BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Yosemite Natl Park -- Mariposa Grove

CA -- Yosemite Natl Park -- Mariposa Grove:

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[1] MARIPO_090730_005.JPG	[2] MARIPO_090730_011.JPG	[3] MARIPO_090730_018.JPG
[4] MARIPO_090730_019.JPG	[5] MARIPO_090730_023.JPG	[6] MARIPO_090730_030.JPG
[7] MARIPO_090730_034.JPG	[8] MARIPO_090730_043.JPG	[9] MARIPO_090730_050.JPG
[10] MARIPO_090730_055.JPG	[11] MARIPO_090730_064.JPG	[12] MARIPO_090730_072.JPG
[13] MARIPO_090730_075.JPG	[14] MARIPO_090730_079.JPG	[15] MARIPO_090730_082.JPG
[16] MARIPO_090730_085.JPG	[17] MARIPO_090730_088.JPG	[18] MARIPO_090730_094.JPG
[19] MARIPO_090730_098.JPG	[20] MARIPO_090730_100.JPG	[21] MARIPO_090730_117.JPG
[22] MARIPO_090730_130.JPG	[23] MARIPO_090730_131.JPG	[24] MARIPO_090730_144.JPG
[25] MARIPO_090730_149.JPG	[26] MARIPO_090730_169.JPG	[27] MARIPO_090730_175.JPG
[28] MARIPO_090730_177.JPG	[29] MARIPO_090730_205.JPG	[30] MARIPO_090730_210.JPG
[31] MARIPO_090730_220.JPG	[32] MARIPO_090730_228.JPG	[33] MARIPO_090730_233.JPG
[34] MARIPO_090730_238.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MARIPO_090730_018.JPG: History of Mariposa Grove: Guardian of the Grove: Ill from gold mining, and told by a doctor he had only a short time to live, Galen Clark decided to spend his last days in the mountains. In 1856, he built a way station at nearby Wawona. After discovering the Mariposa Grove the following year, he began guiding tourists to the Giant Sequoias. From 1864-1880 and again from 1889-1891, Clark served as Guardian of the Yosemite Grant -- the Mariposa Grove and Yellowstone Valley. He died in 1910 -- at age 96. Roots of an Idea: The Giant Sequoias helped inspire the early parks and conservation movement, and in 1864 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant. The state reserve included only the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley. Naturalist John Muir wrote eloquently about the scenic and scientific values of the wilderness surrounding the Grove and Valley and focused public attention on the merits of preserving it. When Yosemite National park was established in 1890, it embraced an area nearly the Park's present size.
2. MARIPO_090730_019.JPG: Mariposa Grove: Giants in the Forest: The Giant Sequoia reaches full height in its first 800 years, but continues to expand as long as it lives, adding bulk rather than height. The oldest Sequoias are believed to be almost 3,000 years old. Though huge and long-lived, the Big Trees are now confined to 75 small groves on the Sierra's western slope. Growing conditions are highly specialized: intermittent fires are essential to Sequoia's reproduction and survival. Fire opens closed cones to release thousands of tiny seeds, removes understory plants that compete for space and nutrients, and exposes the needed seedbed of mineral soil.
3. MARIPO_090730_030.JPG: Enjoyment... At What Cost? Between 1857 and 1864, about 400 people visited the Mariposa Grove. Today, one-and-a-half million visitors come to admire the Big Trees each year. Are we loving these trees to death? Pollution, litter, removal of cones, soil compaction around the roots, climbing on both living and dead trees, and other human impacts are threatening the integrity of this magnificent forest. These giants have survived the forces of nature for thousands of years. Can they survive the presence of millions of people each year?
4. MARIPO_090730_050.JPG: Almost Immortal: Individual giant sequoias have been known to live 3,200 years. They are resistant to disease, fire, and insects; it seems the Big Trees could live forever. However, the giant sequoias does have a weakness. Though its roots spread out 150 feet from the tree, they are only three to six feet deep. If you think of a huge nail standing on its head, you can imagine the balancing act these trees must perform to remain standing. Eventually, the combination of weather factors, such as wind and snow, and the shallow root system will cause the tree to fall. Even after death, the tree decays slowly, often taking hundreds of even a thousand years to deteriorate. The Fallen Monarch fell about 300 years ago.
5. MARIPO_090730_082.JPG: I wish I understood vandals better
6. MARIPO_090730_094.JPG: Weakness Can Be A Strength: The fallen sequoia in the gully shattered like a column of glass when it struck the ground. When logging companies began to cut sequoias in the 1860s, they discovered that the Big Trees have light, fragile wood. Few trees were felled in one piece. Sections of sequoias were used to produce grape stakes, pencils, shingles, and toothpicks. The great expense and difficulty of logging sequoias and the brittle nature of the wood caused loggers to discontinue cutting them before the turn of the century. It is fortunate that no trees were ever logged in the Mariposa Grove. The fragile wood of the giant sequoia was its best defense against the saw.
