World's tallest tree is cooked alive

The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 06/01/03 | Paul Pritchard and Mark Townsend

[Pokey78]

It had stood unharmed by man for almost four centuries. Dominating the lush Tasmanian rainforest, the tree known as El Grande, the largest hardwood plant on earth, was revered by environmentalists and tourists alike. Many came to gape in awe; it stood four times higher than Gateshead's Angel of the North. Not any more. The 79-metre (260ft) tree has been accidentally 'cooked to death' after a fire started to provide woodchips raged out of control. 'This is akin to blasting at a Sydney demolition site and saying "Whoops, we got the Opera House as well",' said Bob Brown, a senator for Tasmania's Green party.

Furious biologists are now demanding an inquiry into the demise of the 350-year-old eucalyptus regnans. On an island where the Greens attract a fifth of the votes, El Grande's torching has sparked a ferocious row with a state government accused of being unfit to protect one of the world's most diverse remaining rainforests.

Independent consultant botanist Alan Gray declared El Grande dead last month. His post mortem described the tree as having been cooked from the inside.

El Grande's destruction has intensified scrutiny of the burning of Tasmania's forests to provide woodchip for export. Vast tracts of forest are hacked down before helicopters drop napalm to burn away the remaining vegetation.

[b4its2late]

Tastes like chicken?

[Torie]

Eucs are one of more incendiary trees on this planet. The burn hot and fast, with their somewhat porous wood.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Guess we better get this on a prayer thread! /sarcasm

[Consort]

Now it's called El Cinder.

[gitmo]

Royal Eucalyptus Carcoal.

[lodwick]

Ooopsie.

[Ol' Sox]

This is not the world's tallest tree. Its not even close.

That honor belongs to a redwood near Ukiah, CA which stands 367.5 feet, the "Mendocino Tree" at Montgomery Woods State Park.

[Kevin Curry]

[FreedomPoster]

>>a state government accused of being unfit to protect one of the world's most diverse remaining rainforests.

I feel the same way about the Greens in the Forest Service that have mismanaged our Federal lands such that we had all the out-of-control forest fires of the last few years.

Conservation is a good thing, in the original TR sense.

[DB]

They claim the tallest "hardwood" tree. I never thought of Eucalyptus as being a hard wood though...

[Torie]

Eucs are not a hard wood. The railroads found that out. They planet a Euc forest in Orange County way back when, for RR ties, and found that the wood was too soft. Today, intermixed in the forest are expensive homes. Sad, but due to a nasty insect, many of the trees have had to come down, although it does not attack all species in the same way, and thus the forest in a thinned out fashion remains.

[DB]

350 years isn't very old compared to California Sequoias and Redwoods. Many are more than 3,000 years old and still growing…

[Zipporah]

"cooked to death"?? Bizarre way to put it.. are they trying to humanize a tree?

[Pukin Dog]

So what?

The price of wood chips just went down due to over abundance of product. Dig a hole, plant another one. Move on.

[widowithfoursons]

The first Israeli settlers in the late 1800's planted the Eucs in the swamps because they grew so fast and absorbed so much water that it dried up the swamps and left very fertile ground. Definitely a porous tree. Plus they grew something like six feet a year and provided a windbreak.

[gcruse]

Wooden hew, no...

[LonePalm]

Now it's called El Cinder.

Anything that tall should be called by it's proper name, Lou El Cinder. I don't care what name it took on later in life.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Dog Gone]

When the Greens grow up and finally discover that trees are a crop like any other desirable plant on the planet, instead of having souls, then I will take them seriously.

Just joking.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

"...the largest hardwood plant on earth..."

This is not the world's tallest tree. Its not even close.

The article doesn't claim that it was the tallest tree.

Redwoods aren't hardwoods they're softwoods. Hardwoods are dicotyledonous. Softwoods are coniferous.