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8. Giant Sequoia Groves

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California Forests and Woodlands
This chapter is in the book California Forests and Woodlands
8 Giant Sequoia Groves Amid the Mixed Conifer Forests of the western Sierran slope, in certain special places, stand groves of the largest living tree on our planet, the Giant Sequoia or Big Tree (Sequoiadendrongigtmteum). Visualize trees 30 feet across (9 m) that would fill an average city street and block out buildings across the way; trees 300 feet high (90 m) that, lying on their sides, would cover a stadium football field from goal line to goal line; trees that take forty-five paces to walk around. These are the monarchs of the tree world. Never occurring in pure stands, Giant Sequoias, nonetheless, domi-nate the forests where they live, both in beauty and in size. Their com-panion Sugar Pines, White Firs, and Incense Cedars pale to insignifi-cance alongside the immensity and majesty of the Sequoias. Seventy-five groves of Giant Sequoias lie scattered over a narrow 260-mile-long belt (416 km) in the southern and central Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 4,500 to 7,500 feet (1,350 to 2,250 m). Most of them, including the largest groves, Redwood Mountain and Giant For-est, occur in the southern one-third of their range, in or near Sequoia/ Kings Canyon National Parks. The largest individual trees include the General Sherman, Lincoln, and Washington trees of Sequoia National Park, General Grant of Kings Canyon National Park, the Boole tree of Sequoia National For-est, and the Grizzly Giant of Yosemite National Park's Mariposa Grove. General Sherman gets top billing as the most massive living tree on earth, 36 feet across (11 m) at the base and 275 feet high (83 m), 111
© 1994 University of California Press, Berkeley

8 Giant Sequoia Groves Amid the Mixed Conifer Forests of the western Sierran slope, in certain special places, stand groves of the largest living tree on our planet, the Giant Sequoia or Big Tree (Sequoiadendrongigtmteum). Visualize trees 30 feet across (9 m) that would fill an average city street and block out buildings across the way; trees 300 feet high (90 m) that, lying on their sides, would cover a stadium football field from goal line to goal line; trees that take forty-five paces to walk around. These are the monarchs of the tree world. Never occurring in pure stands, Giant Sequoias, nonetheless, domi-nate the forests where they live, both in beauty and in size. Their com-panion Sugar Pines, White Firs, and Incense Cedars pale to insignifi-cance alongside the immensity and majesty of the Sequoias. Seventy-five groves of Giant Sequoias lie scattered over a narrow 260-mile-long belt (416 km) in the southern and central Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 4,500 to 7,500 feet (1,350 to 2,250 m). Most of them, including the largest groves, Redwood Mountain and Giant For-est, occur in the southern one-third of their range, in or near Sequoia/ Kings Canyon National Parks. The largest individual trees include the General Sherman, Lincoln, and Washington trees of Sequoia National Park, General Grant of Kings Canyon National Park, the Boole tree of Sequoia National For-est, and the Grizzly Giant of Yosemite National Park's Mariposa Grove. General Sherman gets top billing as the most massive living tree on earth, 36 feet across (11 m) at the base and 275 feet high (83 m), 111
© 1994 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Acknowledgments IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. How to Recognize California's Conifers 3
  6. 2. Redwood Forests 12
  7. 3. North Coastal Forests 28
  8. 4. Douglas-Fir/ Mixed-Evergreen Forests 43
  9. 5. Closed-Cone Pines and Cypresses 58
  10. 6. Foothill Woodland 75
  11. 7. Midmountain Forests (Mixed Conifers) 91
  12. 8. Giant Sequoia Groves 111
  13. 9. Red Firs and Lodgepole Pines 123
  14. 10. Subalpine Forests 142
  15. 11. Pinyon Pine-Juniper Woodland 162
  16. 12. The Klamath Region 176
  17. 13. Battle Lines 189
  18. Selected References 193
  19. Index 201
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520916920-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Acknowledgments IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. How to Recognize California's Conifers 3
  6. 2. Redwood Forests 12
  7. 3. North Coastal Forests 28
  8. 4. Douglas-Fir/ Mixed-Evergreen Forests 43
  9. 5. Closed-Cone Pines and Cypresses 58
  10. 6. Foothill Woodland 75
  11. 7. Midmountain Forests (Mixed Conifers) 91
  12. 8. Giant Sequoia Groves 111
  13. 9. Red Firs and Lodgepole Pines 123
  14. 10. Subalpine Forests 142
  15. 11. Pinyon Pine-Juniper Woodland 162
  16. 12. The Klamath Region 176
  17. 13. Battle Lines 189
  18. Selected References 193
  19. Index 201
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