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1/2 million giant redwoods growing in the UK Vs 80k growing in California. š²
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1wooksterboFull Member
@rootes1 Where abouts in Camberley as I grew up in Owlsmoor and Little Sandhurst.
Edit: ignore, hadnāt read the link yet and it says where :-)
Just looked it up on Google maps, how close are those to the houses, yikes, hope they are deep rooted!
1MrSparkleFull Memberguide also said they have very shallow root systems and they stay upright by meshing together with the other redwoods
wooksterboFull MemberCheers, didnāt spot that. Double yikes then, some of those trees are quite far apart right next to those houses.
jimwFree MemberI was lucky enough to go to Sequoia National Park in the mid 90ās and saw some of the really big old redwoods. They are all above about 4000ft elevation. It is difficult to comprehend just how big they are until you get close to them because in a stand of the large trees there are no ānormalā height ones to give a sense of scale. The bark alone is a few feet thick apparently
2franksinatraFull MemberThat Redwood World website is ace. Thanks to that Iāve just learnt that the x 4 super cool douglas firs that I can see as I lay in bed are actually Giant Redwoods.
For 15 years Iāve enjoyed looking at the tress as I open my curtains in the morning, or dozing off on light summer night looking at them, and now I know they are Redwoods. Awesome stuff.
Edit: Even better! I realise now that I have x4 50m behind my house and another 2 at the top of my street that I go past on morning dog walk every day. This is really brightened up my day.
1NorthwindFull Memberfranksinatra
Full MemberThat Redwood World website is ace. Thanks to that Iāve just learnt that the x 4 super cool douglas firs that I can see as I lay in bed are actually Giant Redwoods.
They have pretty distinctive cones, thatās the easiest way to id them.
(Dougies are sort of hilariously nonconformist, you look at tree id guides and yeah, mostly they do look like in the books but every so often you find one thatās gone rogue, ā**** it lads, Iām going to grow OUTWARDS instead of upā and it becomes a rectangle. Or āRight thatās enough of this upwards lark, Iām going to go 90 degrees left for a bit, then maybe Iāll go straight down til I hit the ground again and then start over and pretend Iām a different tree lolā)
supernova
Full MemberIād be happy to see the FoD planted with trees that take 1000 years to mature so the Forestry and their āworking forestā bullshit could **** off for a millennium.
Thereās quite a few in the fod, not just in the bits where theyāve made an attraction of it but fairly random seeming in the forest and also around the towns. I think a bunch were planted there basically as an experiment in forestry, like at kilmun. Not just redwoods mind, thereās allsorts, massive old red cedars and lodgepoles and silver firs and such, sometimes growing as if wild in the forest
1NorthwindFull MemberOh yeah speaking of Kilmun, if youāre a tree nerd and down in that part of the country (near Benmore botanical gardens), itās fantastic. Youāve got Benmore itself obviously, and Puckās Glen nearby is a must visit too, but Kilmunās differnet, itās a forestry commission experimental arboretum, they planted out blocks of pretty much whatever might possibly make for a good future forestry tree, so rather than the usual parkland or single trees or avenues, itās just forestry blocks except full of redwoods or lodgepoles or eucalypts or, well, whatever they could get their hands on. And then just pretty much left to grow with minimal intervention. Some have totally failed, some arenāt doing well, none are massively old but for a lot of these trees itās going to end up as close to a natural forest as there is anywhere outside of their home range. Itās a bollocks to explore, the paths barely exist and it was never intended as an attraction but itās totally worth it.
rootes1
Full Memberposted location above ā I quite often ride through them ā planted in 1865 apparently:
I bought a car from a dude that lived just round the corner from there! Had to drive it back to Edinburgh so I couldnāt stop long but it is stunning. And all the better for just kind of being there, rather than in an arboretum or botanical garden, Iād never heard of it til I stumbled over it. Another abandoned estate thing I think?
1ircFull MemberReminded me of a paragraph from Steinbeckās Travels With Charley. He reaches his old home turf in Monterey and talks about the Redwoods.
