Arborists Are Bringing the 'Dinosaur of Trees' Back To Life (qz.com)

Arborists are cloning saplings from the stumps of the world's largest, strongest, and longest-lived trees -- felled for timber more than a century ago -- to create redwood "super groves" that can help fight climate change. "Using saplings made from the basal sprouts of these super trees to plant new groves in temperate countries around the world means the growths have a better chance than most to become giants themselves," reports Quartz. "Their ancestors grew up to 400 ft (122 m) tall and to 35 ft in diameter, after all, larger than the largest living redwood today, a giant sequoia in California's Sequoia National Park." From the report: Already, super saplings from the project are thriving in groves in Canada, England, Wales, France, New Zealand, and Australia. None of these locales are places where coastal redwoods grow naturally, but they all have cool temperatures and sufficient fog for the redwoods, which drink moisture from the air in summer rather than relying on rain. [David Milarch, founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a U.S. nonprofit that propagates the world's largest trees] calls this "assisted migration." Last month, his organization planted another such grove in the Presidio in San Francisco, California. The park lies along the U.S. west's redwood corridor, which runs from Oregon to California, home to the stumps the saplings were cloned from. But 95% of giant growths there were cut long ago. Many of the redwoods along the corridor now are young trees. Milarch notes that as the local climate is getting hotter and less foggy, it's no longer as conducive to producing the mega growths of yore. Now, 75 saplings created from the basal sprouts of the most rugged and massive ancient tree stumps of the coastal region will grow in the Presidio. They may eventually become the hardiest and tallest trees around, if their ancestors are any indication.

Comments

More forests are good.

[Kernel Kurtz]

The particular trees are less important.

No.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because redwoods actually require forest fires to properly open their pine cones. Without that heating the majority of the seeds will never properly germinate or be released from the cones, causing them to be eaten, decomposed, or be outcompeted long before they can become a threat to local flora.

Having said that, my real question is: 'Why aren't they selling cuttings of these in their store for local restoration in central/eastern California. You know, the NATURAL RANGE for Redwoods/Giant Sequoias? Personally I've got a coast redwood growing at home, as do the few people up in the foothills with their own redwoods. While not IMPOSSIBLE to find, the supply of giant sequoia and sierra redwood varieties are not the easiest to find. Coast redwoods, while seeds from the largest specimens might be difficult, are readily available in most nurseries around the state, and are very common in certain cities across the state.

Um..something isn't right.

[mark_reh]

They take 3-4k years to grow, and from what I've seen of sequoia trees, they have few branches and few needles to photosynthesize CO2. Surely smaller. faster growing, more leaf/needle sprouting plants such as bamboo would be faster at sucking up CO2.

It's nice that someone is planning for after we're gone...

Re:Um..something isn't right.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I think you're off by a bit there. Redwoods grow a few feet per year, some varieties as much as six feet. It may take 100+ years to grow a 400 foot tall redwood. It's more likely these will grow for less than 100 years and top out at 90 feet, which is what typically happens when redwoods are cultivated.

To create a biological carbon sink, you need plants that will live for a long time and resist decay. Bamboo grows fast, but sequesters carbon for a decade or two. Trees like redwoods sequester carbon for many centuries. The result is that boreal forests (including redwoods) capture much more carbon than other ecosystems.

Re:lots of bad lingo hiding interesting article.

[skam240]

I'm not saying you're wrong but redwoods do have an impressive trait or two beyond height. The same bark that requires exposure to moist air also makes them mostly fire retardant. At least in the context of the type of fire present in wild fires.