7. MARIPO_090730_098.JPG: Weakness Can Be A Strength: The fallen sequoia in the gully shattered like a column of glass when it struck the ground. When logging companies began to cut sequoias in the 1860s, they discovered that the Big Trees have light, fragile wood. Few trees were felled in one piece. Sections of sequoias were used to produce grape stakes, pencils, shingles, and toothpicks. The great expense and difficulty of logging sequoias and the brittle nature of the wood caused loggers to discontinue cutting them before the turn of the century. It is fortunate that no trees were ever logged in the Mariposa Grove. The fragile wood of the giant sequoia was its best defense against the saw.
8. MARIPO_090730_130.JPG: From the Inside Out: The anatomy of the giant sequoia can be compared to that of a human. At the tree's center is the old, dead heartwood. Like our bones, it gives the tree support. The narrow band of light-colored wood is the sapwood. Like our veins and arteries, cells in the sapwood transport water and nutrients throughout the tree. Between the sapwood and the bark is the only growing part of the tree -- the cambium. This layer is just a few cells thick and produces a new ring of wood and layer of bark each year. The bark protects the tree from internal injury, just as your skin provides protection for you. It also grows to cover a tree's wound in a similar way that your skin heals a cut.
9. MARIPO_090730_131.JPG: This lady was illegally stealing pine cones. She was German and her whole group was stealing them. I told her she wasn't allowed to take them and she curtly responded said "thank you" and kept walking. Someone else corrected her and she started swearing at them. What's "asshole" in German?
10. MARIPO_090730_169.JPG: In The Beginning... Sequoias grow only from seeds that are produced in small, egg-shaped cones. Each cone contains 200-300 seeds the size of oak flakes. In order to germinate, the seeds need just the right conditions -- soft, mineral soil; sufficient sunlight; and adequate moisture. Each year, millions of sequoia seeds fall on the ground, but only one in a million may germinate and produce a giant sequoia that will reach maturity. It takes two years for sequoia cones to develop fully. The cones then remain on the tree for 20-30 years. External forces are necessary to help the giant sequoia drop its cones and disperse its seeds.
11. MARIPO_090730_175.JPG: Even Giants Need Help: Two grove residents play an important role in seed dispersal for the giant sequoia, since it lacks the ability to drop its own cones. The tiny, long-horned wood-boring beetle lays its eggs inside the hanging cones. After the eggs hatch, the larvae eat and burrow through the interior of the cone, cutting off the water supply. As the cone dries, the scales turn brown and separate, allowing the seeds to fall to the forest floor. The chickadee, or Douglas squirrel, cuts large numbers of green cones from the tree. As it eats the fleshy scales, the seeds fall to the ground. Often the squirrel stores some cones for future consumption, and in time they dry and release their seeds. Both the beetle and the chickadee receive nourishment from the cone and, in exchange, they assist with giant sequoia reproduction.
12. MARIPO_090730_233.JPG: Almost Immortal: Individual giant sequoias have been known to live 3,200 years. They are resistant to disease, fire, and insects; it seems the Big Trees could live forever. However, the giant sequoias does have a weakness. Though its roots spread out 150 feet from the tree, they are only three to six feet deep. If you think of a huge nail standing on its head, you can imagine the balancing act these trees must perform to remain standing. Eventually, the combination of weather factors, such as wind and snow, and the shallow root system will cause the tree to fall. Even after death, the tree decays slowly, often taking hundreds of even a thousand years to deteriorate. The Fallen Monarch fell about 300 years ago.
Wikipedia Description: Mariposa Grove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, USA, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park... It is the largest grove of Giant Sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature examples of the tree. Two of its trees are among the 25 largest Giant Sequoias in the world.

