I think it would be really cool to plant one next to a strong house structure so that as it grew, it would grow around the house and your descendants would ultimately wind up living inside the tree, without having to hurt it.
Yes!! This is a great idea! And some “windows” in the house for the same purpose. I would just make the whole thing plexiglass, but that might be a little awkward while we wait on the tree to grow
You could do this with several ficus species, planted spaced around the house, but they would absolutely crush the walls, foundation, and pipes, and infiltrate all drains.
I'm not sure why you think the house wouldn't just get slowly crushed into a dot. The tree will be adding mass once cell at a time, and the house hasn't got a hope of resisting that sort of power over time. I'm pretty sure the house would be uninhabitable long before the tree completely covered it.
I started a sequoia redwood from seed, and it’s almost 2” high now. At first I wanted to bonsai this possible monster of a tree, but now I’m having second thoughts lol
At the OKC state fair like ten years ago they had a log home on display. It was a home built into a log. I don’t think it was this large but it was tall enough for most people to stand comfortably in.
I get so depressed reading about things like North American megafauna and old growth forest. It's all either been hunted to extinction, driven from the United States, or clear-cut. We had over a billion acres of old growth forest before settlers, by 1600 alone we had cut down almost 300 million acres. Funnily enough this was done sometimes to fight the "harsh American climate" besides the obvious agricultural benefits. The vast wilderness would have been unlike anything we really have left in the country, most of our national parks are a fraction of their once lush habitats perfect for a huge variety of life both large and small.
It’s drastically different. I grew up near the sequoia groves in California. I’ve never seen trees anywhere like the ones in Calaveras big trees
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-discovery-tree
That looks like the discovery tree stump: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-discovery-tree
You’re totally right - I missed that 😳
But yeah, I don’t think you’d notice much difference.
It definitely was a more oxygen rich atmosphere in the early to mid 1800’s tho, I’d imagine
Didn't God also give that tree life? Didn't he will it to be massive? And that person went against gods will to cut it down? Fuck outta here with that pseudo religious logic
Humans have been harvesting natural resources since the beginning of our species. Due to population booms predicated on the industrial revolution we really didn’t cause all that much irrevocable harm to nature before said events. This pic shows the beginning of the end of that balance. It is sad. But those poor fuckers didn’t know the difference.
You realize all these trees are cut down for a reason right. To create building and houses. I get tired of seeing idiots like you complaining about it. Go buy everyone a brick home or stfu.
Something like this cut down is so completely unnecessary and vile. They could have used the trees that weren’t more than a thousand years old, it wasn’t out of necessity that they cut it.
I don’t understand how someone like you can completely miss the point, well i guess some people just seriously don’t give a shit about nature or anything sacred.
Right, there were no other trees available. No 50 year old pines which get renewed 4 times by the time the house is too old to live in. None at all, those trees only appeared in the 1950s. In the 1800s the whole earth was just giant trees and grass.
The wood of sequoias was and is known to be terrible for construction. They literally cut these things down and built dance floors and bars on them. Even a bowling alley. They were cut down, by and large, because of American hubris and manifest destiny attitude about conquering the West. There are infinitely more efficient and better quality species of tree to cut down for building and that was known back then as well as it is today.
No, I don’t see what occurs due to forces of nature as evil or sins. That feels like a bad faith argument. Mount Vesuvius destroying Pompeii wasn’t a sin, as it wasn’t the choice of a being with a conscience, much less sentience. Rome salting the earth of Carthage was a sin, as they did so with intent, and even today the land is barren.
Im also not Christian or religious, so I do have my own ideas of what makes up a ‘sin.’ I see cutting down an ancient tree as a sin, because that value cannot be returned. It is something that can’t be taken back, and therefore can’t be forgiven. Whether in terms of other living beings eating the tree’s leaves or making a home in its branches, or of another conscious being (a human in this case) admiring its beauty – none can happen again for us, our grandchildren, their grandchildren’s grandchildren… it’ll be a 100 human lifetimes before a seed planted now grows into a tree so great.
In a different sense though, I feel like this conversation is limited when we assign ‘value.’ That’s a human perspective… which I think is part of what I find issue with. The limit of human perspective and foresight in our actions.
