The Moanstead: Jason/Jessie and the Giant Trees

There's something that comes along with being in the forestry business and that is the innate need to have one's photo taken in front of giant and/or unique trees. Both Jessie and I have had some recent opportunities for such things and I felt it was worth a blog post to highlight our interactions thus far with giant trees. I'll start with the most recent event, a visit to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho to visit our friend Gina. Gina is a friend we know from both North Carolina and Virginia and as such she was eager to show us the American chestnut trees in a park on Coeur D'Alene Lake. American chestnuts might not sound all that exciting to you, but they are a big deal. A big deal because they used to be a hugely important species in the forests of eastern North America, primarily in the Appalachian Mountains. That is until the exotic chestnut blight essentially eliminated them as an overstory tree. There are still some scattered surviving trees in the native range of the chestnut, but they are often small and pock-marked by the blight. I'll start you off with this photo of me, coincidentally taken by Gina, with a barely surviving American chestnut tree near Dragon's Tooth on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia circa 2007.

Now back to Coeur D'Alene, far outside of the native range of this tree. And there in the park, as advertised, were three mature American chestnuts.

But now let's talk about the really big trees we've come across. Jessie recently had the opportunity to visit the redwood trees of Muir Woods in California with her sister and mom. I too have visited the redwoods, near Santa Rosa, California around 2002. Here's a shot of Jessie (and Nanci) with said trees, followed by mine for comparison. Thanks for the photo, Adrian!