on my farm. Nothing anywhere like this but with trunks I cannot begin to get my arms half way around. They are so old they are dying, climate is different and rough on them, some have split and some are laying on the ground now. I call them the old men and the old women and speak to them. I do not know why I do or why I started to but as they are dying I end up sitting close and saying a few words of thanks I guess. These trees are really spectacular. On vacation in the NE a bunch of years ago we stopped to see one of the oldest trees. There is just something magical about them isn't there?

[in2herbs]

2. I totally understand what you are saying. nt

[3Hotdogs]

10. Who remembers the assholes that destroyed parts of Joshua Tree last year?

[MuseRider]

14. That was very painful.

What incredibly cool trees those are. I have been around them only once but they are so awesome and so old. How anyone could do that to any tree is beyond me. Do you know if they ever got those people?

[Delphinus]

37. Beautiful.

Thank you.

[abqtommy]

3. Thanks! That's totally awesome!

[OnlinePoker]

4. I'm glad they haven't found coal or oil underneath it. n/t

[RockRaven]

5. What's crazy about that pic is that it's knee-high on a grasshopper to the tallest redwoods...

2nd "biggest" means in this context is 2nd most massive, but the giant sequoia's nearest evolutionary relative, the coastal redwood, is a lanky fellow by comparison and tops out at about 380 feet. Imagine a tree half again as tall as the one in this pic. They're both incredible!

[True Dough]

6. And here's the world's biggest sap

[KY_EnviroGuy]

18. Like most Rethugs, tRump sees a tree and thinks "new paneling for the clubhouse".

KY.........

[ancianita]

7. As old as the Roman Empire.

I saw it when I stayed In Sequoia last September.

The awe of that place transforms your mind and heart.

[jmowreader]

8. Let's try not to spread that picture around too much

Trump is probably already trying to figure out a way to cut it down and sell it for matchwood.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

9. Perhaps the most overused word in our language is "awesome"......

but this thing is truly AWESOME. Nature's work of art. It's 27ft diameter at the base.

Looks as if they've installed a lightening rod on top or could be a gin pole for their rigging.

[applegrove]

16. Maybe a lightening pole to save the tree from being damaged by a lightening strike.

Could happen.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. That was my first thought as well and as an EE, I'm curious how the hell....

they could mount the thing and run a ground cable all the way down and drive ground rods at the base without damaging the tree. That's cut and dried for buildings but not so common for trees! Being one of the tallest in the forest does increase the risk of strikes (like buildings).

No expertise here but I'm guessing a severe drought, invasive foreign diseases or insects would be big threats too. I hope she has Medicare......

Such majesty in a single one of earth's plants.....KY......

[applegrove]

19. I once went to the Cathedral forest on Vancouver Island. Such beauty.

http://www.cathedralgrove.eu/text/01-Cathedral-Grove-1.htm Love awe inspiring moments like this. They talked last year about on the news about cloning the stumps of some redwood stumps that were 30 feet in diameter and felled in California 100 years ago. They are planting them in forests around the world where they think they will grow well. Of course it will take them thousands of years to get to that size again, even when they grow 10 feet a year as some do. But good to see them try. I pray there is not some crazy tree plague.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. Thanks for that link, Applegrove. Stunning beauty and serenity.

Good primer on the destructiveness of the greedy logging industry too. I wish all our youth could visit that forest or one similar, and even better yet live there for about a year to connect with nature for the sake of their future.

My dad worked timber in central TN during the Depression and when I was a kid, he showed me the stumps and trunks on the ground of huge chestnut trees that were very common in his youth - before the blight came through and wiped them out. I remember feeling his heartbreak of that massive loss. Even though he worked in timber, he was still a naturalist.

Never knew they can clone trees from ancient DNA. Science may save us after all if we'll just start using it instead of abusing it.

KY......

[applegrove]

21. My family was in the lumber industry. Great grandfather was killed when

looking for timber limits in British Columbia. The timber limits he owned sad idle for 25 years as his family was in Ontario: too far away to manage business till his kids were grown. Some of the timber limits he owned were on Vancouver Island. So who knows...he may have saved the old growth forest by buying it and then dying in an accident. I feel guilty sometimes when I look at clear cut forests but most of what they were into was newsprint, hydro power. So I don't feel so guilty about the end product so much. My dad had a summer job canoeing in rivers in quebec looking for timber. The french canadian crew figured out he had the gift of cooking skills and he ended up doing all the cooking for the camp instead of surveying. My grandfather's first cousin took his knowledge of running double telephone lines into winter lumber camps to keep emergency services available to lumber crews (lumbering was and still is dangerous) to the Canadian war effort in WWI and was lauded for that. Canadians could better triangulate as their communications didn't fail. Nothing great about being more efficient in a war unless you are in the middle of one. Good and bad in just about everything. Any how. Nobody in the lumber business anymore. Still I don't like seeing clear cut forests. Or hearing of old growth forests cut down.

