the worlds tallest tree today is 379.1ft It's name is Hyperion
By Jon Adsit
Redwoods are a dwindling national treasure. Due to logging and land frauds only 10% of the redwood forests still exist today. Thanks to the protection of the Save the Redwoods League and the conservation of National and State parks people can still observe the last of these ancient once plentiful giants. The Eucalyptus Regnas trees are a sad reminder of what happens to the world’s tallest trees when they are not protected, now there are almost none left of the previous worlds tallest trees.
At the beginning of the 1800’s gold was found in streams in the redwood forests. At that time the California Gold Rush was in full swing which brought thousands of people into the forests looking to make a quick fortune. Due to more people in the area things began to get more technologically advanced and people began to start cutting down the Redwoods to make a profit. Logging quickly became one of the largest businesses in the entire west coast. By the early 1900’s locomotives were emerging and replaced horses to get wood to mills faster and more efficiently. As time progressed into the 20th century the simple axe and saw were replaced with more modern steam driven saws and other more advanced machinery. Logging of the old growth redwoods has continued even to this day. Since the beginning of the 18th century there were over 2million acres of prime old growth forests, but now there is only 100,000 acres left. If someone hadn’t stepped in, the redwoods as we know them would be gone.
“Land frauds were also common as acres of prime redwood forests were transferred from the public domain to private Industry. Although some of the perpetrators were caught many thousands of acres of land were lost in land swindles.” (Redwood area history)
By the 1910’s some concerned citizens began to clamor for the preservation of the dwindling stands of redwoods. Thus the Save the Redwoods League was born in 1918 as a non-profit organization. From 1920 to 1960 they used donations and fundraisers to 100,000 acres of prime old growth redwoods from the state. Eventually the league succeeded in buying and establishing the redwood preserves of the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, Del Norte coast Redwood State Park, and the Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. “Because the trees had been linked with fossil records millions of years old, they were looked upon as living links with the past. So the urge to protect these remaining stands came not only from an aesthetic concern but rather a scientific one (Redwood area history).” In 1968 Redwood national park was created by an act of congress consisting of 58,000 acres. In 1978 the park was expanded 48,000 acres (although 39,000 acres were already logged). The expansion was to preserve the lands up the creek to also reduce sediment deposit for the salmon. The California Department of Parks and Recreation is working still working today to replace and improve this already logged landscape. So far they have removed 180 square miles of logging roads and skid trails have been removed. They also have planted 684,363 trees and have returned 26,330 acres to their natural state. These redwoods are now close to 20ft tall and are growing rapidly.
Some of the tallest trees in the world live in the Redwood National park, 3of them are over 370ft tall, including the tallest. Its name is Hyperion and it stands 379.1ft tall, which is 5ft taller than the previously tallest tree named stratosphere Giant. “Not only is the tree the tallest tree in the world, its branches are thick and its needles are lush at the top which means the tree has plenty of room to still grow.” Says Steve Sillet, the man who climbed the tree to get its exact height by using a tape measure with a weight attached “It most likely could have been 380ft tall had it not been for some slight woodpecker damage at the top (Climbing the worlds tallest tree).” Spickler measured up to a 100 meters and then measured upwards from there. The 1st stable climbable branches are twenty five stories high and the tree itself is 70ft taller than the Statue of Liberty. Only a few decades ago you would be able to find trees as tall as this to be quite common. Surprisingly it wasn’t the tallest tree in history. “The tallest tree ever properly measured was a Eucalyptus tree and was 436 feet tall. It was measured by William Ferguson on the 21st of February in 1872. Alarmingly the crown was broken off when the tree was still 1 meter thick, leading to claims that it once was up to five-hundred feet tall in one point in its lifetime (Eucalyptus Regnus).”
All around the world people agree that the Redwood Parks natural resources are absolutely irreplaceable. All of the Redwood State Parks and National Parks have been deemed World Heritage Sites and are part of the California Coast Range Biosphere Reserve. “Hundreds of thousands of people flock to the redwoods each year from all over the world to see these last remaining redwoods. Sightseers prefer not only to wander among the Giant trees of the state parks but also to admire the variety of bird species, insect species and wild herds of Roosevelt elk that still call these forests home (Redwood area history).”
Kiester Edwin Jr., writer in the Smithsonian magazine states, “At first glance California’s beautiful and lonely north coast, with its thick forests, rich pastureland, hidden valleys and spectacular surf-pounded beaches scarcely looks like a hardship case. Yet both the economic statistics and the mood in Humboldt and Del Norte counties are grim. 14% to 16% of the 9, 600 person working force was unemployed in 1992 and its average household income was 56th among the 58 different counties.” A small town named Oric in Northern California was once a thriving town and was promised in ten years or so, to have more tourists trying to visit the nearby redwoods than they could handle if they would stop logging the redwoods. But according to Pat Dorsey a former county supervisor and owner of the towns social center said, “Well the park hasn’t brought in a penny of business, the towns population went from 1,500 in 1978 to only 600 in only 14 years (1992).
Redwoods are the last great natural skyscrapers of this earth. Due to logging and land frauds the Redwoods have dwindled away. The redwoods came within a hair of becoming wiped out like the fallen Eucalyptus Regnas. Thanks to the Efforts of the Save the Redwoods League people will still be in awe and can still witness the sheer size of the ancient once plentiful giants
The Worlds Largest tree by Volume is the General Sherman it's volume was calculated to be slightly over 52.500 cubic feet (1486.6 meters).
Height above Base 274.9 83.8
Circumference at Ground 102.6 31.1
Maximum Diameter at Base 36.5 11.1
Diameter 60' (18.3 m) above base 17.5 5.3
Diameter 180' (54.9 m) above base 14.0 4.3
Diameter of Largest Branch 6.8 2.1
Height of First Large Branch above the Base 130.0 39.6
Average Crown Spread 106.5 32.5
(The little white dot and the bottom right side of the tree is a person)
