Sequoias Trees Fall At Sequoia National Forest: Popular Trail Closed

SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. -- The popular Trail of 100 Giants is temporarily closed in Sequoia National Forest after two of the towering trees fell side by side over the trail.

The Forest Service said the downed trees were reported Friday and no one was injured. Officials are still working to determine the ages of the trees and why they fell.

Some of the giant trees in that area are 245 feet tall and have diameters of 18 feet.

Photographs showed the unearthed root wads of the fallen trees were about three times as tall as a firefighter standing at the base.

Forest Service officials said tourists can still see giant Sequoias at Freeman Creek Grove along Lloyd Meadow Road and other areas of the park.

All photos by the Associated Press

Comments

[Lorib3]

09:31 AM on 11/08/2011

I thnk you should just cut thru the tree on the path so people can walk by and see the rings...make it educational. :---) the piece that you cut thru should be put on display at the park office..or made into benches. Another idea for the cut thru piece....make little momentos for people to buy and take the proceeds and put back to the park services.

[Jeffrey A Beard]

09:09 PM on 11/04/2011

Build a wooden footbridge over it.

[Jay818]

02:22 PM on 10/04/2011

even if noone heard it, it still made a sound. :-)

[Edward Wilkes]

02:30 AM on 10/04/2011

Those two fallen trees across the path in the park should not be removed, but rather hollowed-out for visitors to the park to continue walking the path. Also one of the trees should be further hollowed out, to create a resting place, along with a museum sort of atmosphere w/samples of all other plants growing in the park. The trees have fallen in their natural environment; so leave them where they are meant to stay!

[sloreader]

12:33 PM on 10/04/2011

I disagree, if it was up to me I would re-route the trail around and along the side of the fallen giants. These fallen giants are part of the ecosystem in the park and should not be cut up unnecessarily.

[Edward Wilkes]

02:01 PM on 10/04/2011

You know, I was at first actually thinking that same thought, but then I also had the feeling that the park rangers would be told to cut up an dispose of the trees for furniture or something else. I did not want to know of that happening, so I suggested what I did hoping some official in charge would take into consideration what I said! I like your idea much better; and like I said your idea was my first thought!

[Lora Gunning]

10:52 PM on 10/03/2011

Sad to lose even one of these magnificent trees. I had the very good fortune to work one summer at Sequoia National Park and came to love them deeply. As for those who dream of all the lumber the downed trees may yield, it ain't gonna happen. Downed trees provide important habitat for hundreds of forest species before they finally decay into the gound. Mountain soils are thin and nutrient deficient, so the trees' deaths will eventually enrich the soils for the benifit of other flora and fauna.

[hard2swallovv8]

10:16 PM on 10/03/2011

Very sad to hear. I hope this was an isolated incident and not something that may spread to the others.

[Leon Engelun]

10:08 PM on 10/03/2011

A lot of decking lumber out of one tree.

[priscianusjr]

09:30 PM on 10/03/2011

It's Obama's fault.
(Just kidding. He gets blamed for everything else, why not this?).

[StraferX]

09:02 PM on 10/03/2011

These trees are some of the most magnificent thing on earth. I wish them well. However now that it is down I hope that it gets put to good use. I would love to have some to mill into lumber for my cabin and my sail boat.

A sad day when one of these fall, I can only imagine the stories it could tell. I wish this artical geve the number of the tree as each one is marked and identified in the historic records.

[DocEagle]

09:32 AM on 10/04/2011

It's rare for this sequoia wood to be available. If it were to be milled, it would probably be too expensive to use for such mundane purposes as construction or boat-building. More likely it would be reserved to replace existing wood of the same type in historic preservation projects.

That's if it gets milled at all, which I doubt.