Kenetrek Boots

Big tree thread

Ever feel like you just don't belong any more. Like you don't fit in, or the world has marched on and left you in it's wake?

I suspect that's how this old white oak feels. I see a lot of trees like this. If this was my land (it is public), I'd do some clearing around this old warrior.

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Judging by the low branches, that was an old shade tree in some cleared pasture that the woods have now reclaimed- notice how all the smaller trees are tall and straight, with high forks. That old white oak was probably alone until everything around it sprung up.

With any luck, it'll be the small one 100 years from now as the rest of the woods mature.
 
The first year I worked for BLM we ran into a spot that was mostly White Fir 2 to 3 ft. diameter but about every 150 ft. or so there would be a Dougals Fir 6 to 10 ft. in diameter. We ran into a BLM forester one day and commented on those beautiful big trees. He just said, "They're going to be beautiful big stumps when we're done."

Made me kinda sad.
 
Fisheye lense skews it a bit, but this Doug was 76" dbh.
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In a forest of old growth, it was a notch larger than the typical 60 inchers.
What I love the most about this tree and this area is that it's true rain forest old growth in an area that isn't a park, isn't protected, isn't advertised or promoted, no one posts this place on the 'gram and newsletters aren't going out to raise money to "save" it. It just is. And in doing so, is incredibly devoid of people allowing a person with very little sweat equity to experience a time and a place and an ecosystem that is effectively unchanged since ole Columbus himself set foot in the Caribbean. The water is cold, ice cold, the trees are green and lust and growing like crazy even at 200' tall...

I bash on western WA as much as anyone, but my gosh is it hard to beat on a beautiful summer day.
 
This was the largest western larch or Tamerack on record until about 80 feet blew out of the top. Still pretty impressive. It’s harder to find now with the top gone, still a faint trail from the highway to the tree but folks don’t stop much any more. Catherine found the tree 35 years ago, we stop once a year.
 

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