American Canopy

Jeff L Headley

Well-known member
American Canopy      Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow. On the sleeve: This fascinating and groundbreaking work tells the remarkable story of the relationship between Americans and their trees across the entire span of our nations history. THIS IS A DEFINITE READ!
 
My wife got this book out of the library for me last week, and reading the Introduction was devastating. Apparently in 1964 some researchers took core samples from an old tree, but broke their tools twice.  They were then given permission to cut the tree down, and it ended up being the oldest tress on record - almost 5000 years old. Ouch! Looking forward to the rest of the book.

From Wikipedia:
In the Snake Range of eastern Nevada Donald R. Currey, a student of the University of North Carolina, was taking core samples of bristlecones in 1964. He discovered that "Prometheus" in a cirque below Wheeler Peak was over 4,000 years old. It is thought that his coring tool broke, so the U.S. Forest service granted permission to cut down "Prometheus". There are many different versions of this story, and nobody can say for sure whether or not Currey knew the age of the tree before cutting it down.[9] 4,844 rings were counted on a cross-section of the tree, making "Prometheus" at least 4,844 years old, the oldest known non-clonal living thing.[10]
 
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