Clones of long-dead redwoods are being planted in Southern Oregon
NEAR PORT ORFORD, Ore. - A Michigan nurseryman and his team of tree climbers and horticulturists have cloned the world's biggest redwoods and giant sequoias, bringing some of them back from stumps cut more than 100 years ago.
With the winter rains has come the time to plant them. Two hundred and fifty clones carrying an exact genetic copy from 18 different trees — many of them bigger when they lived than anything left standing today — will start going into the ground Tuesday on a ranch along the southern Oregon Coast.
David Milarch, co-founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and the Champion Tree Project, hopes the small plantation south of Port Orford, Ore., will give the ancient giants a leg up on moving north to cooler climes as the climate changes and be the start of a campaign to plant some of the world's fastest-growing trees all around the globe.
"I think we are entering into a time where the largest, oldest living beings on this earth need our help," said Milarch, 63, of Copemish, Mich.
Only about 5 percent of the ancient redwoods are left standing, and among the sources of the clones is one that fell some 120 years ago— the Fieldbrook Stump near McKinleyville, Calif. Sprouts still come out of the stump, which is 33 ½ feet in diameter without the bark. One of those sprouts provided cuttings for the project.
Milarch; his two sons, Jake and Jared; and giant redwood hunter Michael Taylor have been gathering cuttings for years. They ship them to Bill Werner, a native plant propagator in Monterey, Calif. Werner roots the cuttings and starts them growing.
Bill Libby, a professor emeritus of forestry, genetics and natural resources conservation from the University of California at Berkeley, has been amazed by Werner's ability to get clones to grow from sprouts taken from trees that were thousands of years old when they stood.
"Bill proved me wrong when I told him he couldn't clone anything over 100 years old for giant sequoia, and he did it for one over 1,000," said Libby, an adviser to the Archangel Tree Archive and part of the Save the Redwoods League climate change initiative.
The clones will be planted on Terry Mock's 150-acre Ocean Mountain Ranch. Mock is a former director of the Champion Tree Project and is turning the ranch into a demonstration of sustainable development. They will go into the ground on the sheltered north slope of a ridge about a mile from the coast near Humbug Mountain. The site is about 40 miles north of the northern tip of the coast redwood's range, and about 700 miles north of the sequoias in California's southern Sierra Nevada.
"As things get hotter and drier, redwoods and sequoias should migrate north," Mock said. "This is a logical spot."
The project will ultimately help with a couple questions scientists don't know the answers to, Libby said. One is how much genetics has to do with whether a tree gets really big, compared to getting lucky by growing on a site with the right soil, water and sun. The other is finding the places coast redwoods and giant sequoias will thrive as the climate changes. Clones with more ordinary genetics have already been planted in New Zealand, Germany, British Columbia and Ireland.
He is encouraged by the performance of a clone of the world's tallest redwood growing in his back yard in Orinda, Calif.
"It's a little over 30 years old and 100 feet tall," Libby said. "It's growing like crazy. It is outgrowing the others around it."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
It's a great idea, but I have to say I'm a little more fascinated by the kids in the picture. There are some smiling kids  instead of all frowning faces. I'm glad some kids had the smiles on their faces.Â
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My father in law had planted a redwood in his backyard, and it outgrew the cottonwoods he planted at the same time. Needless to say, within a few years, they all needed to come down as they were growing too close together.Â
Congratulations on such a worthy project!! The Indians have the right ideas relating to Mother Earth and keeping a balance and respect for nature. I visited Muir Woods in San Francisco once upon a time and felt like I was entering sacred ground. Nature's Cathedral, lovely.
Doesn't this just negate the all the efforts of all those ancient heroes who worked so diligently to eradicate these trees.
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It's just like reintroducing wolves and allowing them to repopulate; simply going in the wrong direction.
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Man doesn't live in trees, Man lives in cities. Man needs more cities and fewer trees; instead of planting trees they should be paving over all that area for parking lots and building strip malls.
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When man eliminates a species he's won a small victory that demonstrates and proves the dominance of man as a superior creature. According to Capitalist rules of survival of the fittest; Man is winning! The ultimate victory is a goal for the future; starting with the elimination of big creatures and then working down to the small creatures. Eventually, all of earth will belong exclusively to man.
what was wrong with the clone that was already growing next to this giant stump?
Redwoods do grow relatively fast, but to get a Giant it will take about 1,000 years. But, this is a very worthwhile project.
That stump alone could heat my house fo a couple of years.
The real tragedy here is that earlier loggers didn't recognize the uniqueness of these trees and strive to protect them. Untold numbers of massive ancients were taken down in seconds, when it took many hundreds of years to grow them. It would be a true thing wonderful of Man if these trees can be restored and preserved for future generations enjoyment.
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Yes, they were so backward and ignorant. ;-)Â Â Â
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Imagine being part of a crew of maybe 30 men or possibly 60 if the crew were really large heading out to the edge of the forest to cut trees using only human labor. That forest is 200 square miles of dense timber. Would it even be possible for you to conceive that forest would ever be completely cut down?
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Likewise, you venture onto the great open plains of the vast American mid-west with nothing but a horse and a plow could you ever conceive that the plains would ever be completely plowed destabilizing the natural turf such that it was vulnerable to a great wind would and flood would cause the topsoil to erode away at a rate of 200 Cubic acres per year?
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Or consider, you join a small crew of fishermen out of Monterrey in 1938 to go out to catch Sardines. Or Salmon in the Northwest, or Nantucket in 1818 to hunt wales could you ever conceive that those ocean fisheries would be depleted?
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Or, you arrive at Beaumont, Texas in 1905 and plant an Oil Well and all around oil wells are springing up such that there is a never ending stream of oil and so much oil that containment pools are just dug from the earth in open pits and oil is just allowed to simply collect in these open pits. And, there is so much oil coming from the ground so fast that production exceeds consumption. Could you ever conceive a time in the future when West Texas would be dry from oil, that demand for oil would be so great that it would be the cause of illegal wars?
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The common thread in all these examples is that each natural resource exploited represents a kind of energy. Man alone among all the creatures of the earth possesses the ability to consume energy without any limitation and, furthermore, is the only creature that has the ability...and the predisposition... to willfully waste energy.
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Man is now topping mountains for coal, exploiting the environment for oil, diamonds, gold...among other unnecessary resources. The dominant theme of American politics is the push to reduce regulation to permit more unbridled exploitation of resources....energy. The whole notion of "conservation" is virtually prohibited as anathema to what it means to be human.
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bring them back...
The idiots need to plant them in a different location, the shallow roots will not hold the high winds..But then what do I know, I jsut had a grand father who had a Nursery. Maybe they have more clones.
@lee986321 From the article: "They will go into the ground on the sheltered north slope of a ridge" Idiots? They are being planted a mere 40 miles north of where they have grown for thousands of years.
 @JTesla How dare you argue with him?! He had a relative that "had a Nursery". He is much more knowledgable than those guys... pfft... one is some schlub "professor emeritus of forestry, genetics and natural resources conservation from the University of California at Berkeley".
This is a great project. Mass produce them and we'll plant hundreds.
 @Quaoptician Seedlings are mass produced.  There are dozens of nurserys around the area.  All of them have millions of trees growing, with the sole purpose being to be planted.
Redwood trees have shallow root systems & Port Orford is known for high winds....How can this be sucessful? Crescent City lost 3 old growth redwoods this last week in a storm....The area was much more sheltered & inland along 199 & Walker Road.....