Author Topic: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next  (Read 2833 times)

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Online Pandora

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Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« on: November 05, 2011, 07:25:03 PM »
Along the Sierra Nevada's famed Trail of 100 Giants, the mammoth sequoia had stood sentry since King Arthur's knights gathered at the Round Table.

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It witnessed the arrival of the first European settlers and the flurry of miners in search of gold. The onset of the Medieval Warm Period and the passing of the Little Ice Age. It stood, unperturbed, through the Great War and the one that followed.

Then a month ago, as a handful of amazed tourists looked on, it toppled — crushing a bridge over a small stream and blocking the path.

Now, the U.S. Forest Service must decide what to do.

Slice a big hole in the 300-foot-long roadblock? Go around it? Over it? Under it?

When you're dealing with a 1,500-year-old sequoia in a national monument, the questions aren't just logistical. They're environmental, emotive and potentially legal.

 ::ohno::

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Officials closed the popular tourist trail, cleared the debris and solicited ideas from the public on how to deal with the fallen giant — actually two trees fused at the base.

Among the 30 or so suggestions: Reroute the trail. Tunnel under the trunks. Carve steps and build a bridge over them. Sell what would be one heck of a lot of firewood.

"This has not happened in the Sequoia National Forest before," said public affairs officer Denise Alonzo, explaining the indecision.

The now-prone twins — two-thirds the height of Los Angeles City Hall — were among the bigger specimens in Long Meadow Grove, part of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. About 17 feet in diameter at their common base, the trees are middle-aged for giant sequoias, which can live 4,000 years and have the greatest mass of any living organism on Earth.

The Forest Service isn't sure why the trees hit the dirt Sept. 30, because they appeared to be healthy.

A German tourist, one of only a few people on the 1.3-mile loop trail at the time, recorded the crash on video.

"It can't be possible," Gerrit Panzner told the Visalia Times about what went through his mind when he realized the sequoias were falling.

"I wasn't afraid," said his wife, Sigrun Rakus. Her only thought was to get out of the way.

The trees may have toppled because the wet winter left the ground too soggy to hold the roots, which are relatively shallow.

"Sequoias do fall. That's how big sequoias die," said Nathan Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey. "It's never anything that I consider with alarm."

After a wet winter in 1969, he said, one of the giants fell in a picnic area of nearby Sequoia National Park and killed a woman. Over the years, there have been a couple that thudded onto trails in the park. Officials cut openings in the downed trees to allow visitors to pass through, as well as to give tourists an appreciation for their immense size.

When the Trail of 100 Giants was built several decades ago, it actually was routed around a long-fallen sequoia.

Since the Forest Service reopened the path a week ago, visitors have been climbing on the hulking trunks and treading where only birds and animals have been for more than a millennium.

"We got up there and everybody was just in awe of what was in front of them," Alonzo said. "And until the snow falls, it's open for anybody to go up and visit."

In considering its options, the Forest Service wants to keep the paved path accessible to the disabled and make sure nothing is done to damage the root systems of surrounding trees, Alonzo said.

Ara Marderosian, executive director of the environmental group Sequoia ForestKeeper, knows exactly what the Forest Service should do.

Nothing.

"I thought it was a great classroom for what nature does," said Marderosian, who submitted a three-page letter to the agency after visiting the grove. "It's quite a beautiful sight to see on the ground the way it is."

My enthusiasm for old trees, and just trees in general, has been soured what with the unnatural attachment by envirowhackos to what is essentially just another plant.  Trees have life-spans, like everything else, and time was up for these, despite how long the "experts" have decided they "can" live.

I say to cut away the section laying on the path -- achieving very important max wheelchair-accessibility -- and feature it as an opportunity to ... count the rings.

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

Offline John Florida

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2011, 08:00:40 PM »
  Cut it into boards kiln dry it till it 8/10 % moisture fine sant till it's smooth as a baby's bottom and protect it with a fine hand rubbed Tung oil finnish and throw it in the damned fire place.


   It's a dead tree next case.
All men are created equal"
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charlesoakwood

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2011, 08:28:00 PM »

Sell the wood to a marketer of fine wood. 
Status will be back in fashion soon.

"My house was framed with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rifle stock was made with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rocking chair was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My cuckoo clock was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."


Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2011, 09:04:37 PM »

Sell the wood to a marketer of fine wood. 
Status will be back in fashion soon.

"My house was framed with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rifle stock was made with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rocking chair was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My cuckoo clock was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."



Yep.

Musical instruments.

When you think of all the foolishness surrounding Gibson Guitars and importing materials (yea, I know - they're in trouble for importing ebony, not spruce) I would think that the Forest Service could auction off some of the wood to defray expenses and everyone comes out a winner.

(well, except for the eco-nazi's - but then I don't gad if they're happy or not  ;)

Offline trapeze

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2011, 12:40:13 AM »
I need a new deck.
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Online IronDioPriest

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2011, 01:17:50 AM »
Quote
"When you're dealing with a 1,500-year-old sequoia in a national monument, the questions aren't just logistical. They're environmental, emotive and potentially legal."

Only if you're a complete frikking moron. The merest application of common sense could eliminate the angst.

Guess what? Some day, every single one of those trees will be DEAD! (I just made an environazi fatwa list)

Emotional Hippies Cry Over Dead Trees
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline trapeze

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2011, 01:25:55 AM »
Cue Elton John and "The Circle of Life"
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline Sectionhand

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2011, 08:00:04 AM »

I say to cut away the section laying on the path -- achieving very important max wheelchair-accessibility -- and feature it as an opportunity to ... count the rings.

They should do the same thing with Andy Rooney .

Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2011, 08:07:46 AM »
Did anyone hear it?

Offline John Florida

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2011, 08:54:45 AM »

I say to cut away the section laying on the path -- achieving very important max wheelchair-accessibility -- and feature it as an opportunity to ... count the rings.

They should do the same thing with Andy Rooney .

My friend, YOU, are on a ROLL!
 ::hysterical::
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline Damn_Lucky

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2011, 02:24:31 PM »
  Cut it into boards kiln dry it till it 8/10 % moisture fine sant till it's smooth as a baby's bottom and protect it with a fine hand rubbed Tung oil finnish and throw it in the damned fire place.


   It's a dead tree next case.
::hysterical::
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves - Edward R. Murrow

Offline Libertas

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2011, 03:42:52 PM »

Sell the wood to a marketer of fine wood. 
Status will be back in fashion soon.

"My house was framed with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rifle stock was made with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rocking chair was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My cuckoo clock was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."



"My new sh*thouse at the lake is made with billion year old sequoia tree wood"!

 ::whoohoo::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline John Florida

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2011, 04:44:34 PM »

Sell the wood to a marketer of fine wood. 
Status will be back in fashion soon.

"My house was framed with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rifle stock was made with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My rocking chair was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."
"My cuckoo clock was built with billion year old sequoia tree wood."



"My new sh*thouse at the lake is made with billion year old sequoia tree wood"!

 ::whoohoo::

 Hope it all works out for you.
All men are created equal"
 Filippo Mazzie

Offline Libertas

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Re: Giant sequoias fall, raising questions about what to do next
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2011, 04:46:03 PM »
Heh, JF made a funny!

 ;D
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.