As the saying goes, “it’s lonely at the top”. From the ground, the world’s tallest tree, Hyperion, is easy to overlook. It doesn’t seem that special. Why? Well, for one thing, Hyperion, which was named after the Greek Titan that fathered the god Helios according to Greek mythology, has the same craggy bark as thousands of other coastal redwoods that tower over the temperate and foggy of Northern California. It also has the same needlelike foliage. To truly understand what makes the tree exceptional, one would need to scale its trunk. One botanist did exactly that in 2006.
What did the botanist discover? When they lowered a tape from Hyperion’s largest leaf, they discovered that the tree stood over 380 feet. Imagine that! For comparison, Hyperion is nearly 75 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Wow!
When people pass beneath the tree, they probably have no idea that they’re standing in the shadow of the world’s tallest and one of its most famous trees. Why? Hyperion does not appear on any maps and the Redwood State and National Parks keep its location secret because, despite Hyperion’s size, the tree itself is vulnerable. They want to protect the tree.
From what you may ask? The answer is they want to protect Hyperion from people. When something is a superlative (-est), people want to take photos of it, put it on Instagram, climb all over it and, in some cases, carve their initials into it. Simply put, too many visitors could jeopardize Hyperion’s overall health.
Are the Redwood State and National Parks being over-protective? Hardly. Historically speaking, the height of California’s Redwood trees has been the biggest threat to their survival. From the middle of the 1850s to the 1960s, more than 90 percent of California’s redwoods were logged because their timber is so valuable. Hyperion was lucky to escape that fate. Hopefully that will continue to be the case. Experts are concerned that hiding the tree’s location may not be enough to save it. Why? Well, for one thing, even as the forest itself continues to recover from the excessive logging, wildfires and climate change pose significant problems for all redwoods, not just Hyperion.
While conservationists have sought to protect California’s redwoods for more than 200 years, thousands of trees have been planted. Unfortunately, just a few weeks ago, we presented an article regarding how planting trees may not be enough to save tree species from the ill effects of climate change. Tree planting is not a ‘miracle solution’.
Researchers and conservations can’t be sure that this effort will save the redwoods including Hyperion. Hyperion, for its part, has survived between 600 – 800 years according to the best estimates and it could grow even taller in our lifetime. To have a shot at surviving another 6 to 8 hundred years, its location will continue to remain a secret.
We really hope you enjoyed reading this article. We thought it was fascinating, so we wanted to share it with you. Each week we bring you tree news that you can use, hopefully. Thank you for your continued support of our blog. We really appreciate it.
