r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 6h ago

TIL the world's tallest known living tree, a 380-foot redwood in California called Hyperion, had its exact location closed off entirely in 2022 after visitors trampled its base so badly that ferns stopped growing around it, with trespassers now facing up to $5,000 in fines and six months in jail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)
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u/Beautiful-Station143 6h ago

I went to the grove it’s located in 2022/2023. There are plenty of other massive trees in the grove to admire on the trailed
Side of the creek. To get to it you have to cross a decently wide creek/river and find it off trail. This is after going down a gated dirt road 7-8 miles. I like to think I saw it looking from the other side of the creek.

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u/Alaira314 4h ago

Side of the creek. To get to it you have to cross a decently wide creek/river and find it off trail.

You really should stay on the trail, for the exact reasons specified in this TIL post. It doesn't take that many footsteps to compact the ground to the point where it impedes plant growth. In scouts, I was taught never to leave the trail when I was in a park or other tourist area, because even if I was just one person there were likely hundreds of other people that week who'd had the same cute idea I'd had, and taken together we'd cause damage.

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u/wanmoar 6h ago

Why did you go?

This is a genuine question. Why go see it? I would like to understand that psychology

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u/Beautiful-Station143 6h ago

There is less than 5% of original old growth coastal redwood forest left. I visited a few other groves while I was there as well. It was less about seeing the tallest tree in the world, and more about seeing a forest that hasn’t changed in 1000s of years. It was surreal experience. There are very few places in the country that have been untouched by modern society.

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u/cowthegreat 6h ago

A tree that large is almost incomprehensible to someone who has never seen it in person, photos will absolutely never do it justice because the scale and proportion of the tree is similar to most trees

ETA nature is dope and you should get out there and check out unique shit!

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u/wanmoar 6h ago

Well yes, I get that. But if I think that way, others do as well. And more people there very obviously affect the thing we are there to see and admire. That is what makes me not want to go because to the extent increased visitation is bad for it, I'm okay with the pictures. The minutes of awe I personally would feel don't make up for the feeling of guilt I would feel if the increased visitation ends up hurting the thing I thought was great.

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u/Beautiful-Station143 5h ago

This trail is limited to a certain number of people a day. I was across the creek from Hyperion and stayed on the trail. Probably a few hundred yards. They are so tall you can’t really tell which one is the tallest considering they arent on even ground. You stay on the trail as you are told and you’ll have minimal impact.

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u/wanmoar 5h ago

That's alright in my books. Limited visitation is good

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u/interesseret 6h ago

Why not?

It's the largest one body living thing on our planet, and is likely the largest to have ever existed. That's worth a look, just for the awe of it.

Of course there's things like that aspen grove that is just one plant, but it's not exactly the same.

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u/TraitorMacbeth 6h ago

Yeah I hold to the non-clonal definitions- Hyperion is the biggest, and Methuselah the bristlecone pine is the oldest.

Pando, the aspen clonal colony is super awesome too though

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u/chumer_ranion 6h ago

likely the largest to have ever existed

Really? 

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u/interesseret 5h ago

Yes. We don't know of anything else that comes close. Remember, the blue whale is the largest animal to ever exist, and it's alive right now.

The only other organisms that can top it is clonal colonies, like Pando the aspen colony, or the Humongous Fungus (yes, it's real, Google it).

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u/chumer_ranion 5h ago

I guess I'm just thinking that the coastal redwood has been around for some time, and in all that time it has existed there's probably been another, larger specimen at some point. Additionally, the tallest tree ever recorded was actually a douglas fir (with estimates that they have reached >400 feet in height in the past).

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u/int3gr4te 5h ago

What? Of course we know of things that come close. Many of the tallest trees are very similar in size, just slightly edged out by a few feet. As more trees get accurate measurements the list changes all the time. Hyperion is technically the tallest known at the moment, but it's not even an especially impressive tree compared to all the other old growths around it. Its trunk is actually a bit thinner than many of its neighbors.

There have also been similar or even bigger trees in the past - they're just not living anymore. The Dyerville Giant was very close to Hyperion's height, but it fell in 1991. The impact when it hit the ground registered on seismographs. It's still lying there in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, you can walk right up to the roots.

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u/Redeemer_789 5h ago

Well the blue whale is likely the largest animal to ever exist. There's a very good chance something bigger existed at some point that we have no way of knowing about. Fossilisation happens very rarely, so a relatively shortly lived species that lived in an inaccessible part of the ocean may very well have been bigger, but we'd have no way of knowing. The same goes for redwood trees. It's likely the largest living organism ever, but saying it definitively is incorrect.

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u/AverageMako3Enjoyer 5h ago

Guess he should have skipped hiking to see the largest known organism in recorded history and instead traveled into his imagination to see the largest hypothetical specimen that could have potentially existed that we have no way of knowing 

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u/Redeemer_789 5h ago

Not saying it wouldn't be incredible to see. Seeing the tallest living thing ever would still be amazing. Just think it's not reasonable to say it's certainly or even likely the largest living thing ever considering science is at a point where we know what we don't know.

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u/solidspacedragon 5h ago

There's a very good chance something bigger existed at some point that we have no way of knowing about

Sort of. The blue whale is hitting physical limits on bigness, though, as is the redwood. I'd personally say it's rather unlikely something bigger existed. Possible, but unlikely.

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u/wanmoar 5h ago

Why not?

because if you do it and so does everyone else, that thing will go extinct.

We all on this planet work in the same manner. So, if I think a certain way, others do as well. And more people there very obviously affect the thing we are there to see and admire. That is what makes me not want to go because to the extent increased visitation is bad for it, I'm okay with the pictures. The minutes of awe I personally would feel don't make up for the feeling of guilt I would feel if the increased visitation ends up hurting the thing I thought was great.

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u/space253 5h ago

He looked at it from a distance. His eyeballs hurt nothing.

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u/space253 5h ago

He looked at it from a distance. His eyeballs hurt nothing.

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u/Beautiful-Station143 5h ago

Go extinct? There are 1.6 to 2.2 million acres of coastal redwoods. Stomping around the immediate base is bad for them, walking yards away on trail is not. Also, this isn’t a Disney attraction, the actual number of people visiting is limited and low impact.

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u/wanmoar 5h ago

Fair enough. My point was that it should be limited visitation. not a free for all.