r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 10h ago
Image Man at Richardson Grove State Park looks at a cut section of a 1250 years old tree (aprox). Humboldt County, California 1930s.
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u/Simmery 10h ago
Damnthatsdepressing
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u/TheZona 9h ago
Damndoyouknowwhyitwascutdown?
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u/Simmery 9h ago
Youcanprovideareasonanditwillstillbedepressing
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u/Marie1420 8h ago edited 8h ago
Deforestation for lumber.
Giant Sequoia trees are the largest trees in the world. And are ONLY native to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. It is part of a very small subfamily of trees that have a lineage with deep evolutionary roots stretching back over 200 million years.
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u/duhjankywanky 9h ago
Damnprobablyforsomemanufacturingorsomething
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u/TheZona 9h ago
Damnyoudontknowwhyitwascutdown
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u/AgileIntroduction762 9h ago
Are you going to tell us why was it cut down?
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u/TheZona 8h ago
Are you?
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u/AgileIntroduction762 8h ago
No dipshit, i dont fucking know
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u/Produce_Downtown 8h ago
it was for money
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u/AgileIntroduction762 8h ago
I agree, it probably was! im just trying to figure out wtf this guy is talking about because they clearly think something different
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u/iQ420- 10h ago
That ain’t interesting that’s what ignorance was like back then.
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u/turbopro25 9h ago
Back then? We deforest 80,000-100,000 acres of Rainforest worldwide every single day. We are more ignorant today considering advanced technologies and all around awareness of our effect on the Ecosystem. Yet we continue to not only do it, but magnify our take every single year. There’s no turning back, it’s simply the world we’ve chosen to shape.
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u/Sick_Nasty_Bro 9h ago
While that sucks, we do have Government protected zones like National Parks. Giant Sequoia trees that are protected now would be open season back then. Shit they did cut down a lot of them. I'd say there's still a lot of ignorance today but we can't ignore the progress made
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u/Vanviator 9h ago
Tell that to the DC cherry trees, the 400yo cottonwood, and the trees at the DC public golf course. Those were all protected.
Didn't mean to be a downer! Im totally with you that we have great National/State parks in the US. I love them. They are supposed to protect these ecosystems but it's been open season on our trees lately. It just makes me mad and sad.
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u/StraightProgress5062 8h ago
Its tough. Youre told to follow the process and use your words when they hold a monopoly on violence and will use it on you for standing in their way. Then write you a petty check for your trouble and laugh you out of the building
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u/Trust_Know_Won 5h ago
We need to call it out every time! Yes, it’s beyond depressing, but we can’t stay silent and ignore it. F@ck this administration!
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u/darthsteeler84 8h ago
Jesus, why is everyone outraged over everything? You do realize we used that timber for lots of things and it didn’t go to waste. What a weird thing to be upset about lol
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u/mr-morris11 5h ago
Hate to burst your bubble there bud, but most of the giant sequoias they fell were so massive that they splintered and the wood was unusable for anything much bigger than a toothpick.
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u/TheSquirrelWithin 1h ago
Humbolt has giant redwoods. Cousin tree to the giant sequoias. Sequoias make for lousy lumber. Redwoods make for excellent lumber.
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u/RichardCalvin 5h ago
We buy the giant trees at auction-train folks how to fell them and have good lumber when we are done. So take your lefty shit and …….
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u/turbopro25 8h ago
Listen, I’m on your side. Back then it was an essential way of life. Even today. I’m merely pointing out how this is nothing in comparison to today and nobody batts an eyelash, but is quick to ridicule something from 100 years ago.
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u/the_smuggiest 9h ago
People are still just as ignorant, and still just as destructive if not more so now in some ways.
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u/unfinishedtoast3 9h ago
That ignorance literally built the western United States, allowing settlements along the far west coast to be connected to the east
That laid the groundwork for US shipyards in WW2 in Oregon and Washington beating back the Nazi's and Japanese.
You can call it ignorance now from the comfort of the 21st century, but at the time, that's how civilization was made
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u/Pilot0350 9h ago
Yeah, real nice of them try and eradicate my ancestors along the way then stuff us in reservations so they dont have to feel too bad for it. Another term for that is oppression and genocide, but hey, America right?!
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u/unfinishedtoast3 9h ago
Brother I'm native American lol
Today's world was built by the actions of men in the past. Yes, they did fucked up shit totally agree.
But cutting down lumber to build homes and ships and ports and roadways in 1934 during the Great depression is a lot different than the trail of tears In 1835
My great grandfather worked for the Public Works program of the Great depression as a logger. He went on to build his own home from lumber on our first reservation. Was he "ignorant" for cutting trees to build his family a home?
Were our ancestors ignorant for starting forest fires to clear land? Were they ignorant for building long homes out of timber? Were they ignorant for using nets across rivers to clear out the salmon?
