Giant sequoia trees fall unexpectedly

Teegate

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Check out the reason why they believe that the trees fell. I can see the day when they won't even let you walk in the woods. Bizarre!


Giant sequoia trees fall unexpectedly
Last such known Yosemite toppling came in 1969

Saturday, March 1, 2003 Posted: 6:59 AM EST (1159 GMT)

• Yosemite National Park external link

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California (AP) -- Two giant sequoias that put down roots long before the United States became a country fell last weekend, the first of the age-old forest titans to fall in years.

The trees, thought to be between 300 years and 750 years old, were located in a grove along the Yosemite National Park's southern border. The park has hundreds of giant sequoias in three large groves.

Soil or root failure caused the collapse of at least one of the trees, which may have toppled the second sequoia as it fell, Park Ranger Deb Schweizer said.

A young sequoia in the grove fell in 1998. Before that, that last sequoia known to have fallen in the park was in 1969.

Sequoias reach maturity at about 1,000 years. The Grizzly Giant, the grove's oldest tree, is believed to be 2,700 years to 3,000 years old.

Schweizer said foot traffic around the base of the fallen trees could have damaged the root systems and contributed to the collapse.

Park officials have been surrounding some of the oldest, largest and most historically significant trees with fences to keep the public from trampling root systems, Schweizer said.
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JeffD

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I've heard that before, Guy, that heavy foot traffic around the base of a tree caused a tree to fall. This may surprise you, but there may be something to that. There would have to be an extreme amount of foot traffic over the same spots for a long period of time, however, for pedestrian traffic to cause a tree to fall., or at least contribute to its downfall. There are other reasons trees fall. Other trees could have been competing for space, there could have disease, etc. It's natural for some trees in a forest to fall. It only becomes a concern when a large percentage of trees in a forest get sick and die.

Back to the original idea that foot traffic can damage root systems and contribute to a tree's downfall. The roots of some of the sycamores planted in the early 50's in my neighborhood have started to crawl along driveways, threaten plumbing, etc, so people removed the trees. I think that soil compaction prevented the roots from going down deeper in the soil and so they just followed the water, making cracks in sidewalks, driveways, etc. This happens where people don't take care of the soil around the tree. They drive cars, bikes, stomp, on the ground immediately surrounding the trees, compacting the soil. This could have been prevented by mulching the soil, even just in a radius of a few feet from the tree. To my knowledge, none of them actually died and fell.

Years ago, when I walked through the Wissihickon section of Fairmount park, a large sycamore tree fell on the dirt-gravel trail in front of me. I had to change my underware when I got home. The tree was on a hillside, away from the trail and in an area that did not get excessive foot or bike traffic. Trees crowd one another, and some of them fall. It's just nature's way of thinning the forest.

In the report I heard some time ago about foot traffic damaging the roots of trees in a national forest or park, it said that the area near the tree would be roped off for awhile. I don't remember how far from the trees people couldn't walk or how long it would be roped off.
 
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