Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWorld's oldest tree turns 4,847 this year and is in a top-secret location
because the world's 2nd oldest tree was cut down by a grad student in 1964.!
Even if people have laid eyes on the world's oldest tree, there's a good chance they didn't realize it. That's because the United States Forest Service keeps all information about the 4,847-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine including its exact location completely under wraps to protect it from any potential vandals, loggers, and researchers who may be interested in chopping it down.
The tree, known as Methuselah, is rumored to be located somewhere on a mountain in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, part of Inyo National Forest in California. Even with that hint, searchers would be hard pressed to find the tree, however. The Forest Service refuses to release even as much as a picture of the tree out of fear that may happen.
While it might sound zany to be so protective over a tree, the Forest Service admittedly has good reason. The New York Times reports that the world's former oldest-known tree, an ancient pine in Nevada's Great Basin National Park, got chopped down by a graduate student in 1964:
There are a few accounts of what happened: The student, Donald R. Currey, said in a PBS documentary that the normal approach to coring a tree was not working and that he wasn't experienced enough to know what to do, so he cut it down with the help of some foresters. Members of the forest service said he got his drill bit stuck in the tree, and so he and the foresters cut it down to remove his tool.
sue4e3
(731 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)Last edited Tue Apr 26, 2016, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)
dreaming about making a 2 x 4 out of that tree and mounting it on the wall next to the head of Cecil The Lion (did he get to keep that head?)
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I DO remember also reading very recently of the discovery of a rare thought to be extinct bird on some Island, which was then killed to "study it".
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)sue4e3
(731 posts)attraction now it's all blocked off and unless you just remember where and what it is ,you wouldn't know . I took my kids to see it and and you could only see it from a distance. To keep vandals and people trying to poison it away. It's sickening
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)They are wonderful the way they keep growing. I forget why it is that the Bristlecone Pine is long lived. Hang in there Methuselah. Use your invisibility cloak!
tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)This is probably one of his cousins...
padfun
(1,780 posts)I figured it was in NE Nevada in the Great Basin Desert. And knew it was Bristlecone Pine.
I'll bet it is located on a Mountain that is over 10,000 feet high and located about 30-40 miles SE of Ely, Nevada. Kind of near the Utah border. But also away from the other Bristlecone Pine's that people go up there to see.
If you like desert environments, it is a great place to visit or even camp out on that Mountain for a few nights. There are campgrounds there.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)but am glad they are. I would love to see it, though.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I love your new sig line
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)too bad it is mostly true.