new thread
Hi guys
Thought I would post a photo taken in August of a sight unlikely to be seen again in our lifetime. The tree you are looking at is the oldest Sitka Spruce tree in North America and scientists have dated it to have been growing earlier than the arrival of Columbus in 1492. It is located within 5 miles of Cannon beach in Oregon and I have marveled at it as long as I have lived here.
Unfortunately, about 5 years or so ago the state decided to "improve things" so surrounded its tremendous root system with a walk-around platform so visitors could see the tree closer more "easily." In doing so however, the magnificent root system was now covered-up and the "Platform" detracted from the overall sight of the tree. Now suddenly the tree is dying and the platform has been partly removed due to storms of last Winter. The area is off limits now, but despite, you can see two people who managed a way around the fenced-in area. This should give you somewhat of an idea of how tall this tree is despite its top being damaged possibly centuries ago by winds or possibly lightening.
My feelings? By surrounding the tree with the platform, the needed rains for the root system were no longer able to supply the tree with water in the mannor it always had been in the past with its new "convience" man made Platform. At its age of nearly 600 years old,the normal distrubition of water was now being denied this marvel of nature. Of course nothing lives forever, and who is to know if this tree were not to start to die now anyway, but have you ever noticed how man has a way of being so much smarter (he may think) than Mother Nature in some of the things he has done which end in destruction?
This ended up being longer than I thought so guess I better put something about hair into the posting. I took the photo during my shedding period which peaks in August every year.
Justin~
It make me sad.
Di you also notice how munch mankin can be destructive even on himself ?
Cya
Yes, have I ever! It is just pathetic.
That is very sad but I agree with you nothing lives forever and it's time may have come anyway. However a 600 year old tree is
something to behold so thank you for taking the pictures.
Eventually man will go extinct most likely by his own hand, and in a few hundred million years the planet can heal itself so there's hope yet.
Kevin
Oddly enough, I have very similar sentiments re. if we ever have a neuclear holocaust. If it ever does happen, and all of humankind is destroyed... I take comfort in the thought that maybe a sparse few plants and/or animal or insect life will survive, and over time (a HELL OF A LOT, mind you - lol), the Earth will have a chance to renew itself and heal. It's a terrible thought to have to express that much doubt and distrust in our own human species; but, unfortunately, human history is packed-full of good examples that warrant such distrust.
- Ken
Hi Justin,
I never knew Sitka Spruces could grow that tall, --- looks just like the majestic Coast Redwood trees we have here in No. Calif.! Yes, "man-made" unfortunately often ends up being, "mistake-made"... such a shame.
I got a kick out of your last paragraph, though...
Lol!! But, the burning question that remains on everyone's mind is: on the day you took this pic, was it a good hair day, or a "bad hair day" (lol)??
- Ken
Hey Ken
Ha Ha Ha-
Twas one of the best "shedding hair days of all" meaning one of the worst "bad tangles and knots days of all." Shortly afterwords I was driven to HAVE to get a trim and it took about 45 minutes for a specialist to "try" and get out the knots. Can you imagine? So, right now my hair is cut just above waist level. By Dec. or Jan. it should be back...........and there it will remain with trims from now on to keep it right at that length. Below by about 4" = terminal which further added to the Good Shedding Good Tangles and Knots day. Now, how's that for some confusing reading. LOL
Summary: It was a Hair Day. :-)
It's pretty sad. I don't think they're completely related though.
I saw another really old tree when I was in South Carolina a few months ago named the 'Angel Oak'.
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/alternatives/images/angelOak.jpg
It's also debated as being one of the oldest. The difference with the Angel Oak is that human intervention HAS done it a lot of good. Had they not added support beams to its massive branches, the tree would have toppled over long ago.
There's also a huge historical old Oak tree in Princeton, NJ. I lived and worked there briefly between '74 - '75. I don't have a scanner; but next time I go over to Bill's house I'll ask if I can scan a pic of it that I took with my Instamatic. In the fall of '75 (or maybe it was '74), a storm caused some of its majestic main branches to break off, --- and then they rigged a support for the remaining branches after that. Not sure if the tree is still actually alive anymore, as I haven't visited the East Coast in over 18 years; but, supposedly George Washington slept under it... It is all by itself in a wide-open grassy field, and was an incredible sight to behold!
- Ken
died. I read up on it. A bad wind storm in 2000 split it open and killed it.
Scott
I'm not surprised that tree died, Scott. Fortunately, I have several pics i took of that tree the year before the first wind storm (in fall of '74, I think) damaged a big chunk of it. I was only 19 at the time, --- and I have a couple of Instamatic pics of me taken by a friend of mine in front of it a few months before, in summer! I'll try and remember to bring those pics over to Bill's house the next time I know for sure we'll all be over there.
- Ken
There is a tree in Austin Tx called Treaty Oak that was poisoned in 1989.It survived but is a shadow of it's former glory.There is a large live oak outside my kitchen window.Had a tree surgeon tell me it may be 400 years old.It was struck by lightning a long time ago.
