It's 369 feet high. That's about twice the size of the Statue of Liberty (minus the foundation). I like this tree. The people who discovered it have never revealed its true location, which is somewhere in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. And though it's got a nickname, "Stratosphere Giant," it is no longer the giant. It's been trumped.
After its short four-year reign as World's Tallest, two hikers, Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor, were deep in another section of another park, Redwood National Park (purchased in 1978 during the Carter administration) when they came across a new stand of trees, taller than anyone had ever seen before. The tallest of the tall is 379 feet 4 inches, 10 feet taller than the Giant. It's now called "Hyperion."
We have the precise measurements because after Chris and Michael announced their discovery, a team of scientists, led by Humboldt State University ecologist Steve Sillett, climbed to the top of the tree and dropped a tape down to the ground. Some things are still that simple. Steve's colleague, Jim Spickler (check out his biceps! scary), repeated the climb and brought a camera, so we can go with him. This video, which comes with dramatic music in all the right places, is, to use a much overused word, but I'll use it anyway..."awesome":
For example, if you like wood, Hyperion is not the biggest tree in the world. By volume, there are bigger hunks of living wood in the California forest. A REALLY big one, by volume, is this guy ...
But nobody's going to be chopping up Del Norte Titan. Donald Trump can drool all he likes, but these 15 blue whales' worth of lumber will stay vertical somewhere in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in California, breathing like trees do, pulling CO2 out of the air and giving us back oxygen.
That's the real gift of trees. Yes, we live under roofs made of wood, surround ourselves with woody things, but — basically, what we breathe out, they breathe in.
As the poet Bill Yake writes:
Trees are our lungs turned inside out
& inhale our visible chilled breath.
Some things are still that simple.Our lungs are trees turned inside out
& inhale their clear exhalations.
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