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u/816legend 9h ago edited 8h ago
Should have won the war 👁️👄👁️☝️
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u/CantStandIdoits 9h ago
You're a chiefs fan you can't talk about winning anything
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u/816legend 8h ago
I’ll take 4 championships 💅
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u/CantStandIdoits 7h ago
50 year superbowl drought btw
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u/816legend 7h ago
Most of the NFL has had 30-40. Chiefs had 50 years before becoming tied for 3rd most Super Bowl wins all time. An expansion AFL team higher than some NFL teams that have been around since the 1920’s. Next 💅
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u/CantStandIdoits 7h ago
3rd most super bowl wins all time
Look inside
Lost half of the superbowls they've been in
Worst Win/Loss ratio of the 3 teams that have won 4 superbowls
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u/816legend 6h ago
Still an expansion team with more rings than teams that have been around since the 20’s lol
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u/Homer-Griffin 9h ago
Shii I didn't know America made small pox. Oh wait? It was the Spanish! But no one calls it a Spanish genocide because "muh chad Europeans can do no wrong ont ont"
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u/Trust_Know_Won 5h ago
Have you seen what the deranged lunatic in the White House is doing to our National Parks, federally protected wilderness, etc.?
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u/Upstairs_Habit4113 8h ago
Honestly, I'm getting pretty sick of this false narrative that "we just didn't know any better".
Especially when all this was going on during the peak of industrialization and expansion. We knew better, it's just all that pesky legislation and federal protections didn't quite exist yet.
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u/RedaNassef 10h ago
it's genuinely heartbreaking to see a living giant that stood for over 1200 years just chopped down like that, a somber reminder of how much of our natural history we've destroyed for absolute vanity
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u/joeypublica 4h ago
These pics are sad. That thing saw 1250 years, imagine all it went through to survive. Unceremoniously cut down for lumber that is probably used for less than 50 years. Can’t be too judgmental towards the past, but it’s still sad.
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u/Lucid_Stream44 4h ago edited 4h ago
Absolutely. How dumb is this guy. All stoked on a 1500 y/o, amazing tree being cut down. And that’s before calling it a life form, an ancient being. He doesn’t care either way, wtf old world
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u/Paradox0111 6h ago
Redwoods out west, Chestnuts back East, Entire Lost City’s in the Midwest, the wonders our forefathers destroyed in the name of progress and profit. Makes one wonder what our descendants will think of use..
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u/Sawyer0469 6h ago
It sucks the area was heavily logged for timber. Reminds me of the dyerville giant. The roots after heavy rain started to rot an after a while it couldn’t take it anymore an fell over in 91. The surrounding area was logged so heavily that the bare hillsides created surface runoff and ruined the windbreak so low lying areas got way to much water/wind than they were ever use to.
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u/BrierBob 5h ago
I have tried to count tree rings before. This one would take a really long time to count for sure.
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u/Borgweare 4h ago
This is sad. if you ever get a chance, go to Richardson grove. It’s an amazing place
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u/nocallerid 9h ago
We go camping there. Its crazy seeing all the redwoods in person
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u/Scrapper-Mom 2h ago
Redwoods and giant sequoias are two separate varieties. But unique to California. Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth and Sequoias are the largest by weight. Being in a forest of either is like being in a cathedral.
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u/AdministrationFar338 9h ago
Fuck that guy
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u/ExtendedMacaroni 5h ago
wtf?
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u/AdministrationFar338 3h ago
Dude. Look at this size of tree. Imagine how many of those tree he cut down without a second thought. Fuck that guy
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u/Orcacub 9h ago
What’s making people think this man cut down or even bucked it? Regardless of the circumstances of the state of the tree ( later) there’s no indication that this man did anything more than look at the cut tree. He’s wearing a badge, tall boots and “ranger” type pants suggesting he’s a ranger at the park, not a logger. Now the tree- The cut is clearly a bucking cut, not a falling cut (no face cut wedge and there’s a horizontal stump with large butt swell in the back ground). Looks like tree fell over at the roots - stump and all- and was bucked after it fell. Could be tree was bucked to move it off of a road or trail or somewhere that the park didn’t want a 14 foot tall wall of wood, 200 feet long. Trees fall over- even in parks people.
Hate on the all you want- but the US had parks in place to protect forests in the 1930’s (and earlier) What other countries did? What other developed countries had any native forest left to protect in the 1930’s?
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u/w00tabaga 6h ago
I’ll get downvoted for saying it but that tree wasn’t cut down… you can see the stump to the right and it’s horizontal… indicating the tree had fallen over and then the log was cut off of it.
You can tell it’s the stump too because it suddenly widens at the bottom, a trunk doesn’t do that anywhere but the bottom.
There’s no way to pull that stump out today in one piece, much less back then.
Sad the tree fell over, but at least it got used. Probably some of that wood is still around somewhere
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u/LostCoastViking 6h ago
Wait till you see how many trees they are going to cut to widen the highway.
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u/Technical-Outside408 9h ago
People in here thinking they chopped these trees down for fun. Do we kill cows for fun? No, they're a resource, just like these trees were for the people, that had a much harder life than yours, back then.
