Science Diary: Redwoods - Tallest Tree: The Pulse of the Planet daily radio program offers free legal online mp3 downloads, exploring the world of sound in nature, culture and science, with audio adventures, world music, extraordinary sound portraits, science diaries, and nature ring-tones; an amazing sonic experience.



Airdate: Jun 02, 2008
Scientist: Steve Sillett

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Science Diary: Redwoods - Tallest Tree

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Amidst a clearcut forest and host to a pesky woodpecker, the world's tallest tree is a remarkable specimen.
Transcript:

music; ambience: rope creaking, birds singing, walkie-talkie

So we're in Redwood National Park, about to climb the tallest tree on earth to re-measure its total height.

Whats life like at the top of the worlds tallest trees? Well, ask Steve Sillett, an ecologist at Humboldt State University in Northern California. Hes tracking the growth of giant redwoods, along with grad student, Anthony Ambrose.

Okay, Anthony, go ahead and untie the anchor So we are at the top of the tallest known living tree. And it appears to have not grown at all in height since last year this time. Total height is still 115.55. Down at 112 meters, it grew about .1 centimeters, or 1 millimeter in diameter. So the thing's just eking along here, it's not doing much. Which isn't, I guess, too surprising. I expected a few centimeters of growth. But none is evident.

Ambrose: It appears to be reaching the limits of its potential height.

Sillett: I think it might be. The other thing I'm noticing up here is that, more of that woodpecker damage. At about 114.3 meters there's some peck marks on the trunk. And there's fresh pitch oozing out of the wounds. So that can't be helping. But it's nice to see that the top is still alive. It's just so improbable to me that this tree even exists. The landscape has been logged pretty extensively, and those clearcut edges came within a couple hundred feet of the tree. Why this particular tree is so darn tall, I just still can't get over it. There's no way we could have predicted it. And yet

Ambrose: Here it is.

Sillett: Here it is, and it's got a live top, despite the woodpeckers.

Well here more about Steve Silletts research on redwoods in future programs.

Please visit pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planets Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. Im Jim Metzner.

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Science Diary: Redwoods - Tallest Tree