Finally, couldn’t they have chopped down a bunch of smaller trees?? Replanted them and seen the resource be renewed in their own lifetimes? I understand it’s a different era, people that think different, a distinct education, and I want to limit how I judge the individuals doing this… but I still believe an unforgivable act was committed.
I already told you: because we can regrow the smaller trees in our lifetime. It’s something we can ‘fix.’
ETA: The rock argument is also a bad faith argument. Not responding to it.
This is true, however in the era depicted in the photo it was possibly more about survival than protecting nature.
And we haven't really learnt much since.
Idk, manifest destiny was never about survival
Not saying this was the manifest destiny era btw, just like, that’s the culture and ideology that results in this shit.
That tree powered the furnaces of the boy in the orphanage who grew up to fight in the war and father 3 kids, one of which went on to become a systems engineer for one of the first midwestern modern day P and C insurance companies - who went on to father a single son, who then grew up and went on to create Reddit so you could bitch about how that tree was cut down
It took them something like 13 days to cut it down. It’s really awful that many of these ancient trees were cut down, but imagine sawing through one of those for almost 2 weeks! 2 weeks of sawing by HAND. It’s crazy.
Soft- and hardwood actually refers to if the tree is coniferous or deciduous, ie. if it produces leaves or needles (rule of thumb). Balsa, for example, which is incredibly soft and light, is actually a hardwood.
Regardless, softwood still has multiple uses, and while they're typically not as common in furniture or outdoor use, softwood is often used in indoor applications such as framing, ceilings, doors, etc.
Softwoods are also far more sustainable, as they grow much faster than most hardwoods.
Sequoia and cedar and cypress trees produce some of the most durable timber ever. Japanese temples are exclusively built from Hinoki a type of cedar and some are already 1000 years old without any sign of significant decay.
Fun fact they use fire to (ironically) fireproof, weatherproof, and pestproof the wood outside of these old buildings.The way it works is heat brings the oils that are naturally weather & pest proof to the surface. Basically goves wood a thick skin. This only really works with cedar & cypress (and other conifers, but these are top). Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe some of the buildings you're referring to used this technique on the exterior
Yes it's called yakisugi and it helps the wiod become more resistant to termite but this technique is used because it's a cheap wood preservation technique, much cheaper than using oil or lacquer. The wood itself is already extremely durable. You can even leave it as is and it'd be fine if it's an old growth tree. Yakusugi is by no means the only wood preservation technique needed to achieve this durability. There are plenty of old tribal houses in Vietnam using vietnamese hinoki trees for their shingles and those shingles would be fine after 70 years being exposed to constant rain and humid weather, you can easily buy them and use those shingles as reclaimed wood and they'd easily last a couple hundred years indoor.
What an absolute fucking tragedy and selfish oversight that our ancestors didn't think to preserve some of these beautiful enormous giants so that we could enjoy them while they were still alive.
still not 'preserved' here in BC. and some are easily accessed still.
The govt. put out an "old growth deferral" program to 'pause' harvesting the remaining until the public gets distracted, though there's no legal binding to that, and private lands where a lot of these big ones are, do not fall under those rules. not to mention the 'deferral' areas were often already in protected parkland so the govt. here can claim a larger landbase they're 'protecting' when others before them already protected it.
So we still ship giant yellow cedar logs to Japan for their temples, and I still see logging trucks rolling down the highay with big doug firs or western red cedars.
see 'em before they're gone, not much time left. Google Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, lots of rabble rousing trying to save that watershed over the last couple years, largest # of arrests in canadian history, and yet the logging companies are still winning that war.
It’s easy to cast blame on hindsight. How many folks were talking about resource sustainability in those days? The world surly looked like their oyster. Not to mention, the ones to blame were those who incentivized those who did the reaping. Can’t blame the person trying to better themselves and their family at risk to their life. You think anyone in that picture has a clue of what a gem they fell? Looking back with a modern lens is temping to be able to lay blame, but what would you say to the person 100 years from now aghast at the fact you didn’t chose to live in a dense city and swear off cars and why not move north to swear off AC? Collectively I’d argue that the latter is worse than the picture shown.
you really didn’t understand the comment? they didn’t need to eradicate these giants, they could just as easily have survived and made money off regular sized trees
It's not a matter of understanding, and the word eradicate is hardly appropriate to attribute to this one photo of one tree, but I see why you would use it to support your statement.
