Defiant Redwood of the Week: Stagg Tree

World’s fifth largest tree is all about staying power

It’s the fifth largest known tree in the world, centuries old. At eye level, it has so many scars on its trunk from fire and weather that it’s hard to imagine what the original tree looked like. As if there’s some kind of version of a sequoia this old that doesn’t intrinsically have these kinds of scars as part of its identity. At some point, fire got through the bark of this massive tree and carved out a tunnel that now stands as some kind of flying buttress. But the tree lives on, growing wider and taller.

The League acquired this great tree as part of its recent acquisition of Alder Creek, and it is our intention after a few years to transfer it to the Forest Service for inclusion into the Sequoia National Forest. The Stagg Tree is unaware of all this, of course. What does this type of ownership mean to a living thing that outlived the Roman Empire? It’s a philosophical question, made possible by a living thing that transcends time and survival as we humans perceive it. It just is. It persists. Always.

Learn more about the Alder Creek acquisition.

Follow #Redwoods4Ever on Twitter and Instagram

 

About the author

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has protected and restored redwood forests and connected people with their peace and beauty so these wonders of the natural world flourish.

bear reading the blog
Get the latest redwood updates in your inbox

Leave a Reply