Trunks of Washington

[Cruiser]

Thank you for posting your experience and perspective. This thread is inspiring and a gold nugget of reference. I appreciate your efforts to catalogue and share these impressive behemoths!

I sure hope you continue to share.

I’m glad others find value in these musings. Documenting this stuff is part of my job and a compulsion from which I cannot escape. Not that I want to.

There are forms, features, and processes in the wild that are under or not represented in bonsai but could be. At first glance, many of them are not aesthetically pleasing, they require context to be beautiful. So one of my goals is to provide that context by sharing information about species ecology and stand dynamics.

 

[PerryB]

I love this thread!
Thanks for posting all these images.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Pictures rarely do a trunk justice! This one’s 10’ 10”. Dbh above the debris skirt. Total height is 282’.
Over centuries Doug-firs shed enough bark and debris to create a mound around their bases, effectively raising the ground level around themselves. As far as I know, they do not layer, so the actual root base is probably a good 5’ beneath the mound.

Please tell me this ancient giant is not slated for harvest.

 

[Cruiser]

Please tell me this ancient giant is not slated for harvest.

It’s in a National Park, so no harvesting. Also, it’s protected old growth and probably has a name.
Even if someone wanted to harvest it, extraction would be a logistical nightmare or impossible given the surrounding property.

There are no large mills left in the state that can handle a tree like this.
After most giants were cut in the 18 and early 1900s mills did away with that equipment. The ideal size nowadays is much smaller. A top end diameter of 26” is considered over-size.

My take is that it is morally wrong to cut trees of this caliber.