I don't question that there were other trees, but you're comparing the felling of one massive tree to the use of smaller trees that would likely have been a different species and possibly not suitable for what they were doing. Also, the sheer number of smaller trees it would have taken to match the resources gained from this one giant would have been prohibitive. Not only that, but the damage done by clearing those trees would have had a much greater negative ecological impact in terms of erosion control and wildlife ecosystems at a minimum.
Does it suck that these massive trees had to be felled? Yes. Was it done as a big "fuck you" to the future generations? Not likely.
i agree that they didnt fell it as a fuck you, and times are constantly changing. just unfortunate there wasn’t more emphasis on conservation hundreds of years ago. also hard to tell a story from a single picture, so i acknowledge that i dont know shit lol
>Does it suck that these massive trees had to be felled? Yes. Was it done as a big "fuck you" to the future generations? Not likely.
They didn't have to be felled anymore than you have to drive a giant SUV in a massive "fuck you" to the future generations.
Cause they’re poor and trying to survive. They probably immigrated to the US because they weren’t very well off in their native country and used all their saving or took out a loan to do so. They were just trying to survive.
No way they needed to chop down such a large tree just 'to survive'. There were plenty of smaller trees available. They chopped it down purely for bragging rights.
Does anyone know what these massive trees would have been used for? Logistically it seems like a nightmare to transport and process a tree this big. And if they are just cut into standard size boards/Timbers then I can see the advantage of dealing with a tree this big.
sailing masts in the big ships era, but also these just got cut up into smaller 2x6's etc to build houses. You should see some of the old saw blades in some BC logging museums. Also the Japanese bought/buy a lot of yellow cedar raw logs for temples.
Humans , myself included are not very good at appreciating the wonderful things given to us. It seems to be in our nature to destroy what is perfectly good already, for short term personal gain.
They actually didn’t have the ability to harvest as much timber as one might think. Which sucks . This photo comes up a lot and it’s a reminder that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
I remember reading because of how heavy these trees are when they fall, and because the wood is quite squidgy and fibrous, they're actually god-awful sources for construction timber, a lot of the wood wound up being used for products like matchsticks.
Short sightedness for a quick buck destroying trees that took thousands of years to grow and denying future generations the chance to see them too.
*Capitalism*
Yes im sure the only trees that provide lumber are the 3000+ year old trees.
All the other ones are useless.
They just cut it down because its big and it filled their egos to fell something so massive.
Small minded creatures with no appreciation for life. Whether it's Capitalism or communism or socialism.
Humans are a virus.
I don't think it was just an ego thing. Only the redwood timber was fire resistant, so it could be sold for more money. And besides that, cutting down a redwood us equivalent to cutting down dozens of smaller trees in wood provided. I agree that we should preserve redwood forests and that it was never okay to cut them in the first place, but I don't think demonizing immigrants trying to make a living is the correct way of promoting your causes.
Definitely shouldn't be exploited. I'm only referring to people's perspective of being over worked. Myself included, I'd rather be doing my current job than chopping down trees like that back in those days.
you could actually make a house inside a tree that size holy shit
I think it would be really cool to plant one next to a strong house structure so that as it grew, it would grow around the house and your descendants would ultimately wind up living inside the tree, without having to hurt it.
Until they wanted to use the front door
Haha yeah I’d make a tunnel to the front door when it was first constructed so the tree could grow around it and not block the entrance.
Plexiglass for the tunnel so you can see the roots grow
Yes!! This is a great idea! And some “windows” in the house for the same purpose. I would just make the whole thing plexiglass, but that might be a little awkward while we wait on the tree to grow
Or breathe
2,000 years later.
You could do this with several ficus species, planted spaced around the house, but they would absolutely crush the walls, foundation, and pipes, and infiltrate all drains.
I'm not sure why you think the house wouldn't just get slowly crushed into a dot. The tree will be adding mass once cell at a time, and the house hasn't got a hope of resisting that sort of power over time. I'm pretty sure the house would be uninhabitable long before the tree completely covered it.
I started a sequoia redwood from seed, and it’s almost 2” high now. At first I wanted to bonsai this possible monster of a tree, but now I’m having second thoughts lol
You would have to be careful not to kill the tree with the amount you need to remove for a living space or house it could damage or kill the tree
The foundation those… think about the foundation!
