The Redwood Tree
In my early professional career I was
a civilian employee of the Corps of Engineers out of the Boston office. It was
not unusual to have Corps offices request personnel assistance when an emergency
situation arose. That was the case in 1965 when the state of California
experienced the worst flooding in the North part of the State. Whole
communities were wiped away by the floods, thousands of cattle lost, acres of
agricultural land gone, roads and bridges severely damaged, thousands of logs
uprooted from the mills and worst of all 30 lives were lost. Governor Pat Brown
called the floods ”the thousand year storm.”
Five of us volunteered to help assist
in assessing the damage. We spent a week in San Francisco getting briefed and receiving
our assignments. About 3 weeks into the survey my 2 member team got an unusual
call. We were to go into the National Forest and find out if the tallest
redwood tree in California (really the world) was still standing. We drove into
the forest as far as we could, grabbed our snake bite kits and hiked our way in.
We eventually found it and it was just fine. Standing 350 feet tall it was absolutely
magnificent. How did we know we had the right tree---the Forest Service had a
huge sign at its base saying so.
In 2006 a giant sequoia (redwood
tree) was found to be taller measuring 380 feet high. In 2022 the Forest
Service closed it down to hikers since degradation and erosion of the tree were
evident. If found near the tree you will be fined 5000 dollars. If you are ever
in San Francisco visit a redwood state park and see one for yourself. You won’t be
disappointed
