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August 25, 2012 - Redwood
Yesterday, we went on a little family hike through the redwoods.
I love being in the presence of these giants. They exude such peace, calm and beauty.
To walk into a Redwood forest is to enter nature’s cathedral.
Reaching heights of up to 360 feet (100+ meters), redwoods are also known for their longevity, typically 500 – 1000 years, but sometimes more than 2000 years.
Plus, they are the fastest growing trees in the world. They can often grow 30 feet (10 meters) in the first 20 years.
| We can feel in the Redwood essence the qualities of verticality and reaching upward for the light that we observe in the tree. This is a plant of tremendous physical vitality, rapid and massive growth, gravity-defying in its ability to lift water to the heights of its crown, and support not only its own abundant life, but the life of many other species. With its ability to lift matter from the dark density of the earth into the uplifted light-filled heights, the Redwood is a celebration of the stature and majesty of physical incarnation and creation. |
Trilby Saturday Aug 25 01:06 PM
I love trees. I draw them all the time. I don't know what that means or why I do it but I love to draw them. They must give off negative ions like waterfalls do - when I am in Maine surrounded by pines ("conifers"!) and water and quartz, I feel so....peaceful and alive in a really soft and quiet way.
footfootfoot Saturday Aug 25 01:42 PM
I love seahorses, and sea shells, and lighthouses...
Gravdigr Saturday Aug 25 06:28 PM
Trilby Sunday Aug 26 06:43 AM
go ahead : make fun.
the fairies will come and eat your eyes out.
CaliforniaMama Sunday Aug 26 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Brianna
I love trees. I draw them all the time. I don't know what that means or why I do it but I love to draw them. They must give off negative ions like waterfalls do - when I am in Maine surrounded by pines ("conifers"!) and water and quartz, I feel so....peaceful and alive in a really soft and quiet way.
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You've reminded me that my first "real" drawing was of pine trees in a neighborhood park. One of the trees was leaning very far to the left, almost falling over. I was so fascinated by the pattern of the straight trees with one leaning to the side like a slash mark. It was that way as long as I can remember until I went back as an adult. The tree was gone. Probably felled by a storm. That's how it usually goes with those trees and their shallow roots.
I once found a dead cat in those woods. The top side was like a dried hide with fur intact . . .
CaliforniaMama Sunday Aug 26 10:21 AM
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Originally Posted by footfootfoot
I love seahorses, and sea shells, and lighthouses...
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Trilby Sunday Aug 26 10:51 AM
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Originally Posted by footfootfoot
I love seahorses, and sea shells, and lighthouses...
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Coz then you'd be my dream man!
newtimer Sunday Aug 26 11:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Gravdigr
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_f98qOGY0
CaliforniaMama Sunday Aug 26 12:40 PM
| A redwood cone is the size of an olive. Each cone contains 60 to 120 seeds. One tree may produce 10 million seeds but only a few will reach maturity. If a seed settles in just the right place it may grow into a tree that will live more than 2,000 years. |
I love this vintage pic of one of the biggest attractions along the Avenue of the Giants - a long stretch of old highway that features many roadside redwood tree attractions and/or exhibits. Another favorite is a room in the base of a huge redwood tree.
| Did you know? While oceans contain most of Earth's carbon, about half stored on land in Redwood National and State Parks is in soils. The amount of carbon in the upper two meters of soil alone is ~14 million metric tons. That's equal to 1% of total U.S. emission in a year! |
Gravdigr Sunday Aug 26 02:13 PM
30,000 board feet of lumber did NOT come out of the hole in that tree.
ETA: 30,000 board feet of lumber MIGHT have came out of the hole in that tree.
Gravdigr Sunday Aug 26 02:25 PM
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Originally Posted by newtimer
Boom-de-yadda!
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footfootfoot Sunday Aug 26 08:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Gravdigr
30,000 board feet of lumber did NOT come out of the hole in that tree.
ETA: 30,000 board feet of lumber MIGHT have came out of the hole in that tree. |
12 board feet = 1 cubic foot
30,000 board feet = 2,500 cubic feet
Cube root of 2,500 = 13.6' (approximately)
That hole looks easily 13' x 13' x 13'.