[Lochloosa]

22. I doubt if it's for the rigging. Read The Wild Trees.

It explains the "spider" technique they developed to climb these trees without damaging them.

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring is a non-fiction book by Richard Preston about California's coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and the recreational climbers who climbed them. It is a narrative-style collection of stories from climbers who pioneered redwood climbing, including botanist Steve Sillett, lichenologist Marie Antoine, and Michael Taylor. They inadvertently discovered a thriving ecosystem hidden among the tree tops, 60–90 meters (200–300 ft) above, of redwood lattices, berry bushes, bonsai trees, epiphytes, lichens, voles, and salamanders.

The book was #83 on Amazon's Best Books of the Year. It was illustrated by Andrew Joslin.

The Wild Trees introduces several characters and provides backgrounds for them, as far back as their childhoods. Throughout the book, information about trees, forests and logging is woven into the story.

Several of the largest and tallest known redwoods are introduced, including descriptions. Details are provided about how these trees are climbed, explored and studied, although many of their specific locations are not given.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Trees

[KY_EnviroGuy]

32. Thank you, Lochloosa. Bookmarked in my AMZ book wish list.

Being a caver and rigger in my youth, I probably can relate.

I recall seeing documentaries about the separate mini-biospheres in the Amazon rain forests, but never dreamed a similar thing existed in the redwoods.

I'll never make it back out that way, but one reviewer on Amazon says some people actually have a tree climbing camp where a few lucky ones can visit and experience this wonder of nature.

KY.........

[Phoenix61]

11. I really hope to get out there this fall.

I’m between jobs now and would like to check some things off my bucket list while I’m young enough to enjoy doing so.

[Miigwech]

12. Keep trump away, he would allow tooth picks

to made from it as long as he gets his cut (no pun intended).

[Kurt V.]

13. it doesn't even look real. wow. we're heading to monterey next year. Can't wait to see it.

[nini]

15. Standing next to those trees is mind boggling

Last edited Sun Jun 9, 2019, 01:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Sequoia is a beautiful place.

[Traildogbob]

23. Trees

I spent 30 years teaching Forest Ecology to college students. In western N.C., we have the most diverse Forests in the country. Students had to learn over 100 species by leaves bark and fruit, in the winter, by buds. For my years of Service, I have just been awarded a fully paid, 20 day tour of California forests with the International Dendrology Society in September. I will be with the biggest, most educated tree huggers in the world and lectured at each stop by world class writers and educators. This will be my first in person sight of these glorious Western forests. I found out 2 days ago and see this image on DU today. Pouring your heart into your job has it's rewards. We all need to see the nation's forest before they are lost to fire, insects, disease or politicians. The Kocks made fortunes in the paper industry, and have been sued many times for damaging environmentally destructed harvesting practices. Bottom line, trees take in CO2 and produce oxygen from the photosynthetic process. Also, oceans do the same, providing 52 percent of the earths oxygen from phytoplankton. Climate change introduces insects and disease to forest regions that can not fight the envasives. Greedy humans are destroying both forests and oceans at neck break speed and denying science. And we think God is gonna bless us!!!.

[Vinnie From Indy]

25. Cheers!

You deserve it!

Love the forests of Carolina!

[Traildogbob]

27. ✌🏼️

[nini]

30. I caught my typo right before i saw your post

NC has lots of trees and is beautiful. I live down in L.A. area and when I go where all I see are trees I always soak it all in. One day I hope to live around trees.

And God won't help us either. People don't want to make the sacrifices and efforts to stop this insanity.

Enjoy your tour.. It is magical up there.

[Traildogbob]

35. Thank you

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. Thanks for your dedicated service to nature and the education of our youth.

............

My dad worked timber in the central TN forests during and after the Depression. He could recognize a tree species by the wood, the bark, the leaves, the seed or even the smell of cut wood. I moved quickly away and into technology and one of my biggest regrets in life is not learning those things from him.

Best wishes on your well-deserved journey. Please return and share stories and photographs!......

[Traildogbob]

34. Thank you very much😉

I will. Plan on wearing out my camera.

[underpants]

24. Amazing.

Thanks

[snacker]

26. WOW!

What a great photo...thank you for sharing this!

[Beringia]

28. Magnificent

[highmindedhavi]

29. Avenue of the Giants

Drive through tree in Legget

[LiberalLovinLug]

31. Calling something "The President" doesn't have the same honour it used to

Another word Trump has denigrated, besides the word "trump". Which I have a hard time using now in its original context.

[Uncle Joe]

36. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Cattledog.