http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/redwoods/redwoods-interactive
Ever wonder all of the history and important dates and events the giant redwoods have been alive to witness, well on the National Geographic Interactive website you can do just that. This website created a time line of one redwood tree using its tree rings and shows the huge length of time these trees have been alive, the tree they focus on has been alive since around 1180! These trees have been alive throughout major points in history like the Magna Carta being signed in 1215, Christopher Columbus’ journey to the Caribbean in 1492, the American revolution of the 1770’s, the founding of the national parks in 1872, and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This website also maps these huge giants along California’s coast and shows two National Geographic employees journey through the forests, which lasted a year. The final part of the website, and one of the most interesting pats, is the the focus on the canopy ecosystem of these giants, which is rarely accessed and studied. Hundreds of feet up in the air on the branches of the giant redwoods, thrives an usually unseen ecosystem, full of plants and animals, including berry bushes and ferns as well as the Marbled Murrelet an endangered bird, salamanders, and chipmunks. Over the years soil has formed on these huge redwood branches, and in some cases this soil is up to three feet deep, which allows for the thriving ecosystem up in the trees. This National Geographic Interactive web site is a great tool to learn about the giant redwood forests, see all of the history these trees have witnessed, and get a glimpse at an ecosystem that few see and study.
There’s a group called the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive that’s looking to clone the Redwoods! Co-founder, David Milarch, says his goal is to to reforest the land with a variety of the most interesting tree species from around the world, and by extension, halt and reverse climate change.”
Check it out!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/us/10trees.html?_r=1&ref=earth
This is such a cool website and such a great find. I knew the Redwoods were old but I never knew exactly how old they were. National Geographic’s Interactive website about the Redwoods gave me a real idea of the magnitude of the life span of one of these trees in comparison to pretty much any other tree that I am familiar with. I also had no idea that the canopy could sustain more than just birds in terms of life but the soil layer is so fascinating. I did a quick bit of research and there are quite a few groups who actively attempt to protect the Redwoods including the Save the Redwoods League who lay out some interesting statistics on a fan page of theirs: http://www.causes.com/causes/327923-save-the-redwoods-end-deforestation
In the end this website was a great find.
These trees are incredible. It is too bad that the old growth is less than 5% of the original forest. The living history time line does a great job in putting the age of the trees in perspective. They have been around for so long!