Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Big, Big Tree.

I had the morning off from work so I grabbed the opportunity to head up to see some redwoods and measure a few of the giants. The grove was impressive.
 This ancient burned out tree measured in with a rough estimate of a circumference of 48 feet, 9 inches. It's pretty common for some redwoods to be completely hollow on the inside bottom. I think fire is the main contributor to this occurrence. You can see just how different the tree can look from different angles. (first two pictures).

I noticed several tags on different trees in the grove. I have to wonder if they are part of a climate change study by Steve Sillet and his crew. My goal today was to measure the giant by the boardwalk.
 When I saw it, I was pretty certain it was going to be a personal record breaker. There is a giant knob growing out of the side nearest to the boardwalk so I took two measurements, one above, and one below the knob. Sure enough, the "Boardwalk Giant" now holds the record for the largest circumference I've measured so far!
 I also measured the largest Douglas Fir to date with a circumference of 17 feet, 9 inches. It was extremely cold in the grove today, the earth was frozen in many areas. The rains are coming soon...

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