Arrick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_Oak_(Austin,_Texas)
You know, I really shouldn't chuckle, but coming originaly from New England, stories of Washington were in great abundance when I was younger...........and very often in the Antique shops! He either sat on it, slept on it, tripped over it, crashed into it, layed beside it, once owned it, hid in it, ate off that very plate, actually looked at it, gave it as a gift, or was the one responsible (by accident of course) of dropping and breaking the glued-back together tumbler. OMG.............how did he ever have time to be our 1st President? LOL
Justin~
Hi Justin,
It is genuinely distressing to hear about the way that Nature's greatest wonders have been affected by man's unwanted meddling. These trees are truly majestic, and the thought that we are losing something that has been around since before Christopher Columbus sailed to America is really sad. Perhaps one day, more people will recognize the feeling of peace and harmony that Nature brings to us all.
Thank you for posting this, Justin, and take care,
David
Hi Justin,
Thanks for highlighting that and it's a great shame but then again I suppose everything on this planet has it own life cycle and it's something that you really can't cheat at.
We wish we had some thing that old over here but I don't think we do as far as trees go.
Cheers,
John.B
Hi John,
Actually your Britannic Isle holds trees older than that Sitka spruce. The Fortingall Yew up in Perthshire, Scotland is estimated to be around 2000 years old. The trees as you probably know don't get that big, so a very old yew tree does not seem nearly as imposing as a spruce or some other tree. Also, the Kongeegen (King's Oak) in Denmark is estimated to be around a thousand years old too. Also, the Major Oak in Nottinghamshire is probably around 800-1000 years old as well.
You know, the English always made their long bows out of yew wood, and the story goes that after the English won at Agincourt in 1415 that they were waving their middle fingers at the French saying that "We can still pluck yew!" The English just kept on saying "pluck yew!" Some think that over time the "pl" changed to the "f" sound to give us one of our favorite expeletives in the English language in combination with the waving of the middle finger.
HA!
Reminds me of Maryland's famous white oak tree, that finally died in 2002. It may have indeed just been the Spruce tree's time. It's hard to say whether the platform hastened it's death, or not. What is a problem, is modern man's actions of deforestation, in order to meet consumer demands for byproducts, and open up more land for developement.
10 years ago, the town I lived in, successfully fought efforts to put a ski resort in the mountain (part of the Blue Ridge chain) outside of town. It was ugly, the trees were being uprooted for ski slopes, and disfigured the mountain. When the resort people lost support, and pulled out, the county made the land a conservation zone. The Nature Conservancy was brought in, using grant money, for three years, to re-introduce native plant life, and plant new trees. The ugly scars of ski slope lines, have gradually filled in with vegetation. Plus, the Nature Conservancy catalogued and identified several species of rare flora in the area. Flora on the verge of extinction.
Today, the mountain looks beautiful, once again, and native species are flourishing. Lynx, bear, and deer inhabit the conservation lands owned by Frederick County and the adjoining Mt St Mary's University and Seminary. The University operates and oversees a beautiful natural grotto with spring, part way up the mountain. The grotto has been turned into a religious shrine, but is also a nature resort, complete with natural hiking trails for adventuresome mountain climbers. Students and seminarians volunteer to maintain the grounds, and all plants and shrubbery were carefully selected for the shrine, so as not to invade and shut out native species.
We needed a ski resort (with all the increasing traffic) like we needed holes in our head. Had the resort owners won, I shudder to think of all the native vegetation that would have been destroyed. And to make this hair related; just as the thin deforested areas of the mountain are filling it with new growth, so is the thin crown of my head filling in with new hair, after my bout with thyroiditis last summer.
Carol
Carol, thank you so much for that link. My grandmother in Montgomery County has one of those trees grown from the Wye Oak so the history interests me. It felt like a bit of home reading about Frederick in your post, my family has roots there. Let me know if I can thank you for the warm fuzzy memories you brought back by sending you a second-generation Wye acorn next time I visit in the right season.
Elizabeth
That bit about men causing destruction because they think they're smarter than nature... that explains all of mankind, imo. Heh.
It's sad that someone chose to do something as stupid as surround the tree with platforms. I'm sure my dad (who is an arborist) would agree that that's horrible as well.
Justin, thank you for having posted your deep, conscientious, well-crafted essay (yes, I said essay) on the plight o/t Sitka spruce. It literally racked me with physical pain hearin' of this horrid inhumane, thoughtless treatment of this magnificent, centuries-old evergreen. Then again, for some reason or other, I have a longterm abiding affinity for these life forms and all of the plant kingdom.
Once, over three decades past, I had a minor epiphany. In it, I perceived trees quite similar in look to the branching alveoli of our respiratory system, the capillaries, veins, and arteries of our circulatory system, as well as the sprawling miles of neurons and dendrites comprising our brain and nervous system. Mightn't trees themselves serve a somewhat similar function for the Earth itself? Something ELSE to ponder over.
Oh! I better keep this hair-related, too! Uhm, uh, well, I'm gonna post a pic in a couple more weeks. By then my hair and beard'll reach a length I'll be more 'an happy to share here on the board.
Thanks again for posting that piece on the Sitka spruce. At least I can boast that I still have feelings; it accelerated a pounding in my chest and brought a tear to my eye, not to deny that other pain, physical AND spiritual.
Yours in longhaired camaraderie AND stewardship of Nature,
Quenyan
"Saoirse agus Anam!"
