I think he¹s right. I believe in the 300-footer. Maybe part of our
resistance to believing is our incredible sadness that we weren¹t there to
see it.
--
Carolyn Summers
63 Ferndale Drive
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
914-478-5712
From: "Miles, Dan" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:40:00 -0500
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Conversation: A Large Tree article in 1849
Subject: [ENTS] A Large Tree article in 1849
ENTS-
This article reminds me of the story of a 400 ft. tall Douglas-fir cut down
in Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. I thought this was a tall
tale told by my grandfather until I did a little research and just found out
it was probably true. Even for a Doug Fir (extraordinary specimens still
grow to 300 ft.) a hundred feet taller seems incredible by today¹s
standards, though there are still thousands of acres of virgin, old-growth
forest in the Pacific Northwest, as I can attest to from personal
experience. However, little of it is on fertile soil in protected
valleys. Before millions of acres of the best tree-growing land was
taken, perhaps one in a billion ancient firs grew to 400 ft., whether by
genetic potential, conditions, or pure chance. That isn¹t likely to happen
again.
As for New England¹s white pine country, surely we will never know how
fertile the best soil was, as it was the first to be exploited and degraded
centuries ago, along with the taking of all of the best pines. How then can
we evaluate the possibility of a 300 ft. pine based on incomparable current
conditions and populations, and on a few unreliable records? How many
ancient eastern white pines are there left growing under ideal conditions
on which to base a comparison? I think none. I vote that one-in-a-billion
300 ft. tall eastern white pines once lived!
Now follow this link:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_tall_can_a_Douglas-fir_grow
and you¹ll see reliable-looking records for several Douglas-firs over 400
ft. tall cut down as late as the 1920¹s.
Dan Miles
--
Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
Send email to [email protected]
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--
Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
Send email to [email protected]
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
