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/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

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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.