Washington's Tallest Tree Confirmed

[M.W.Taylor]

Recently Dr. Sillett and Ken Fisher measured a tall douglas fir Washington that exceeds anything found in Olympic National Park in terms of height. It stands 98m or 321.5 feet and about 9' dbh. It is a near perfect specimen.

I relayed the coordinates to Steve after doing a LiDAR search of the Mount St. Helens area in May. Unfortunately this tree is dying. Steve decided to not keep the location a secret due to it dying so all who want to see Washington's tallest tree can have a chance to go see it before it croaks. Attached is the KMZ and height banded overlay which will auto launch in Google Earth. The area is hard to get to as most of the roads are washed out. River crossings and hiking are required to get there.

The Cascades were once known for having extremely tall trees. There is at least one left. But not for long.

Michael Taylor

WNTS VP

[sradivoy]

Michael,

Have you scanned for any 300ft Noble firs in the St. Helens area? Goat Marsh would be a good place to start. Great find by the way and good decision to share the location of a dying tree so that others may enjoy. Wish I was still living in that area.

Stefan

[sradivoy]

Very cool having someone with the stature of Ken Fisher out in the field measuring and protecting important trees. Quite an asset, especially for redwoods. A giant among giants!

[KoutaR]

Michael,

Very cool! Did you forget to attach the KMZ file?

Kouta

[M.W.Taylor]

I have looked for the 300' noble fir in that area. So far no success. I think the eruption took most of them out, if not all.

Michael,

Have you scanned for any 300ft Noble firs in the St. Helens area? Goat Marsh would be a good place to start. Great find by the way and good decision to share the location of a dying tree so that others may enjoy. Wish I was still living in that area.

Stefan

[M.W.Taylor]

Michael,

Very cool! Did you forget to attach the KMZ file?

Kouta

Attached is the KMZ for this tree, one being the location, the other being a height banded overlay for the grove. The larger image is for the entire DNR fragment which probably survived due to the 1981 eruption mudflows destroying all the bridges, which blocked heavy equipment access to the area until the DNR (AKA - Department of Nothing Remaining) became more conversation minded. With helicopters this fragment could easily be liquidated. As of now, the DNR is no longer allowing logging of old growth forest on their jurisdiction. This area is hard to get to, even on foot.

[M.W.Taylor]

Michael,

Have you scanned for any 300ft Noble firs in the St. Helens area? Goat Marsh would be a good place to start. Great find by the way and good decision to share the location of a dying tree so that others may enjoy. Wish I was still living in that area.

Stefan

I think I scanned Goat Marsh, but I will double check to make sure.

[M.W.Taylor]

Very cool having someone with the stature of Ken Fisher out in the field measuring and protecting important trees. Quite an asset, especially for redwoods. A giant among giants!

I am in agreement with your comments. What I know about Ken is he likes to explore the forests searching for great trees, both big and tall. This is not limited to redwood.

[sradivoy]

Rangerdan used to work at Gifford Pinchot National Forest as a ranger many years ago. Don't know if he still posts here or not. Hopefully he'll chime in if he's still active. I remember him mentioning an impressive old growth forest of DFs on the Green River downstream past the blast zone. He also mentioned the Blue Lake area and I think Sheep Canyon, both just north of Goat Marsh as prime locations for tall Noble Firs.

[MarkGraham]

Thanks for attaching the kmz files. Looks like maybe another 300 footer about 120 feet SSW? Great find in a forest fragment that is less than one square mile. Mount St. Helen's 10 miles to the east looks quite spectacular.