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

Terrifying images of Dinosaurs of Trees

[rsilvergun]

on the rampage in New York. I warn you, it's not for the faint of heart (or stem).

Re:Terrifying images of Dinosaurs of Trees

[alvinrod]

Dinosaur of Trees?

Jurassic Bark!

lots of bad lingo hiding interesting article.

[gurps_npc]

To de-mystify:

Scientists are planting samples of giant Californian Redwood Trees, around the world in appropriate climates.

Global warming means California is no longer the best environment for them, so they are hand picking locations where it is the best environment.

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.

Invasive Species

[cyocum]

"None of these locales are places where coastal redwoods grow naturally...". Does that not make them imported invasive species and should be removed immediately from those areas?

Re:Barrier?

[PPH]

They'd work along the northern border better

Perhaps we could plant them along the California-Oregon border. And just pull our lines back to something a bit more defensible.

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...

Obligatory pun

[TimMD909]

Jurassic Bark.