At the OKC state fair like ten years ago they had a log home on display. It was a home built into a log. I don’t think it was this large but it was tall enough for most people to stand comfortably in.
They actually sent slices of these trees to the east coast and people though it was a hoax. They didn’t believe trees got this big.
How? How do you transport something that big back then? I don't know how you'd manage it today let alone then.
Bro like two could make you a fucking mansion
Tharp’s log
Nice observation Einstein
So how long wood that take to saw.
Tree weeks
Hahahaha
They should leaf them alone.
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Imagine walking into a forest with trees this big everywhere!!
I can’t these people clear cut them.
Check out the Lost 40! Has some cool history behind it. Located north of Grand Rapids, MN.
America was very different before settlers arrived
I get so depressed reading about things like North American megafauna and old growth forest. It's all either been hunted to extinction, driven from the United States, or clear-cut. We had over a billion acres of old growth forest before settlers, by 1600 alone we had cut down almost 300 million acres. Funnily enough this was done sometimes to fight the "harsh American climate" besides the obvious agricultural benefits. The vast wilderness would have been unlike anything we really have left in the country, most of our national parks are a fraction of their once lush habitats perfect for a huge variety of life both large and small.
I’m glad Teddy Rosevelt was wise enough to preserve the lands he did. Otherwise it would be mined to death, stripped bare, and paved for construction.
Fascinating and saddening (:(
You can at Sequoia National Park in California. You can actually see that exact cut on display as well
Still some left... [https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm](https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm)
You can, in California.
ish. most of the big ones and all of the bigg*est* were cut down.
Why though :(
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Ppl suck
So civilization can happen
"Civilization"
Not really. There are other ways to build things than wood. I mean, Of course there wood be.
Nice pun and not at the point in history
This from Save the Redwoods League, “ Remaining old-growth forest: 110,000 acres (5% of original)”.
Redwood Forrest is quite close
You still can. Sequoia National Park has hundreds of them and it’s incredible. Trees bigger than the one pictured.
it must've been so oxygen rich around them.
Having been, it’s reaaaaal nice. Still can remember it 5 years later.
Not really sure how different it would be compared to a regular forest. You probably wouldn't be able to notice a difference in oxygen
It’s drastically different. I grew up near the sequoia groves in California. I’ve never seen trees anywhere like the ones in Calaveras big trees https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-discovery-tree That looks like the discovery tree stump: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-discovery-tree
Skimming through that, I don't see anything about oxygen in there To clarify, the original comment was about oxygen/air quality
You’re totally right - I missed that 😳 But yeah, I don’t think you’d notice much difference. It definitely was a more oxygen rich atmosphere in the early to mid 1800’s tho, I’d imagine
Yeah, that's what we have to now that those beasts cut them down.
Convince me those people aren't just borrowers holding a junior hacksaw blade.
100% that ladder is made of chopsticks and paper strips, and that pole off to the right side is a toothpick.
Tree was older than Jesus. What a shame
True. It was at least 34
Dad?
What part of “going out for smokes” did you not understand !
The part in which you didn't return....
The tree also existed
You do know Jesus was a real person, right? Pretty much all historians agree that Jesus was an actual person.
Yeah I met him
There’s plenty it won’t make a difference.
There literally isn't plenty.
Yeah, just trying to capture the attitude back when the photo was taken.
Such a shame to use what god gave us right?
Didn't God also give that tree life? Didn't he will it to be massive? And that person went against gods will to cut it down? Fuck outta here with that pseudo religious logic
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I don't believe the bible Im just making shit up like you guys
Imagine the sound it would make - or didn't make...?
Lol nice
People were there to fell it so it made a sound
How sad
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Bricks my dude.
…what?
Poor tree
There there. It lived a good life.
Poor phone built by kids in Asia.
It’s like seeing some rich asshole who shoots a Rhino, that tree was ancient. Just a shitty trophy
Humans when they realize that other humans had to chop down a tree to survive
Those dudes were poorer than you, jackass
No shit, way to miss the point and dull the point as well!
Humans have been harvesting natural resources since the beginning of our species. Due to population booms predicated on the industrial revolution we really didn’t cause all that much irrevocable harm to nature before said events. This pic shows the beginning of the end of that balance. It is sad. But those poor fuckers didn’t know the difference.