Trust me, I know from feet.
xoxoxoBruce Monday Aug 27 02:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Brianna
I love trees. I draw them all the time.
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Hmm, and that paper came from... cutting down trees.
Trilby Monday Aug 27 07:22 AM
I draw them with pencil on paper. (I have a serious notebook problem).
yes - I'm killing trees and then taunting them by drawing what they used to be.
I'm pretty evil that way. 
footfootfoot Monday Aug 27 09:44 AM
Paper comes from crop trees, not virgin timber. Just like carrots, planted and harvested.
DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
You've got to fight the power!
Fight the power!
Fight the powerful Trees!
Redwoods they are a hero to most,
But they never meant shit to me.
The suckers are racist, straight up and plain,
Motherfuck them and end grain.
Adak Monday Aug 27 06:03 PM
Very huge and majestic. What most folk don't realize is that a mature Redwood forest like this, will support very few plants and animals. Once the Redwood tree's start blocking out the sunlight, and contaminating the forest floor with it's dead needle litter (which prevents nearly all species from germinating). The forest animals have to move on. Their food can't grow there, anymore.
It's more appropriate to say it's "quiet as a graveyard", instead of "quiet as a cathedral", in a mature Redwood forest.
xoxoxoBruce Tuesday Aug 28 01:59 PM
And their root system is very shallow, no culture at all. 
BigV Tuesday Aug 28 03:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Brianna
snip-- With NO SAFETY?--snip
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ZenGum Tuesday Aug 28 10:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Adak
Very huge and majestic. What most folk don't realize is that a mature Redwood forest like this, will support very few plants and animals. Once the Redwood tree's start blocking out the sunlight, and contaminating the forest floor with it's dead needle litter (which prevents nearly all species from germinating). The forest animals have to move on. Their food can't grow there, anymore.
It's more appropriate to say it's "quiet as a graveyard", instead of "quiet as a cathedral", in a mature Redwood forest. |
footfootfoot Tuesday Aug 28 11:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Brianna
And dungeon S & M play? With NO SAFETY?
Coz then you'd be my dream man! |
Beat me, bite me, hurt me. Make me write bad checks.
Adak Wednesday Aug 29 01:53 AM
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Originally Posted by ZenGum
There's plenty of life going on up in the canopy.
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The "Wonderful world of the mature redwood forest" crap you hear from the ecologists, is just that -- crap.
Ranks right up there with "let's spend our way out of debt".
SPUCK Wednesday Aug 29 06:29 AM
The only tree on my property besides an orange tree is a 180ft redwood. It's about 10 foot in diameter. Talk about crapping all over the place! It dumps about two truckloads of debris year.
Then there's the pollen.. It's a shit storm of pollen for about a month. It cakes on things and if you think you don't have hay-fever just live under one of these babies for that month.
Oh oh then there are the seed months. They're in the winter. The tree casts them babies everywhere in about a 120 foot radius. The small little brown seeds leave insane dark purple puddles around them as soon as the dew or mist shows up. It's like it was designed to obliterate car paint.
Then there's the cast off limbs. You know the ones that are about 3 inches in diameter and you find them stuck in your lawn about a foot and a half deep like some javelin hurled from the sky.
All this layered over the fear that tree evokes in a big storm. Lone. 18 feet from the house....
It is beautiful though. Several raccoons and a family of squirrels live in the multi-ton balls of caught-and-piled-up debris balls scattered about in its limbs. Often hawks sit on the top terrorizing the chickens.
ZenGum Wednesday Aug 29 09:14 AM
Now, I do like trees, and I like houses too, but this...
| 18 feet from the house.... |
Adak, note as SPUCK says, the critturs living in the canopy. I'll bet there's all sorts of bugs, and birds that eat the bugs, and parasitic plants and stuff up there.
Gravdigr Wednesday Aug 29 04:49 PM
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Originally Posted by Adak
Very huge and majestic. What most folk don't realize is that a mature Redwood forest like this, will support very few plants and animals. Once the Redwood tree's start blocking out the sunlight, and contaminating the forest floor with it's dead needle litter (which prevents nearly all species from germinating). The forest animals have to move on. Their food can't grow there, anymore.
