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Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

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Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#51

Post by daveslash »

"There are an estimated half a million -->redwoodsgiant sequoias (arrows mine)

Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are two different trees!

Note: It seems that my California nomenclature uses "Redwood" to refer specifically to Coast Redwoods, whereas other regions use "Redwood" to refer to all 3 species of Sequoioideae (Coast Redwood, Giant Sequoia, and Dawn Redwoods"). Also, funnily enough, Coast Redwoods are of the genius "Sequoia", whereas Giant Sequoia are of the genus "Sequoiadendron"

I've long been aware of a thriving population of S. Sempervirens (Coast Redwoods)[1] and a non-zero population of S. Giganteum, but such a thriving population of S. Giganteum is new to me.

The article focuses specifically on S. giganteum, but the references to "redwoods" throw me off.... I'm sure it's accurate, but I'm going to have to read the source paper.

For those in Southern California, there's a grove of Giant Sequoia's on Mount San Jacinto that were planted in the 70's by the Forest Service. [2]

[1] https://www.redwoodworld.co.uk/locations.htm

[2] https://gizmodo.com/these-sequoia-trees-are-thriving-175-mil...

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#54

Post by mapt »

omnibrain wrote: post #37
enriquto wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you can plant a very large number of trees which live to maturity and what, then? When plants die, their matter is decomposed by fungi and all their carbon is released back into the atmosphere (unless the dead plant matter is buried). The act of planting trees, in itself, is carbon neutral. Not good, not bad, just irrelevant to the presence of carbon: the carbon is still in the cycle of life within the biosp…

> and what, then? When plants die, their matter is decomposed by fungi and all their carbon is released back into the atmosphere (unless the dead plant matter is buried). Why does every measure have to solve the problem? Buying time is just as important. We start mammoth groves now. Buy time for measures that solve the problem and win huge ressources (building wood, recreational space, erosion prevention) for the fut…

It's not "Mammoth groves" if you want to meaningfully "buy time". A grove is an open tree stand a few acres wide. That's not what we're talking about. It's not adding a little bit of tree seed to unused spaces. It's inverting our footprint entirely.

It's planting the entirety of the UK, every year, indefinitely. It's employing a few million people with heavy machinery to walk from one side of the planet to the other and bulldoze every farmhouse they find, leaving behind mixed saplings at a wide spacing in the fields.

It's just way easier to decarbonize most of our society than it is to spend the land on forest carbon fixation. It's a lot of land, more land than we'd ever agree to dedicate.

And I would point out that planting trees and then sequestering that carbon periodically with charcoal production is by far the easiest way. Every other technique is ten or a hundred or a thousand times lower payoff.

If you want to slow things down, you have to mostly stop burning fossil fuels. We need to tax the hell out of them, we need to shut down new projects, we need to electrify anything feasible, we need to heavily subsidize and aggressively plan for rapidly scaling renewables. When we're at a 90% reduction in fossil fuel usage, then we can re-assess priorities because we've both "bought some time" and eliminated all the low-hanging fruit that's easier than deliberate carbon fixation projects.

More likely, we'll keep on steamrolling ahead, and something like sulfur geoengineering will be put forward as a way to stave off the worst effects for a while.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#55

Post by Balgair »

nuc1e0n wrote: post #44

Is the timber they produce good quality for building with? I might like to invest in sequoia farms for carbon capture credits then timber later on.

I'm not a carpenter, but my old house was built out of redwood.

Never had a problem with it and redwood keeps most of the pests and bugs out. I think that's due to all the tannin in the wood.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#56

Post by badcppdev »

pjc50 wrote: post #10
pvaldes wrote: post #3

"[Each Sequoiadendron tree] can potentially pull an average of 85 kilograms of carbon out of the atmosphere per year". I will try to remind this phrase, specially the per year part.

Or about one air passenger trip to Europe. ("just plant trees" is not a viable solution to climate change unless you can plant a very large number of trees which live to maturity)

One passenger trip to Europe from where? It's the internet. No one knows where you live!

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#57

Post by [deleted] »

pjc50 wrote: post #10
pvaldes wrote: post #3

"[Each Sequoiadendron tree] can potentially pull an average of 85 kilograms of carbon out of the atmosphere per year". I will try to remind this phrase, specially the per year part.

Or about one air passenger trip to Europe. ("just plant trees" is not a viable solution to climate change unless you can plant a very large number of trees which live to maturity)

[deleted]

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#58

Post by s1artibartfast »

rob74 wrote: post #34
tokai wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3128 hectares were planted with trees in UK just last year. Remember that trees are a crop, and most forests in Europe are plantations. https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/2023/06/16/england-tr...

Trees are a crop, but the very slow growing sequoias are more of a status symbol (as the article also mentions). And not only in the UK, many parks, botanical gardens etc. all over Europe just have to have at least one sequoia...

but the number quoted for the UK includes the costal redwood, which IS one of the most popular farmed woods.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#59

Post by darkr »

rob74 wrote: post #33
Chris2048 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

perhaps the seedlings can be cultivated manually then, until they can survive without intervention - then they should last a long time.

Well yeah, I mean that's nothing new - it's called a tree nursery. But, as the BBC article states, the chances of them reproducing in the wild are slim...

If we've learned anything from Jurassic Park, it's that life...finds a way

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#60

Post by Lio »

yitchelle wrote: post #38
m-i-l wrote: post #19

There are pictures and locations of many at https://www.redwoodworld.co.uk/ . See also HN discussion of redwoodworld.co.uk at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28047458 . (Not affiliated, but I did submit details of my local sequoias).

I noticed that redwoodworld.co.uk had saplings for sale. Very intriguing.

Yes I agree.

I love Giant Sequoias and have fantasised many times about purchasing a sapling to guerilla plant in my local woods. I've never quite found the perfect spot to do it though.

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