I’ve often wondered whether one could make a career as a treehugger. Apparently, you can! This video features Jim Spickler, a forest canopy scientist, climbing what they currently think may be the world’s tallest tree. It was found in northern California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, in September of 2006.
According to Jim, the most accurate (or perhaps the most fun?) way of measuring the height of a tree is to climb it and drop a measuring tape down from the top. Whatever happened to triangulation, I wondered? But really, given the chance, I would climb the tree, too.
First they had to get to the tree, which involved a four-mile hike through thick, old-growth forest. Then they used a crossbow to secure a line into the tree, and climbed it using rock climbing gear. Spickler says he lost sense of the ground. Most of the climb was straight up the trunk, with the crown (where all the big branches start) beginning after about 200 feet.
The view from the top is spectacular. As it turns out, the tree is 115.55 metres tall- significantly taller than the Peace Tower, in Canada’s parliament buildings.
