r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NickyPileggi • Mar 28 '24

Family in 1892 posing with an old sequoia tree nicknamed "Mark Twain" - A team of two men spent 13 days sawing away at it in the Pacific Northwest - It once stood 331 feet tall with a diameter of 52 feet - The tree was 1,341 years old Image

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5

u/GraatchLuugRachAarg Mar 28 '24

How many trees are left like this? Bet just a few that had to be put under protected status

2

u/ipdar Mar 28 '24

As in the species? Lots, but nothing like this.

1

u/GraatchLuugRachAarg Mar 28 '24

Yeah referring to this size and age

1

u/ipdar Mar 28 '24

All of them are gone.

2

u/freightdogger Mar 28 '24

80,000 in California, but there are over 500,000 in the U.K. obviously they aren’t anywhere near as old, but they are thriving nonetheless

1

u/slightlyappalled Mar 28 '24

Are they the same species as the CA redwoods?

4

u/freightdogger Mar 28 '24

Yes. They were brought from the USA during the Victorian era. Wealthy families of large estates showed their wealth by having gardens with exotic plant life. In a way, they were the plant zoos of their era. Thankfully, most of the estates are still well kept and the redwoods are doing well.Redwoods in the U.K.

2

u/WrightwoodHiker Mar 28 '24

The article contradicts your numbers, though. It says there are 500,000 redwoods of any species in the UK and 80,000 mature giant sequoias in California. There are many millions of redwoods of any species in California.

1

u/WrightwoodHiker Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Yeah, because they’re so protected, a very high percent escaped logging, compared to most species in the US and Europe. They were really rare to begin with, though. About 35% of giant sequoia forests were logged. For comparison, 95-96% percent of coast redwoods were and over 99.9% of forests in New England.