The Mariposa Grove was first visited by non-natives in 1857 when Galen Clark and Milton Mann found it.They named the grove after Mariposa County, California, where the grove resides.

The Giant Sequoia named Grizzly Giant is between probably 1900-2400 years old: the oldest tree in the grove. In 1932, it was claimed to be the fifth largest (by volume) tree in the world, but other trees were subsequently found to be larger; it currently has a volume of 34,010 cubic feet (963 m3), only the 25th largest. It is 210 feet (64 m) tall, and has a heavily buttressed base with a basal circumference of 28 m (92 ft) or a diameter of 30 feet (9.1 m); above the buttresses at 2.4 m above ground, the circumference is only 23 m. Grizzly Giant's first branch from its base is itself 2 m (6 ft) in diameter.

Another tree, the Wawona Tree, had a tunnel wide enough for horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles to drive through, cut through it in the nineteenth century. Weakened by this large opening at its base, the tree fell down in 1969.

Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on June 30, 1864 ceding the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove" (and Yosemite Valley) to the state of California; criticism of the stewardship over the land led to the state returning the grove to federal control upon establishment of Yosemite National Park.

The Mariposa Grove Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Noteworthy trees:

Some of the trees found in the grove that are worthy of special note are:

* The Fallen Monarch: A tree that fell more than three hundred years ago (Giant Sequoias are resistant to decay, so their remains can linger for an unknown period of time, if undisturbed).
* The Bachelor and Three Graces: A group of four trees, three of them growing very close together, with a fourth a little more distant. Their roots are so intertwined that if one of them were to fall, it would likely bring the others along with it.
* The Grizzly Giant: The oldest tree in the grove and most commonly thought to be the largest tree in the grove but that title goes to a less inspiring tree named "Washington" 35,950 cubic feet (1,018 m3) of wood belong to the "Washington" Tree whilst the "Grizzly Giant" only holds 34,010 cubic feet (963 m3).
* The California Tunnel Tree: Cut in 1895 to allow coaches to pass through it (and as a marketing scheme to attract visitors to the grove), this is the only living tree with a tunnel in it since the fall of the Wawona Tunnel Tree in 1969.
* Washington Tree: The Largest tree in the grove at 35,950 cubic feet (1,018 m3)
* The Faithful Couple: A rare case in which two trees grew so close together that their trunks have fused together at the base.
* The Clothespin Tree: Countless fires throughout the decades nearly severed this tree's trunk, creating a space in it large enough for a pick-up truck to drive through.
* The Telescope Tree: A tree that repeated fires, down the decades, have left completely hollow. In spite of that, the tree is still living, as Giant Sequoias do not require a whole trunk to survive. It is possible to walk inside the tree and, from there, see the sky. Similarly to the Clothespin Tree, this condition leaves the tree weakened and makes it more difficult for it to withstand strong winds. For that, this tree (and the Clothespin Tree) could topple at any time.
* The Columbia Tree: The tallest tree in the grove and in Yosemite National Park.
* The Galen Clark Tree: Of historical importance, it is supposed to have been the first tree seen by Galen Clark upon his entrance in the grove, and which would have inspired his love for the Giant Sequoias that would drive him to struggle for the setting aside of land for preservation, something that was unheard of in the mid-19th century.
* The Wawona Tunnel Tree: Renamed to "The Fallen Tunnel Tree" after it toppled over during a snow storm in 1969. This was the first tree to have a tunnel carved through its trunk, in 1881. Its collapse is seen as a turning point in the preservation of wildlife in National Parks in the United States. So grave was the shock of its collapse that it brought about a greater awareness of how sensitive an ecosystem can be, even in regard to beings as massive as the Giant Sequoias.
* The Fallen Giant: It was one of the largest trees in the grove, until it fell, in 1873.
* The Massachusetts Tree: It was one of the most famous trees in the grove. It fell in 1927.
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