āA number of years ago, a newcomer, a stranger, moved to my country near Monterey. His senses must have been blunted and atrophied with money and the getting of it. He bought a grove of sempervirens in a deep valley near the coast, and then, as was his right by ownership, he cut them down and sold the lumber, and left on the ground the wreckage of his slaughter. Shock and numb outrage filled the town. This was not only murder but sacrilege. We looked on that man with loathing, and he was marked to the day of his deathā
1TiRedFull MemberHereās the local tree. Was destined to be removed when the house nearby was refused insurance. Thatās been rescinded.
1bigrichFull MemberThe Riding at Santa cruz amongst the redwoods is amazing.
Nature adapts to changing climate shocker.
Howād the seeds naturally get there? Californian swallows?
PoopscoopFull Memberbigrich
Full Member
The Riding at Santa cruz amongst the redwoods is amazing.Obviously Iām sad in saying this but on Zwift my favourite course is Sand and Sequoias. Itās not really the same though unfortunately. Lol
1NorthwindFull MemberSo coincidentally I just discovered that these articles are all basically bollocks. They all seem to be just repeating and quoting an earlier article which incorrectly compared the number of mature giant redwoods in California, vs the total number in the UK, but in reality there are hundreds of thousands of younger trees outside of the old growth groves that just arenāt catalogued in the Cali numbers
Seems to be an honest mistake- California just canāt get excited about a hundred year old giant redwood when theyāve got the big lads to look at, whereas for us even the tiddlers are a big deal. And of course the preservation arguments rightly focus on the old growth to exclusion, as thereās no way to replace a 3000 year old tree unless you did it 2999 years ago.
the-muffin-manFull MemberEven if there was no comparison to California that there are 500k Giant Redwoods in the UK is a surprising fact on itās own.
CountZeroFull MemberJust checked to make sure but thereās a pretty big one in the grounds of The Manor House Hotel in Castle Combe, a pretty swanky place with its own golf course, where a āvillageā was set up for filming of the Robin of Sherwood series.
roneFull MemberWe have a few here in Clumber Park/ Thoresby
Also Iāve been to sea that giant one ā General Sherman. Big lad. Sequoia National Parks was one of my favourites.
And that crazy on you can drive through up the Pacific coast ā called in at that.
Novelty aside they are great.
roneFull MemberSo coincidentally I just discovered that these articles are all basically bollocks.
Thought it was a bit odd.
Having driven up there their forests are immense.
wzzzzFree MemberYeah, the massive number of wildfires in California havenāt help eitherā¦
au contraire, the natural cycle of wildfires clears the land and opens the cones providing the idea conditions for germination.
Its putting out wildfires that is the problem.
NorthwindFull Member<quote> wzzzz
Free Memberau contraire, the natural cycle of wildfires clears the land and opens the cones providing the idea conditions for germination. </quote>
Was, but currently isnāt. The ground and deadfallās drier, the trees are drier, the wildfires are hotter. And human interaction is a problem; basically wherever thereās human inhabitation and development we try to prevent fires but that often means that when there is a fire, itās much worse, since itās been longer since the last one. This last oneās a work in progress, they do controlled burns and manual clearance now in the old groves to try and reset it a bit but itās a massive job.
Sequoia are fire resistant but not fire proof, they estimate that 20% of all of the surviving oldgrowth giants have been destroyed by fire in the last 10 years
hot_fiatFull MemberIt did seem an unlikely statistic. Weāve driven down through the Big Sur and itās not exactly a small place ā think āNorthumberlandā, all of it. And thatās just the bit on the coast.
The big trees there are big. Really mind-blowing huge.
thecaptainFree MemberMultiple posters have stated that the seeds require fire to germinate.
I donāt think this is true. Fire is an important feature of the life cycle of the natural forests, particularly in creating space for new trees to germinate, but the seeds themselves do not need any heat or smoke. At least, that is the result of 5 minutes of web searching, looking at a number of seemingly reliable sources. I didnāt see any support for the claim that fire and/or smoke was particularly helpful.
(Some tree seeds do require smoke and/or fire. But sequoia are not one of them. Feel free to collect seeds from your local tree and give it a go.)
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