David Tracey » tree

So long, Methuselah

David Tracey — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:29:25 +0000

Dang, another one of those thousands-of-years-of-life-about-to-end tales. This one is about the venerable bristlecone pines of high Colorado California. They’ve evolved to withstand almost every harsh condition there is, dating back to before the time of Alexander the Great, but not the kind of crap our own era puts out. It looks like a double whammy of white pine blister rust from Asia and the same mountain pine beetle that used to be kept in check by winter cold but with global warming has been free to torch huge swaths of British Columbian forests.

Amid the NYTimes story comes this curious tidbit of grad school shenanigans. Imagine having your bonehead mistake remembered, in print, 46 years later. Donald Rusk Curry, did you remember to say you’re sorry?

The oldest tree here is more than 3,000 years old. This grove was once home to the oldest known bristlecone, Prometheus, but in 1964, a graduate student named Donald Rusk Currey was studying tree ring data and got his drill bit stuck in the tree. He cut it down to fetch his tool. Later, when he counted the rings, he found the tree was at least 4,900 years old.

UPDATE: Thanks to an alert reader named Darren for the following correction.

Your report on Methuselah is incorrect.

The grove is in California, not Colorado.

And no need to say “so long” to Methuselah, as it was Prometheus (on the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada) that was chopped down by Donald Curry. Methuselah is alive and well in the Schulman Grove of the White Mountains of California.

killer app-les

David Tracey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:16:48 +0000

We’ve been experimenting with cider lately, but nothing on this scale: a photo essay from the Guardian on an apple’s journey from tree to pub in England. Some of it is wrong (the caption writer isn’t an apple grower) and some of it Monty Pythonesque (they harvest with a stick?) but it’s all interesting and — fair warning — may make you thirsty. Cider rules!

Beat it, just beat it.

Chainsaw Massacre

David Tracey — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:13:58 +0000

We're stumped.

The first cut is the deepest. But it was probably the 10th or 20th that turned this tree into an elongated stump. People. Please. Have some respect. These are trees. They’re living things, providing beauty and and nobility and oxygen and shade and a constant reminder of the splendour of the natural world in which we live. When you axe one to a shape like this, what message do you think you send?

Big Fig

David Tracey — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:27:53 +0000

Fig Maestro Umberto Garbuio

The largest fig tree in Canada is taking over a residential backyard in Burnaby, BC. Or it would be if it weren’t being expertly tended by its owner, Umberto Garbuio.

Umberto gets hundreds of pounds of figs off his monster plant each year. He eats some, gives away some, makes jams and wines and still hasn’t gotten tired of them. And who would? The taste of a warm, sweet fig is a Mediterranean treat.

Italian Honey Fig Tree

But is Umberto’s tree really the largest? It was reported as such in the Vancouver Sun a few years ago. Ever since, people with big fig trees of their own have sought him out, convinced there’s been some mistake. One look at his 40-foot-wide by 16-foot-high plant, and they invariably leave humbled.