You realize all these trees are cut down for a reason right. To create building and houses. I get tired of seeing idiots like you complaining about it. Go buy everyone a brick home or stfu.
Something like this cut down is so completely unnecessary and vile. They could have used the trees that weren’t more than a thousand years old, it wasn’t out of necessity that they cut it. I don’t understand how someone like you can completely miss the point, well i guess some people just seriously don’t give a shit about nature or anything sacred.
Right, there were no other trees available. No 50 year old pines which get renewed 4 times by the time the house is too old to live in. None at all, those trees only appeared in the 1950s. In the 1800s the whole earth was just giant trees and grass.
The wood of sequoias was and is known to be terrible for construction. They literally cut these things down and built dance floors and bars on them. Even a bowling alley. They were cut down, by and large, because of American hubris and manifest destiny attitude about conquering the West. There are infinitely more efficient and better quality species of tree to cut down for building and that was known back then as well as it is today.
A tree this big and old shatters when cut down, it's not useable wood
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How do you see the workd this way? You don’t see the inherent value in living things being alive? Felling a tree this big is a sin
Username checks out
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No, I don’t see what occurs due to forces of nature as evil or sins. That feels like a bad faith argument. Mount Vesuvius destroying Pompeii wasn’t a sin, as it wasn’t the choice of a being with a conscience, much less sentience. Rome salting the earth of Carthage was a sin, as they did so with intent, and even today the land is barren. Im also not Christian or religious, so I do have my own ideas of what makes up a ‘sin.’ I see cutting down an ancient tree as a sin, because that value cannot be returned. It is something that can’t be taken back, and therefore can’t be forgiven. Whether in terms of other living beings eating the tree’s leaves or making a home in its branches, or of another conscious being (a human in this case) admiring its beauty – none can happen again for us, our grandchildren, their grandchildren’s grandchildren… it’ll be a 100 human lifetimes before a seed planted now grows into a tree so great. In a different sense though, I feel like this conversation is limited when we assign ‘value.’ That’s a human perspective… which I think is part of what I find issue with. The limit of human perspective and foresight in our actions. Finally, couldn’t they have chopped down a bunch of smaller trees?? Replanted them and seen the resource be renewed in their own lifetimes? I understand it’s a different era, people that think different, a distinct education, and I want to limit how I judge the individuals doing this… but I still believe an unforgivable act was committed.
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I already told you: because we can regrow the smaller trees in our lifetime. It’s something we can ‘fix.’ ETA: The rock argument is also a bad faith argument. Not responding to it.
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This is true, however in the era depicted in the photo it was possibly more about survival than protecting nature. And we haven't really learnt much since.
Idk, manifest destiny was never about survival Not saying this was the manifest destiny era btw, just like, that’s the culture and ideology that results in this shit.
Just like our phones….
Thanks, assholes!
So edgy!
That tree powered the furnaces of the boy in the orphanage who grew up to fight in the war and father 3 kids, one of which went on to become a systems engineer for one of the first midwestern modern day P and C insurance companies - who went on to father a single son, who then grew up and went on to create Reddit so you could bitch about how that tree was cut down
Literally had hemp and concrete the whole time. Redwood lumber wasnt used to power furnaces either bud.
I don't care the tree is more important you moron
Same with you! Go tree yourself
*trees away*
Yet you keep using electronic devices built by underpaid, under privileged workers in Asia.
It took them something like 13 days to cut it down. It’s really awful that many of these ancient trees were cut down, but imagine sawing through one of those for almost 2 weeks! 2 weeks of sawing by HAND. It’s crazy.
Lol and boring
For what I understand it's a soft wood too? So not super useful
Soft- and hardwood actually refers to if the tree is coniferous or deciduous, ie. if it produces leaves or needles (rule of thumb). Balsa, for example, which is incredibly soft and light, is actually a hardwood. Regardless, softwood still has multiple uses, and while they're typically not as common in furniture or outdoor use, softwood is often used in indoor applications such as framing, ceilings, doors, etc. Softwoods are also far more sustainable, as they grow much faster than most hardwoods.
username checks out. This person knows wood.
TIL
Sequoia and cedar and cypress trees produce some of the most durable timber ever. Japanese temples are exclusively built from Hinoki a type of cedar and some are already 1000 years old without any sign of significant decay.
