From: Jack Fulton (jfulton@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Date: 04/16/02-08:53:16 AM Z
Actually Bob Schramm's nice homely anecdote got me going here . but, both
Shannon and Judy (particularly her NEW back yard light) led me into the
following
>>> As Ronald Reagan said, "You've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."
>>> --shannon
> Actually I don't recall him saying that... if so, he got it from me. But
> that's not the reason for protecting redwoods (what they look like,
> because even their own mother couldn't tell them apart), it's their age --
> like we protect senior citizens. Either way, I would not want one in my
> tiny city yard.
> Judy
We protect the Redwoods, yes, because of their age but also due to their
size. There are 2 types of Redwood. One is, here where I live, on the foggy
coastal area of California called Sequoia Semperviren and gets up over 350'
tall. There are a number of youngsters in our neighborhood. Muir Woods
(where the UN was dedicated) is nearby. They used to cover a large portion
of the San Francisco Bay Area but were cut for homes, foundations and
paneling. There are only a few virgin areas left.
The others are the Sequoiadendron Gigantea, of which, the most famous is
the General Grant or the so-called 'Nation's Christmas Tree.' It's something
like 30 feet in diameter and maybe 275 high.
All these trees reside in isolated pockets and if that were not so would
be cut down. If it had not been for their sheer size and bulk they would not
be here today. When first felled they'd break into large splinters rendering
them useless, so they weren't really logged until about 100 years ago.
Two asides . . Sequoia is the name given to Chief Dragging Canoe of the
Cherokee. He invented the first Native American alphabet and disappeared in
northern Mexico trying to find a lost band of Cherokee. Due to his
disappearance, botanists named the large California tree in his name.
The other aside is that trees do hold magical properties. The oak was
observed in Britain to have more strikes by lightning than the beech or
other trees. Therefore mistletoe became important as it lived separately in
the oak and was thought to be caused by lightning. The oak's juices tanned
leather and the oak gall led us to . . pyrogallic acid: a tanning developer.
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