Last Friday, after my husband’s appointment in Fresno, we traveled fifty-three miles farther south to visit one of the homes of the giants. Giant sequoia trees, although closely related to the coastal redwood trees which grow along the Pacific Coast from California up through Oregon, grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, between 4,000 and 8,000 feet (1219 and 2438 m) in elevation. (You will also find redwood trees in these mountains.)
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| Courtesy of Sequoia National Park website |
Giant sequoia trees, which are a fast growing tree, grow as large as they do for several reasons. As long as they continue to live, their trunks thicken. Their thick, fibrous bark insulates the trees. Their high level of tannins help these trees resist rot, disease, and insect damage. Even if they suffer some fire damage, as did the General Grant tree, pictured below, as long as their cores remain mostly covered with bark, water and nutrients continue to keep the trees alive and thriving. That is why giant sequoia trees can grow to be older than 3,000 years, where most other trees that do not grow nearly as large seldom grow older than 300 years.
Several of these trees are names for famous people. The two largest are named for American Civil War generals.
The first of the giant generals I visited was the General Grant tree. It is 268.1 feet tall and 40 wide. Since giant sequoia trees can grow to be 3,000 or older, at 1,700 years of age, it is a relatively young tree for its size. As of 2003, it is the second largest giant sequoia by trunk volume. It is located in the General Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park. It has a circumference of 107.5 feet and a bole volume of 46.608 cu ft (1,319.8 m3).
This tree was named in 1867 in
honor of General Ulysses S. Grant, a Union general in the Civil War.
At the time, it was thought to be the largest giant sequoia tree alive.
In October 1879, after returning from his world tour, General Grant visited the giant sequoia trees of the California Sierra Nevada on a six day stagecoach tour of Yosemite Valley.
To protect these trees
from logging, in 1890, President Harrison signed a bill to establish General
Grant National Park, making it the nation’s fourth national park. Later it
became part of Kings Canyon National Park. In 1926, President Coolidge officially designated
the tree as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree.”
Plaque commissioned by American Legion Post 621 from Squaw Valley
Thirty years later in 1956, President Eisenhower designated the tree a “National Shrine,” dedicated to those lost in war by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. It is the only living object to be declared a national shrine.
I did not visit the Washington tree, named for George Washington—another general who, like General Grant, later became a president of the United States. Until September 2003, it was the second-largest tree in the world after the General Sherman tree. At that time, a fire caused by a lightning strike resulted in the tree losing a portion of its crown. This reduced its height from nearly 255 feet to about 229 feet. Weakened structurally, a heavy snow load in January of 2005 caused the tree to partially collapse. Now the tree is about 115 feet tall.
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| A child standing next to the Gen. Sherman tree & Gen. Sherman |
However, I did visit the largest giant sequoia tree, the General Sherman tree. As such, it is the largest living organism by volume in the world. Located in the Giant Forest Grove in Sequoia National Park, it is 274.9 feet in height and has a circumference of 102.6 feet. It has a bole volume of 52,508 cu ft (1,486.9 m3). It is estimated to be around 2,200 to 2,700 years old.
This tree was named for General William Tecumseh Sherman, a Civil War general who worked closely with General Grant.
For a list of the largest giant sequoia trees, please CLICK HERE.
What captured my interest about these trees is that, for the
past two summers, my local news out of Fresno, California, was full of reports
of fire containment and forest loss due to three fires in these parks. Most
such fires are caused by lightning strikes—a common occurrence in the higher elevations
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As if Covid-19 were not enough, knowing that
for months, large sections of the Sequoia National Park and National Forest
were closed and buried in dense smoke, I became determined to visit these parks
this year—before the worst of fire season reared its ugly head. I feared, if this trend continued, fire might destroy all the giant sequoia trees in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park before I could see them again.
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| Six major fires between 2015 and 2021 that destroyed giant sequoia trees |
According to the latest information posted at the park, during the three fires in 2020 and 2021 alone, scientists estimate that between 13% and 19% of the worldwide giant sequoia tree population as been destroyed.
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| Courtesy Sequoia National Park - notice size of people in 1890 photo |
Small, frequent fires are good for the giant sequoias. If not too intense, they not only burn the underbrush and smaller trees of other varieties, which provides nutrients, but it prompts the giant sequoias to drop their seeds, which sprout in the newly-opened space. For many years, the Forest Service practiced aggressive fire suppression, which led to dense undergrowth. Now, the policy is to practice controlled burns to keep as much of the ground growth at a minimum. This helps to protect these trees from large, all-encompassing fires.
However, due to drought and higher overall summer temperatures in recent years, in spite of some of these measures, forest fires have become more frequent and intense. This has resulted in a large loss of all trees that grow in these mountains, but particularly the giant sequoia that do not grow anywhere else in the world.
In the Redwood Canyon alone, it is estimated that, along with other species of trees, more than 2,100 giant sequoias with a diameter of ten feet or greater were destroyed by fire in the 2021 KNP Complex fire.
I was almost too late. Even as we drove up to these parks, my husband and I noticed a lot of smoke in the air. I knew there was a large fire straddling Amador and Calaveras Counties to the north, and the wind patterns are such that the smoke was being blown south through the San Joaquin Valley. I also know there are several lightning strike fires every year in Yosemite National Park just to the north of the parks we visited. Many of these fires are in inaccessible areas of Yosemite and burn themselves out. However, just last Thursday, a new fire—the Washburn Fire—broke out near Wawona and the Highway 41 entrance to Yosemite NP on the south. It also threatens the Mariposa Grove, home of over 500 giant sequoias. I am grateful that, after being closed several years, this grove was opened in 2019 and I was able to visit it then.
To read one of the latest updates about the Washburn Fire as reported in a local newspaper, please CLICK HERE.
Now that I’ve visited the giant generals, it is back to writing. My next book to be published is part of the Old Timey Holiday Kitchen series. The books for 2022 will be announced on event held next week on the Sweet Americana Book Club Facebook group. To sign up so you receive reminders about this event, please CLICK HERE.
Sources:
https://explorekingscanyon.com/giant-sequoias-general-grant-christmas-tree/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Grant_(tree)
https://www.grantcottage.org/blog/thenationschristmastree
https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/community/mariposa-and-yosemite/article263343258.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_giant_sequoias
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