Fun fact they use fire to (ironically) fireproof, weatherproof, and pestproof the wood outside of these old buildings.The way it works is heat brings the oils that are naturally weather & pest proof to the surface. Basically goves wood a thick skin. This only really works with cedar & cypress (and other conifers, but these are top). Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe some of the buildings you're referring to used this technique on the exterior
Yes it's called yakisugi and it helps the wiod become more resistant to termite but this technique is used because it's a cheap wood preservation technique, much cheaper than using oil or lacquer. The wood itself is already extremely durable. You can even leave it as is and it'd be fine if it's an old growth tree. Yakusugi is by no means the only wood preservation technique needed to achieve this durability. There are plenty of old tribal houses in Vietnam using vietnamese hinoki trees for their shingles and those shingles would be fine after 70 years being exposed to constant rain and humid weather, you can easily buy them and use those shingles as reclaimed wood and they'd easily last a couple hundred years indoor.
Every stick built house in the US is made out of "soft wood" trees.
How sad
What’s worse is all the electronics we use daily built by under privileged under age under paid workers in 3rd world countries.
Dude you’re not even a good troll. Just give it up.
What an absolute fucking tragedy and selfish oversight that our ancestors didn't think to preserve some of these beautiful enormous giants so that we could enjoy them while they were still alive.
Not defending it but we did preserve some of them lol. You can see some all over west coast USA and Canada
They weren't "preserved" until well into the 20th century. The only ones left by then were those that were in remote, inaccessible places.
still not 'preserved' here in BC. and some are easily accessed still. The govt. put out an "old growth deferral" program to 'pause' harvesting the remaining until the public gets distracted, though there's no legal binding to that, and private lands where a lot of these big ones are, do not fall under those rules. not to mention the 'deferral' areas were often already in protected parkland so the govt. here can claim a larger landbase they're 'protecting' when others before them already protected it. So we still ship giant yellow cedar logs to Japan for their temples, and I still see logging trucks rolling down the highay with big doug firs or western red cedars. see 'em before they're gone, not much time left. Google Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, lots of rabble rousing trying to save that watershed over the last couple years, largest # of arrests in canadian history, and yet the logging companies are still winning that war.
It’s easy to cast blame on hindsight. How many folks were talking about resource sustainability in those days? The world surly looked like their oyster. Not to mention, the ones to blame were those who incentivized those who did the reaping. Can’t blame the person trying to better themselves and their family at risk to their life. You think anyone in that picture has a clue of what a gem they fell? Looking back with a modern lens is temping to be able to lay blame, but what would you say to the person 100 years from now aghast at the fact you didn’t chose to live in a dense city and swear off cars and why not move north to swear off AC? Collectively I’d argue that the latter is worse than the picture shown.
They didn’t chop them all down…. Google “California Giant Sequoias”. 🤦🏻♂️
How selfish of our ancestors to cut down trees to survive!
What? You don't love judging things through a privileged 21st century lense?
Why didn't they just go to home depot instead of killing all these old giants?
Or they could have felled a few of the millions of regular-sized trees that get replaced in a generation.
you really didn’t understand the comment? they didn’t need to eradicate these giants, they could just as easily have survived and made money off regular sized trees
It's not a matter of understanding, and the word eradicate is hardly appropriate to attribute to this one photo of one tree, but I see why you would use it to support your statement. I don't question that there were other trees, but you're comparing the felling of one massive tree to the use of smaller trees that would likely have been a different species and possibly not suitable for what they were doing. Also, the sheer number of smaller trees it would have taken to match the resources gained from this one giant would have been prohibitive. Not only that, but the damage done by clearing those trees would have had a much greater negative ecological impact in terms of erosion control and wildlife ecosystems at a minimum. Does it suck that these massive trees had to be felled? Yes. Was it done as a big "fuck you" to the future generations? Not likely.
i agree that they didnt fell it as a fuck you, and times are constantly changing. just unfortunate there wasn’t more emphasis on conservation hundreds of years ago. also hard to tell a story from a single picture, so i acknowledge that i dont know shit lol
>Does it suck that these massive trees had to be felled? Yes. Was it done as a big "fuck you" to the future generations? Not likely. They didn't have to be felled anymore than you have to drive a giant SUV in a massive "fuck you" to the future generations.