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"The Trees"
by Rush There is unrest in the forest There is trouble with the trees For the maples want more sunlight And the oaks ignore their pleas The trouble with the maples (And they're quite convinced they're right) They say the oaks are just too lofty And they grab up all the light But the oaks can't help their feelings If they like the way they're made And they wonder why the maples Can't be happy in their shade There is trouble in the forest And the creatures all have fled As the maples scream 'Oppression!' And the oaks just shake their heads So the maples formed a union And demanded equal rights 'The oaks are just too greedy We will make them give us light' Now there's no more oak oppression For they passed a noble law And the trees are all kept equal By hatchet, axe and saw |
Happy Monkey Wednesday Aug 29 04:55 PM
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Originally Posted by ZenGum
There's plenty of life going on up in the canopy.
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xoxoxoBruce Thursday Aug 30 01:22 AM
| One important animal that lives in the redwood forest canopy is the Clouded Salamander... snip |
footfootfoot Thursday Aug 30 10:05 PM
You neglect the Pacific Tree Octopus
Happy Monkey Thursday Aug 30 10:08 PM
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Originally Posted by ZenGum
There's plenty of life going on up in the canopy.
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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
Neither that article, nor any others I can find, tell why this thing is important. Hyperbole I guess.
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xoxoxoBruce Thursday Aug 30 11:48 PM
That still doesn't say why the Clouded Salamander is "important".
Adak Friday Aug 31 07:48 AM
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Originally Posted by ZenGum
Adak, note as SPUCK says, the critturs living in the canopy. I'll bet there's all sorts of bugs, and birds that eat the bugs, and parasitic plants and stuff up there. |
Anything to distract us from the problems we should be dealing with:
1) We're spending $58,000 PER SECOND, MORE than we are bringing in. You can tax the rich until they're butt naked and you won't put a dent into that degree of spending!
2) They have had NO budget that even ONE senator OR representative would vote for, for three years now.
3) All the jobs they've created -- don't begin to match the number of jobs they have destroyed, that you never hear ONE WORD about. This is the worst recovery in US history. According to the bi-partisan budget office, the middle class has lost 40% of their wealth, mostly from the collapse of the housing market.
Yes, there is life in the canopy of the mature redwood forest. Life is always trying to use every niche in nature.
But the AMOUNT of life in a mature redwood forest, is pitifully small, compared to the life you'd find in a non-conifer forest - especially a forest with some open meadows here and there.
I was watching a "reality" series on survival by an expert, who made the silly mistake of going into a Canadian mature conifer forest. These have more life than mature redwood forests, but not much more.
First day, he killed and ate a porcupine. He couldn't kill the moose he saw that week, (feeding in the lake), so that was the end of his meat. After that, his meals were fish from the nearby lake for breakfast, fish for lunch, and fish for dinner. A few bugs too, but not much.
By the third week, he had become seriously depressed, had lost a boatload of weight, and his heart had slowed down so much, a doctor told him he should quit - which he gladly did.
End of TV series.
Just think about it -
Plants require sunlight for photosynthesis. Redwoods block nearly all direct sunlight from reaching the ground. Redwood duff spoils the ground for nearly all plants - first by providing a further sun block, and second by chemically poisoning the soil so most seeds can't germinate and grow.
Animals like deer, birds, most mammals, require a number of plants to be around them, because the plants or their fruit (berries), become edible only during certain times of the year.
Carnivores require these herbivores, etc., in order to survive. Without a lot of them, most of the carnivores must move on, or die.
You'll see a lot of this "Redwood forests are oh so great!", type of writing. But understand that when the agenda is to promote "something", then savvy writers learn they need to write "something" that fits that agenda, or they'll be writing very little.
[editorial soapbox]
It's like "Climate change". If your research supports man made climate change, you will be funded (most likely), and your papers will be reported in major news or research magazines, and quoted in books and on the net.
If your research does NOT support man made climate change, you will NOT (most likely), be funded, and your papers will NOT be reported in the majority of the major news or research magazines, or quoted in books, or on the net. The value of the science you did will not matter - you simply do NOT fit into the agenda that is now popular.
