BIG TREES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 7

BIG TREES

WATCHING THE VANDALS VIGILANCE IN AMERICA NO LIBERTIES ALLOWED You don’t have to cut down a redwood tree in America to get the Save-the-Redwoods League after you. All you need to do is to make some statement slurring the big trees, and you’ll get a letter from Newton B. Drury, secretary of the league, putting you right on the subject. The League keeps a sharp eye on the giant forests. If there appears to be dangers of loggers moving into a choice grove, out go the League’s bulletins to members, telling of the impending danger and urging them to use their influence in stopping the invasion. Paul Revere on his midnight ride, did no more thorough job than the League’s officials when they smell impendingsawdust, and they are highly sensitive to this subtle odour. RESTRAINING HAND The lumbermen are not the only ones to feel the League's restraining hand. Not long ago a newspaper article appeared which stated that the world’s highest tree was a eucalyptus in Australia which towers some 325 feet above ground. The statement was said to be made on the authority of the United States Forest Service. Immediately the Save-the-Redwoods League swung into action. It pointed out to the Forest Service in Washington that the world’s highest tree is 364 feet high and that this tree is a redwood in the Humboldt Slate Redwood Park, near Dyerville, Humbodlt County. California. It is dedicated to the Founders of the Save-the-Redwoods League, and is therefore called the Founders Tree. The Forest Service said it had been misquoted. and referred to its 115-page booklet entitled “Famous Trees,” which gives the Founders Tree full credit and refers to another redwood on Bull Creek Flat which is 345 feet high. On the subject of the so-called “highest” eucalyptus in Australia, this booklet merely says, “Reports have been made of Australian trees 400 and 500 feet tall, but the tallest Eucalyptus now standing is a giant gum (Eucalyptus regnams) in Victoria, which is 325 feet tall.” S. B. Snow, Regional Forester, in San Francisco, came forward with a statement that ought to put things right. Said he. “I regret that California’s famous Founders Tree has been subjected to these controversial comments. . . We are ready to back up our contention with anyone that the Founders Tree is the world’s tallest tree.” But the incident shows that you will have the Save-the-Redwoods League on your shoulders if you don’t approach the forest giant with proper hat in hand. As a matter of fact, you can’t 1 approach them in any other way when

you see them. Their grandeur inspires respect and reverence. LARGEST PINE Along this line, it is interesting to note that a big yellow pine in the upper Deschutes country, Oregon, has been officially measured by forest officials and proclaimed to be the largest tree of its kind in Oregon and Washington. It is 162 feet high, 11.3 feet in diameter, and 36.6 feet in circumference at the ground. For manv years a giant pine near Guler, Washington, in the Columbia National Forest, was considered the largest in the Northwest. The Deschutes pine has been found to be slightly larger.