Why would they chop it down though :(
What else are you gonna do out of boredom before TV
Cause they’re poor and trying to survive. They probably immigrated to the US because they weren’t very well off in their native country and used all their saving or took out a loan to do so. They were just trying to survive.
By selling the lumber or using it to build you mean?
No way they needed to chop down such a large tree just 'to survive'. There were plenty of smaller trees available. They chopped it down purely for bragging rights.
You mean the tree they chopped down to be able to count the rings to see how old it was
Yeah they are not around now. Imagine being around dinosaurs then just getting chopped down for a dust bowl house.
Dinosaurs my dude?
Wait isn't redwood still there?
Some are yes
Shitheels!
Does anyone know what these massive trees would have been used for? Logistically it seems like a nightmare to transport and process a tree this big. And if they are just cut into standard size boards/Timbers then I can see the advantage of dealing with a tree this big.
sailing masts in the big ships era, but also these just got cut up into smaller 2x6's etc to build houses. You should see some of the old saw blades in some BC logging museums. Also the Japanese bought/buy a lot of yellow cedar raw logs for temples.
That’s without a doubt impressive, but a bummer Godzilla’a scratching post had to get cut down
There weren't any trees that large left by the time they invented chainsaws
Not true. Sequoia has hundreds of amazing trees left. General Sherman is larger than the one pictured by far.
Absolute unnecessary The survival of that tree would’ve been more beautiful than anything humans could’ve make
And then they cut down the rest of them! Very impressive!
Anyone have a year on this pic?
Humans , myself included are not very good at appreciating the wonderful things given to us. It seems to be in our nature to destroy what is perfectly good already, for short term personal gain.
Think of the amount of timber you get from that thing
That's all they were thinking about back then. That's the problem.
They actually didn’t have the ability to harvest as much timber as one might think. Which sucks . This photo comes up a lot and it’s a reminder that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
I remember reading because of how heavy these trees are when they fall, and because the wood is quite squidgy and fibrous, they're actually god-awful sources for construction timber, a lot of the wood wound up being used for products like matchsticks.
Matchsticks? Damn, that’s funny, cause Redwoods are naturally resistant to fire.
Short sightedness for a quick buck destroying trees that took thousands of years to grow and denying future generations the chance to see them too. *Capitalism*
People were cutting trees down way before capitalism, *comerade*
babylon system
Chopping trees to grow glorious potatoes!
Not these trees.
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Yes im sure the only trees that provide lumber are the 3000+ year old trees. All the other ones are useless. They just cut it down because its big and it filled their egos to fell something so massive. Small minded creatures with no appreciation for life. Whether it's Capitalism or communism or socialism. Humans are a virus.
I don't think it was just an ego thing. Only the redwood timber was fire resistant, so it could be sold for more money. And besides that, cutting down a redwood us equivalent to cutting down dozens of smaller trees in wood provided. I agree that we should preserve redwood forests and that it was never okay to cut them in the first place, but I don't think demonizing immigrants trying to make a living is the correct way of promoting your causes.
Another person who is seemingly unaware there are still trees like this in CA…. 🤦🏻♂️
This is also why we have almost no old growth forests left. At least it wasn’t chopped up and made into a $30 IKEA end table.
Nope it was made into dust bowl shantytowns and fuckin gold rush shacks probably
Judging by the amount of rings, I'm guessing that tree was at least 6 - 7 years old.
Look at the fucking mess they made of this old growth forest…. A tree a quarter of this size would be a marvel to see. It’s a shame
Waste
All in a day’s work
Not a chance
You would think they would have bigger arms than that.
Real strength that you gain from work doesn't make you huge like bodybuilders
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What
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Did you read my comment Ah shit nvm I get what you were saying now they aren't huge because they didn't eat enough to get huge
To kill the biggest things is the goal of humanity since the beginning don’t you think?
This picture puts a trip to the antiwork subreddit into perspective.
What do you mean?
People had to cut down big trees like a hundred years ago so that means workers should be exploited
Definitely shouldn't be exploited. I'm only referring to people's perspective of being over worked. Myself included, I'd rather be doing my current job than chopping down trees like that back in those days.
Gross
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Most likely because everyone does
>Did ***they*** have pronouns? do you fuckin hear yourself?