How old is the grizzly giant tree

Last Minute Deals Special Offers. See our Sanitation and Safety Practices. Yosemite Overnight Tours from San Francisco. San Francisco Tours Alcatraz Island. Discover SF. Burning in the Mariposa Grove is a continuous process; the targeted areas in this burn have had prescribed fires in the past 30 years, and continued burning is required to maintain healthy forest conditions.

Fire produces the optimum conditions for giant sequoia reproduction and propagation. Fire not only removes the accumulated layers of dead woody debris exposing nutrient rich mineral soil, but dries the cones allowing the seeds to shed.

In addition, fire creates holes in the forest canopy, while eliminating shade tolerate competition. Explore This Park. Yosemite National Park California.

Info Alerts Maps Calendar Reserve. Alerts In Effect Dismiss. Dismiss View all alerts. Sequoia Research. Scientists study many aspects of giant sequoias, including the role of fire to maintain a healthy grove.

Left: Mariposa Grove in showing natural conditions prior to fire suppression. Right: Same location in Mariposa Grove in You'll notice a dense understory of fir trees after an year absence of fire. In , a prescribed burn restored the area to its pre-suppression conditions. In , refined scientific dating methods resulted in a new age estimate for the Grizzly Giant: 2, years old plus or minus years. Mariposa Grove Restoration The large Sierra snowpack provides much needed moisture to the trees as it slowly melts during the spring.

Giant Sequoias and Fire Naturally occurring fire by lightning would have historically occurred in Yosemite's sequoia groves frequently, burning the areas with lower intensity surface fires. Yosemite Nature Notes Big Trees Most of Yosemite National Park is blanketed with vast forests, and with abundant precipitation and warm temperatures, these mountains are home to the largest trees in the world. Duration: 8 minutes, 9 seconds.

Prescribed Burn in the Mariposa Grove Burning in the Mariposa Grove is a continuous process; the targeted areas in this burn have had prescribed fires in the past 30 years, and continued burning is required to maintain healthy forest conditions.

Duration: 41 seconds. Duration: 3 minutes, 55 seconds. Mariposa Grove is the largest giant sequoia grove in Yosemite, and the Grizzly Giant is one of several hundred mature sequoias in the grove. It is currently the 25 th largest tree in the world with a volume of 34, cubic feet m3. The Grizzly Giant stands at feet 64 m tall with a basal circumference of 28 m 92 ft or a diameter of 30 feet 9.

Of all the redwood trees on this list, the General Sherman is the most famous. While it might not be the oldest, the General Sherman is currently the largest known living single stem tree in the world. It is feet 83 m tall, and its base is 36 feet 11 m in diameter. Although all of the giant redwood trees at Sequoia National Park are beautiful, the General Sherman is the most visited and photographed. The General Sherman is even advertised as a California tourist attraction. The Mother of the Forest was one of the oldest-known trees before it was destroyed by humans in the s.

It was one of 92 giant sequoias discovered by Augustus T. The Mother of the Forest was the second largest tree at the time — after the Discovery Tree — with a height of about feet m and a girth of 93 feet 28 m.

During this time, which coincided with the California Gold Rush, several people decided to take large pieces of these giant trees and put them on display around the country to prove their existence.

A few years after the bark was removed, the Mother of the Forest died. In , much of the tree was destroyed by a fire since it no longer had its fire resistant bark to protect it. The Robert E. It is the 11 th largest giant sequoia overall and contains about 1. Lee tree and found its volume to be 40, cubic feet 1, Lee as a hazard. Whitcomb determined that the tree had other weak branches.

Until , the giant sequoia tree named Washington , was the second largest tree in the world. Washington is also one of the oldest and its age is estimated to be about 2, years.