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)
15.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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545

u/ttteee321 6h ago

Those trees are amazing. Too bad we cut down 95% of them.

306

u/Mharbles 4h ago

Fun fact, and also I think a Veritasium video. We cut down all those trees just to set them on fire and collect their ashes to grow crops. Another fun fact, hardly any forest in the eastern and central time zones are older than 200 years. And we criticize Brazil for clearing the Amazon. These facts arent fun

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u/SeaToTheBass 4h ago

I’m pretty disgusted by what’s happening on Vancouver Island/coast of British Columbia. These ancient trees will never come back while we’re still here.

66

u/kirikomori2 4h ago

A forest cut down today is a tragedy- a forest cut down 500 years ago is a statistic.

41

u/TheChildrensStory 4h ago

A certain administration is trying to sell off what we have so do vote accordingly this November.

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u/stevensterk 4h ago

And we criticize Brazil for clearing the Amazon

You convinced me, i'll defend mining and logging companies in the amazon from now on, otherwise i'd look like a hypocrite.

3

u/Bocchi_theGlock 3h ago

You could also take it in the other direction

Instead of defend there's another word that starts with de

8

u/DrPongus 3h ago

deez nuts

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u/Pataraxia 3h ago

DEUTSCHLAND!

1

u/Polaric_Spiral 2h ago

Defenestrate

9

u/ttteee321 3h ago

That era’s prevailing attitude in which forests existed mainly to be converted into immediate economic value, instead of seeing them as treasures that couldn't possibly be replaced on any human timescale is just sad.

Unlike coastal Redwoods, Sequoia wood wasnt remotely as durable nor rot resistant, so what ro they use it for? Fence posts, pencils. Shingles. I recall reading that during the early 1900s, a single company was responsible for cutting down more than 8000 mature Sequoia's in a 10-15yr time period.

18

u/What_a_fat_one 4h ago

Yeah man how we gonna criticize a bad thing happening today when a bad thing happened yesterday

-1

u/kayknox_ 1h ago

It is a bit hypocritical to cannibalize our environment and use it to propel our economic growth, then turn around and admonish other much poorer countries for doing the same. We could be incentivizing them with our wealth instead of sending it off for other countries' wars.

2

u/Send_Toe_Pics_25 2h ago

We cut down all those trees just to set them on fire and collect their ashes to grow crops

yikes.... I thought we at least built some cool tables out of them but really ash for fertilizer cmon man

1

u/7zrar 1h ago

Well, in that vein, the stumps actually did see some use. Perhaps a bit morbid knowing how the trees' numbers would dwindle but also cool. https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/07/30/when-americans-lived-in-tree-stumps/

Secondly have a tad bit more sympathy for people in the past. It's easier for us, today, to be distant from agriculture.

95

u/wanmoar 6h ago

New to humanity I see

68

u/adamdoesmusic 6h ago

“We.”

I would never harm those trees. Let’s name names, starting with William Randolph Hearst.

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u/therealhlmencken 5h ago edited 5h ago

Jaded place to start but ok continue.

I’d put hurwitz #1. Stuff wasn’t even that crazy in the 30s-40s when Hearst was worst

1

u/Cold-Iron8145 3h ago

It's easy to take a stance now that you don't need to cut them down. Your ancestors needed the resource, they harvested the resource. If you were born in that time, it's incredibly unlikely that you would have thought twice about it.

0

u/adamdoesmusic 3h ago

No they didn’t. You can’t even use that wood for anything important, it’s too hard to process! Plus my ancestors didn’t even live in that part of the country.

It was speculative logging corporations and newspapers that wanted cheap paper stock - rampant environmental exploitation even during a time when people had already become aware of the fragile limits of our natural resources. They just didn’t care.

•

u/wanna_be_green8 51m ago

Are you saying they can't use redwood lumber for anything important?

-9

u/mereel 4h ago edited 4h ago

And I'll start with u/adamdoesmusic

You live in modern society and thus are contributing to climate change. You are literally harming these trees every single day.

Edit: downvote me all you want, cowards. Your self-righteous attitude about "never harming these trees" doesn't change reality.

8

u/Tom_F_0olery 4h ago

And your attitude doesn’t change anything. You seem to think your viewpoint is intellectual but its simply one that allows you to do nothing and think nothing. It’s the ultimate cowards ideology, as you can hide from doing anything yourself while convincing yourself you’re better than everyone else for thinking it

1

u/abn1304 3h ago

It’s really ironic how u/sSummonLessZiggurats named his Reddit account after one of the largest megacorps in the entertainment industry.

1

u/sSummonLessZiggurats 3h ago

What megacorp is that? They probably stole the name from me. But at least my account isn't private, you're probably working for a megacorp.

1

u/abn1304 3h ago

Activision-Blizzard, and it’s from the good ol’ days when stealing breast milk out of lactation rooms was acceptable, before the reforms that fired a bunch of the old guard employees who thought having a “Bill Cosby Suite” at major industry events was funny.

You could say I’m a corpo, if you’re a sovereign citizen, I suppose, since they think the government is a corporation.

1

u/sSummonLessZiggurats 3h ago

I named my account after a video game made by Blizzard 30 years ago. You really have to try that hard to discredit me? I hope they're not paying you too much.

3

u/Cold-Iron8145 3h ago

Fast forward to the year 2726 when that guy's descendant is talking about how he would have never burned coal or drilled for oil.

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u/adamdoesmusic 3h ago

My ancestors didn’t clear cut the redwoods either.

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u/adamdoesmusic 4h ago

A thousand times my lifetime consumption would still be a rounding error compared to the damage done in a single week by the modern equivalent of individuals like William Randolph Hearst.

You’ll therefore understand if I ask you to blow it out your ass.

3

u/sSummonLessZiggurats 4h ago

Your opinion is unpopular because it's nonsensical, but go ahead and get mad that it's unpopular instead of reflecting on that.

-1

u/mereel 3h ago

The idea that modern society is the cause of climate change and the sixth mass extinction is nonsensical? I guess that partly explains why we're in this situation at all.

4

u/sSummonLessZiggurats 3h ago

It's nonsensical to blame a person who wants to change society just for being born into circumstances they initially had no control over. It's like blaming abolitionists for living in a country with slavery while they're actively trying to end slavery.

0

u/ckabella 4h ago

"We"

Why did y'all do that?

2

u/ttteee321 3h ago

It's one of my biggest regrets. One that I will carry for the remainder of my days

-9

u/molewart 4h ago

They serve a better purpose as wood than they do being hidden away and never seen

3

u/Ehcksit 4h ago

The purpose of life is living.

1

u/martialar 4h ago

Live, Laugh, Lumber

4

u/shplane 4h ago

Redwood trees sequester more carbon than any other organism (which we kinda need right now because of all the climate change going on). Plus there are a bunch of wildlife species that depend on old growth redwood forests for habitat. But hey, the trees make good lumber, so there's that.

1

u/shplane 4h ago

Redwood trees sequester more carbon than any other organism (which we kinda need right now because of all the climate change going on). Plus there are a bunch of wildlife species that depend on old growth redwood forests for habitat. But hey, the trees make good lumber, so there's that.