Big trees harvested in Washington and PNW area early 1900's, Old Grown Timber

Imagine, 100 truckloads per an estimated average 5000 cubic metres of the rare and endangered ancient Douglas firs.



site here
Some people never see this, but I see it every time I hike, huge stumps left of these giants, red in color, like they have bled to death.

Every back woods cafe has photos on the wall of these BIG trees that were all over this area up until the white man migrated here, (Weyerhauser in particular) and took them all down. As I understand we have some pockets that might not be known about, a few stands, and of course stands we know of, but in Seattle, for instance, not one was left standing.

Maybe no one can really understand 'tree huggers' who haven't seen the majesty of these big trees. They were literally all over this area, and I have to wonder what these numbered, in truck loads ...all these trucks toting trees out of the forest. It is simply unimaginable. ( not only the trees , but the loggers and the trucks). Every valley here, BIG trees, all the way to Puget Sound, and all over NW Canada, too. Try for a minute to picture this, imagine you could come here now and see this portion of the NW, a park, spared for your wonder.



Maybe it's too late, but it isn't too late to save the bees, and water, and fresh air, the oxygen levels, the oceans, and the seas. Not to mention ...us. Remember, the largest Sequoia known:
The large Sequoia on that site gives these stats..
"Ecosystem Services:
It would cost $3589.32 to replace the storm water control service provided by this tree, based on the engineering standards used in the building industry. The same tree removes 20.32 lbs. of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone and particulate matter every year."

Now imagine what millions of these trees did for our environment. ( times 1 million = 20,320,000 lbs of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone, and particulate matter per year). Hope I got my zeros right.

There was more oxygen on the planet in the early 1900's as I understand it, and I have read that lack of oxygen contributes to cancer and disease, obesity, etc. many of our modern day ailments.

I've heard of a stand that might be unknown, (shh don't let the loggers know) and I need a special vehicle to go there, I can't take my car there because the road would ruin my car. I'd like to go photograph it, and measure the trees. Maybe I'll name the place Sherrywood. grin

You'd be the first to see the photos!

Does this make you sad or what? Parading the bounty down Main Street.

More photos and information









see more here

The ancient forests of North America have almost completely disappeared due to robber barons such as Weyerhaeuser. The company first grabbed lands held in public trust in 1900 and continues its pillage today: in May 2008 Weyerhaeuser cut a dirty deal with Plum Creek Timber in Montana which netted the two forest liquidators a total of almost $700 million in tax breaks. We continue to give legitimacy to the annihilation of nature by making loggers into folk heros and by accepting ruthless capitalists as cultural patrons. The Forest History Society proudly proclaims that its existance is largely due to German immigrant Frederick ("Timber King") Weyerhaeuser, and his "personal dedication to preserving the history of the industry that built his family's fortune." The Society goes even further and pretentiously claims to be "unique as the only organization on the planet solely dedicated to preserving forest and conservation history." Back in 1944, Weyerhaeuser's logging propaganda was more directly shown in a series of murals (right).(see link)





Trees as curiosities

In British Columbia..Cathedral Canyon
On 3 May 2006 a group of forest activists and members of the Friends of Cathedral Grove (FROG) set off on an exploratory expedition up the Cameron River into the poorly known and inaccessible Cathedral Canyon (right). They made the shocking discovery that ancient trees in the primaeval and steep elevation forest are being clandestinely high graded for their commercial value and helicopter logged by the Island Timberlands contractors of Brookfield (formerly Brascan, Weyerhaeuser, MacMillan Bloedel). The pristine Cathedral Canyon is the centrepiece of the proposed protection plan to expand Cathedral Grove to a total of 2000 hectares and the destruction of its rare and irreplaceable big trees by the multinational logging industry is yet another assault on BC's endangered ancient fir forest ecosystem.

This site has links to tree sites in Europe
European Tree Sites

Giant Trees Registry, Save the Big Trees!

I may go big tree hunting soon...maybe I'll see if my city has a tree registry, it should because it claims to be it is the city of trees. I might like to begin mapping big trees. That would be fun to do, and might keep people from being abl eto cut them down for money purposes. I think the planet and our oxygen supply is more important than a view of the water. I did a search, Go figure, the City of Trees has no tree registry.



This is a Thuja Plicata, aka Western Red Cedar. It lives in the Olympic National Park. I found it in the records of the National Register of Big trees. This tree is 63.41 feet in circumference, well was in 1945 when it was last measured..lol.

"Ecosystem Services:
It would cost $634.85 to replace the storm water control service provided by this tree, based on the engineering standards used in the building industry. The same tree removes 3.59 lbs. of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone and particulate matter every year."

The large Sequoia on that site gives these stats..
"Ecosystem Services:
It would cost $3589.32 to replace the storm water control service provided by this tree, based on the engineering standards used in the building industry. The same tree removes 20.32 lbs. of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone and particulate matter every year."

Neighbors just took out a 40 year old weeping willow, to enhance the view from the McMansion they built next door. It caused the water table to rise and my house flooded. The tree was the largest willow I have ever seen. I imagine it was about 17 feet around. It provided a wall of greenery that gave privacy from the hillside and was so beautiful. Next these new neighbors,( not yet moved in), asked if we wanted our large cedars cut down. Really! Anyway, now we have a big (ugly) house next door and we have to plant some plicata's or daodara's or giant green thuja's to get our privacy back. The tree incidentally wasn't on their lot, but I imagine they asked to have taken out for their views sake.
Steam rising here! :)

I think a view is becoming over rated here, Afterall, the beach is a 3 block walk away.

I wish I had thought to get this tree registered, maybe it would still be standing. Trees grow faster here than any place on earth. A Plicata grows 6 ft a year.

Any big trees near you? Save the big trees!

More Big Trees ( found on the internet) In British Columbia old trees are aged up to 2000 years. This one with my daughter and Jeremy was taken at Stanley Park recently.

More big trees...






At least 3 if not 4 of these are in Washington.

Trees of Washington's Olympic peninsula
"This land of breathtaking mountains and rich, green forests, is a paradise to lovers of big trees. For giant trees, the Olympic Peninsula is equaled by few and surpassed by no areas. Only parts of nearby Vancouver Island, as well as Oregon, California and Australia, still have trees over 300 ft tall. To most earthlings a "tall" tree is 75 to 100 ft. Thousands of Douglas firs on the Peninsula don't even branch that near to the ground! Sitka spruces and red cedars stand whose trunks are 20 ft through! The very bark on ancient firs can exceed a foot in thickness.
About a hundred years ago, pioneers logged the raw, dripping forests, seeking extra-large trees even as we do now. But the motives have altered dramatically. Early loggers took pride in felling the mightiest specimens; we, their descendants, enshrine our record-size trees, admiring with joy the inspiring sight of nature's ultimate growth. Excess fascinates us, whether it be wealth, celebrity, athletic achievement or size.
So, naturally, we wonder: where are the largest trees? Olympic National Park employees receive so many requests for big tree information that a list of the record trees within the park is kept on file. The State has an ambitious big tree program sponsored by the U.W. Al Carder, a retired professor of plant science who lives north of Victoria has spent years writing a global account of big trees. It is long overdue, therefore, to give credit and recognition to the Peninsula's outstanding trees -- for this is truly the land of the giants..... Presently, the tallest tree known in the whole Northwest is a 326 ft fir in the Queets Valley. Well-documented examples around 400 ft once stood, though this is hard for most people to believe. The thickest trunks of firs presently are 44 1⁄2 ft around, which is a mere shadow of the bygone giants' girths and is easily surpassed by numerous spruces and cedars."