Comment on redwoods
Skua@kbin.earth 18 hours ago
There's an old stately home near me (in the UK) where a few redwoods were planted some time around 1900. The scale of those things is genuinely bewildering. They're so much bigger than every other tree that it messes with your sense of perspective a little
It's also weird how squishy the bark is. It's like a giant funfair plushie tree
The other cool thing about that squishy bark is that it’s flame retardant.
I finally went to go see the California redwoods as a bucket list before they burned down and learned they don’t tend to.
There were almost as many lightning struck redwoods around, still alive and kicking not giving a fuck, as there were undamaged.
Very cool opportunities to stand inside shed sized hallowed out areas and admire.
Growing up in California (especially Southern) you learn about “Fire Ecology” and how wildfires are a normal and natural part of the ecosystem and that many California-native flora are dependent on semi-regular burns. The problem with the fires lately isnt that they’re happening, it’s that they’re happening too frequently.
Basically, don’t worry, those sequoias will outlive us all
The problem with the fires lately isnt that they’re happening, it’s that they’re happening too frequently.
I thought the problem was that they weren’t happening frequently enough, allowing too much undergrowth to build up and make them worse than they’re supposed to be?
(But I’m not from California, so you probably know better.)
I get all choked up seeing them a year or so after a fire, the limbs burn off and they start sending thousands of new little baby limbs out, most will die back and the ones in the best positions will grow. The the whole upper part of the tree is green with new life and I’m just so proud of them.
We’ve had some pretty devastating fires here, so the emotions are high.
Nature is amazing, thanks for the photo
I really hope that you never get a proper storm. Someone tried to grow redwoods in KY. He was trying to have a way to legally harvest the wood. Grew the couple acres of redwood trees to over 80 feet in height by year 20. Then a thunderstorm came through, and knocked all the trees down. The root systems don’t have a massive taproot, and spread horizontally.
We don’t really get that in the UK. If they survived the “hurricane” of 1987, chances are they’re still there.
I'm not sure what qualifies as a "proper" storm for you - the UK never gets anything like the cyclones in India or the Caribbean - but we did have one of our worst on record at the start of this year. I actually haven't been along to the place since then. If I get a chance this weekend I'll go have a look, see if I can get some photos for shalafi elsewhere in this thread too
I’m talking about the high wind thunderstorms that frequent the US. Not as big as a cyclone or hurricane, but just as destructive.
There are redwoods in the UK?! I’d love a pic, how fascinating.
Loads of them, apparently.
www.redwoodworld.co.uk/locations.htm
Most of the ones on this site have pictures. Been to several of these places myself. Most of the trees are fairly young still, so not at the “towering over everything for miles” level.
Not naturally, but a fair few of our landed gentry got really into trees while we were doing the whole empire thing and since we have a wet temperate climate here the trees seem to like it
You should see the ones where I live in California that have been alive for over a thousand years. It’s wild.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 hours ago
They grow really well in the UK climate.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623
Better than in California, it turns out.
Skua@kbin.earth 3 hours ago
Oh holy shit, we have half a million of them‽ I was under the impression it was just a few scattered around the place