I never thought I would live to see the day that our media outlets, would be so careless with the truth, so manipulative to make their story line up with what they perceive to be a "popular framework".
The facts don't matter as much as the framework for what's being reported/published/etc.
One example: the Yahoo Washington bureau new chief, had this to say (he thought his mic was off), just before starting his broadcast of the RNC convention:
"Yahoo News has fired its Washington bureau chief, after he was caught on a microphone saying Mitt Romney and his wife were “happy to have a party with black people drowning.” (referring to Hurricane Isaac hitting Mississippi and Louisiana)
| Company spokeswoman Anne Espiritu said Wednesday that David Chalian’s remark was inappropriate and does not represent Yahoo’s views. She says Yahoo is apologizing to the Republican presidential candidate and his supporters, and has reached out to the campaign to convey the message. |
[end of editorial]
glatt Friday Aug 31 08:28 AM
Wow. That was kind of random.
"Redwood forests are barren, and the Democrats SUCK!" I love election years.
So I can see what you're saying about the Redwood forests being relatively barren, but they are only very thin strips along the coasts. So if a deer wanders into one, it only has to go 10 miles East to get out of it again. And they are nothing like anything else in the world, and take thousands of years to grow, so they are extremely important.
I think they should be protected. My kids have seen them, but I think it would be cool if my future grand kids got to see them too.
Adak Friday Aug 31 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by glatt
Wow. That was kind of random.
"Redwood forests are barren, and the Democrats SUCK!" I love election years. So I can see what you're saying about the Redwood forests being relatively barren, but they are only very thin strips along the coasts. So if a deer wanders into one, it only has to go 10 miles East to get out of it again. And they are nothing like anything else in the world, and take thousands of years to grow, so they are extremely important. I think they should be protected. My kids have seen them, but I think it would be cool if my future grand kids got to see them too. |
Because of the logging (many years ago), and roads and trails and such that have been cut into them, it isn't as bad as it would be, if we left it all alone. There are even some deer that regularly invade the fringes of them.
If you love the out of doors, you'll swear you're in heaven walking or running through the redwood forests. So beautiful!
Don't worry - the big tree's will be there, waiting for your grand kids
.Sundae Friday Aug 31 05:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Adak
Oh, I can do random!
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Adak Saturday Sep 1 05:11 AM
It's a shame our democrats only allowed GM dealers to be closed from the dealers who were NOT democratic party donors. (All but one, and he was Black).
It's a shame Obama's supporting his buddies (Soros), oil drilling efforts off the coast of Brazil to the tune of 200 Billion dollars, but has been painfully slow to allow OUR oil drilling contracts off of Louisiana, to proceed. And of course, he won't approve the Keystone pipeline, even though it would secure us oil from friendly Canada, and provide immediate high paying jobs.
It's a shame that Obama health care bill had to be voted on before we had a chance to study it -- or even read it. Now that's it's been studied, the country's biggest employers are nearly all getting their exemptions from it!
And last but not least, it's a shame you waste your time trying to be a Grammar Nazi on the forum, and fail to complete your ONLY sentence in the post.
xoxoxoBruce Monday Sep 3 03:37 PM
It's a shame we EXPORTED more oil than we imported last year. Drill baby drill, so we can send it out to other countries, and end up with no fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. All that North Slope oil that went to Japan didn't help us much. And the Keystone pipeline so Canada can pump it to Texas to be shipped out to the "Global Market", will only make a few fat cats rich without any benefit to the US.
But this isn't the forum for debating the RNC distortions, take it to politics.
xoxoxoBruce Tuesday Sep 11 02:34 AM
El Redwoody
Wombat Tuesday Sep 11 09:06 PM
A lot of people think that redwoods hold the record for the tallest trees ever (115.66 metres, or 379.5 ft). The record for the tallest trees ever measured is actually held by Australia’s mountain ash (eucalyptus regnans), one of which was measured at 143 meters (470 feet) tall (and another one with the top broken off was probably even taller: probably about 152m or 500 feet).
Unfortunately all the tall mountain ash were cut down for lumber, so the tallest surviving tree is currently a redwood. Given time, though, existing mountain ash will continue to grow and will one day overtake the redwoods once again.
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