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| Celebrate Earth Day With a 4,800-Year-Old Tree (If You Can Find It) | Celebrate Earth Day With a 4,800-Year-Old Tree (If You Can Find It) |
| (3 days later) | |
| The Forest Service is so protective of its ancient, gnarled star that it will not even share its picture. | |
| Officials say they fear that an image might enable a particularly determined visitor to track down its precise location in Central California’s Inyo National Forest. | Officials say they fear that an image might enable a particularly determined visitor to track down its precise location in Central California’s Inyo National Forest. |
| At 4,847 or so years old, Methuselah is the world’s oldest known living tree, which makes it — in the mind of its human protectors — too old for guests. | At 4,847 or so years old, Methuselah is the world’s oldest known living tree, which makes it — in the mind of its human protectors — too old for guests. |
| The tree did not make it through several thousand years of civilization only to be either harassed by a horde of Instagrammers eager to carve their names in its bark or assassinated by a reckless researcher. | The tree did not make it through several thousand years of civilization only to be either harassed by a horde of Instagrammers eager to carve their names in its bark or assassinated by a reckless researcher. |
| It has happened before. | It has happened before. |
| The former oldest tree, Prometheus, was cut down in 1964 in Great Basin National Park in Nevada by a graduate student researching the effects of climate change on receding glaciers by measuring their influence on the size of the rings of ancient pine trees. There are a few accounts of what happened. The student, Donald R. Currey, said in a PBS documentary that the normal approach to coring a tree was not working, so he cut it down with the help of some foresters. Members of the forest service said he got his drill bit stuck in the tree, and he and the foresters cut it down to remove his tool. Only after the tree had been felled and he counted its rings did he realize that he had just slain the oldest known tree on Earth, which was then a wizened 4,900 years old. | The former oldest tree, Prometheus, was cut down in 1964 in Great Basin National Park in Nevada by a graduate student researching the effects of climate change on receding glaciers by measuring their influence on the size of the rings of ancient pine trees. There are a few accounts of what happened. The student, Donald R. Currey, said in a PBS documentary that the normal approach to coring a tree was not working, so he cut it down with the help of some foresters. Members of the forest service said he got his drill bit stuck in the tree, and he and the foresters cut it down to remove his tool. Only after the tree had been felled and he counted its rings did he realize that he had just slain the oldest known tree on Earth, which was then a wizened 4,900 years old. |
| Methuselah was nearly 4,790 by the time anyone realized just how exceptional it was. Edmund Schulman, a scientist with the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, calculated its age in 1957. | Methuselah was nearly 4,790 by the time anyone realized just how exceptional it was. Edmund Schulman, a scientist with the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, calculated its age in 1957. |
| Of course, it’s not possible to say that any given tree is definitely the oldest tree on Earth because not all trees have been analyzed in this way. But dendrochronologists — people who study the ages of trees — have examined at least tens of thousands of trees around the world since then, and none have been confirmed to be as senior as Methuselah. | Of course, it’s not possible to say that any given tree is definitely the oldest tree on Earth because not all trees have been analyzed in this way. But dendrochronologists — people who study the ages of trees — have examined at least tens of thousands of trees around the world since then, and none have been confirmed to be as senior as Methuselah. |
| To pin down the date (or era) of Methuselah’s birth, Dr. Schulman took several samples from the tree using a tool called an increment borer and matched up the ring patterns from each sample “to travel back in time,” said Matthew Salzer, a research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Because bristlecone pines like Methuselah do not have cylindrical trunks — they are twisted by the wind into natural sculptures — taking samples from different parts of the tree can give an estimate of the tree’s age, Dr. Salzer said. | To pin down the date (or era) of Methuselah’s birth, Dr. Schulman took several samples from the tree using a tool called an increment borer and matched up the ring patterns from each sample “to travel back in time,” said Matthew Salzer, a research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Because bristlecone pines like Methuselah do not have cylindrical trunks — they are twisted by the wind into natural sculptures — taking samples from different parts of the tree can give an estimate of the tree’s age, Dr. Salzer said. |
| In the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, the part of Inyo National Forest where Methuselah lives (that’s as specific as the forest service will get), there are many ancient trees. There is no way to know a tree’s age just by looking at it, Dr. Salzer said. But it does usually have certain markers that can tip off researchers to its old age: smooth bark, thick branches or a spiked top where the tree has died in places. | In the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, the part of Inyo National Forest where Methuselah lives (that’s as specific as the forest service will get), there are many ancient trees. There is no way to know a tree’s age just by looking at it, Dr. Salzer said. But it does usually have certain markers that can tip off researchers to its old age: smooth bark, thick branches or a spiked top where the tree has died in places. |
| It’s possible that another tree could steal the crown from Methuselah — possibly before it turns 4,848. Some organizations have suggested that there is a tree in the same forest that is 5,065 years old. But the existence of this tree, and its age, could not be confirmed by the forest service, the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research or the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. | It’s possible that another tree could steal the crown from Methuselah — possibly before it turns 4,848. Some organizations have suggested that there is a tree in the same forest that is 5,065 years old. But the existence of this tree, and its age, could not be confirmed by the forest service, the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research or the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. |
| Researchers are still investigating this other tree, said Debra Schweizer, a spokeswoman for Inyo National Forest, who pointed out that bristlecone pines grow so slowly, about one-hundredth of an inch in a good year, that it makes it difficult to accurately determine their age. | Researchers are still investigating this other tree, said Debra Schweizer, a spokeswoman for Inyo National Forest, who pointed out that bristlecone pines grow so slowly, about one-hundredth of an inch in a good year, that it makes it difficult to accurately determine their age. |
| She also cautioned visitors against fixating too much on ancient celebrities like Methuselah. | She also cautioned visitors against fixating too much on ancient celebrities like Methuselah. |
| “If you are so focused on seeing that tree, you are literally missing the forest for the tree,” she said. | “If you are so focused on seeing that tree, you are literally missing the forest for the tree,” she said. |
| Even as safe as the tree may be from an onslaught of gawkers and vandals, Methuselah cannot ward off the inevitable: The trunks of bristlecone pines begin to die around their 1,000th birthday. | Even as safe as the tree may be from an onslaught of gawkers and vandals, Methuselah cannot ward off the inevitable: The trunks of bristlecone pines begin to die around their 1,000th birthday. |
| But even if Methuselah were to last only a few hundred more years, it has been quite a life. To put things in perspective, Methuselah, named for the biblical figure who lived to be 969 years old, had long since spread its roots in the soil when the Egyptians began building the pyramids, and democracy would not begin for another 2,212 years. | But even if Methuselah were to last only a few hundred more years, it has been quite a life. To put things in perspective, Methuselah, named for the biblical figure who lived to be 969 years old, had long since spread its roots in the soil when the Egyptians began building the pyramids, and democracy would not begin for another 2,212 years. |