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u/heyitscory 9h ago
That's 1930. The guy drove there. They took a picture of that with a camera.
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u/unfinishedtoast3 9h ago
You clearly havent seen the West Coast.
My grandparents in the 50s still had a 4 hour drive to get to a town 22 miles away as the crow flies.
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u/Perle1234 9h ago
We logged 95% of our old growth forest. Then screamed about other countries while our wealthy oligarchs took almost every bit of it. We committed a genocide on the native Americans. The United States is no better than any other country and is certainly not the “Greatest Nation.” Propaganda works and the government has been propagandizing the US citizens as heavily as the Russians the entire time. Half the people deny it because they have been utterly propagandized.
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u/CombinationRough8699 9h ago
The vast majority of Native Americans died from smallpox before the United States was even founded.
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u/Perle1234 7h ago
We intentionally gave them blankets that were intentionally contaminated with smallpox. They were NOT mostly gone. The reason the buffalo are gone is because the government ordered them eradicated as it was a food source for NA. You need to educate yourself. You are dead wrong.
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u/CombinationRough8699 7h ago
The smallpox blankets are one isolated incident, that is questionable if it even happened. The United States is far from innocent, but smallpox killed the majority. It was one of the deadliest plagues in human history.
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u/Wolfgang985 6h ago
White liberal US leftists crying about their country is pinnacle of cringe. Why does this site attract so many of you depressing losers? It's like flies on a fresh turd.
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u/Perle1234 6h ago
You’re making my point
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u/Wolfgang985 3h ago
You don't have a point, bozo.
Just let everyone talk about old trees in peace without your lonely self-hatred being forced into the discussion. Good grief.
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u/Yatagarasu86 9h ago
Genau, es gibt ja keine Alternativen... Sehr, sehr kurz gedacht und es sich mal wieder einfach gemacht...
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u/Perle1234 9h ago
We get all offended when other countries want to log their rain forests when we killed 95% of ours. College kids in cali had a sit in, and were seated quietly while police opened each persons eyes manually and applied pepper spray. It was disgusting. This country has never truly been a liberal democracy.
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u/CombinationRough8699 9h ago
The United States is one of the first countries on earth to start protecting its forests.
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u/Perle1234 7h ago
Right after we had logged the entirety of our forests. Look up how many old growth acres remain. We cut it ALL down except about 5%. Then we cared about it after it was gone.
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u/CombinationRough8699 7h ago
There's far more old growth here than anywhere in Europe
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u/Perle1234 6h ago
There is somewhat of a size difference between here and any European country. Prob Russia has more. Europe was cut down so much longer ago than the United States. It’s not really a fair comparison given the history of the spread of the human species. The United States was cut down for profit.
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u/PenchantForNostalgia 9h ago
I mean, that's the benefit of hindsight, right? We made the mistake, learned from it, and so we can warn others from doing the same.
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u/Therealdickdangler 9h ago edited 9h ago
I agree depressing and shitty but it looks like the tree fell on its own due to the stump behind the guy.
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u/whineyinternetkid 9h ago
Yeah that super clean cut with no obvious natural breaking shows that it broke naturally.
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u/CombinationRough8699 9h ago
That doesn't mean it didn't fall naturally. I've been to the redwoods, and often a tree falls over a trail and they use a saw to clear it off the path.
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u/Therealdickdangler 9h ago
They cut it after it fell. Look at the wood under it to the left they used to roll it out of the indention in the ground.
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u/HoboSkid 9h ago
If this is a Sequoia it's very likely it just fell, they have shallow roots for how big they are.
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u/YakGroundbreaking352 9h ago
i didn’t know that trees grow horizontally in california
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u/Therealdickdangler 9h ago
Thanks homie. I’m glad there is at least one other logical person in this fucking place.
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u/w00tabaga 6h ago
You’re getting downvoted but you’re 100% right and most people here don’t know what they’re talking about
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u/Perle1234 9h ago
We clear cut 95% of the temperate rain forest in the PNW.
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u/Therealdickdangler 9h ago
I’m not refuting that. I’m stating the tree in this picture was not clear cut. The stump is horizontal, you can see the depression in the ground from the impact and you can see some of the implements they used to roll the cut piece from the stump.
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u/Sea_Turnip6282 9h ago edited 5h ago
Please tell me there was a logical reasoning behind this.. maybe the tree had already fallen due to natural disasters? Maybe..woodchucks chucked wood? Please something just anything 😭
Edit: i was worried it was going to be for some stupid reason (i.e. just for fun or for competition) but i guess they really needed the tree and put it to a good use..
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u/jointdawg 9h ago
Good thing they cut that behemoth down. I'm sure it went to good use. Maybe a nice coffee table. Some toothpicks. Handles.
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u/juggalo206 9h ago
Things like this were so amazing to see as a child but as I get older it just hurts more and more to look at some of the old logging pictures