Redwoods: Grove of Titans, aka the GOT
This page is an off-shoot of > Largest Coast Redwoods
Copyright 2009 - 2010 by Mario Vaden
Note: please don't email for clues, gps or questions about whether you are getting "warm" for the Grove of Titans. My redwood pages already have the comments selected to share about this grove or about what others wrote.
2010 Comments: Abuse Won't Happen? ~ Think Again!
The Grove of Titans is a coast redwood grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, with several of the largest known coast redwoods. It is not large for acreage, but significant for the rare sized redwoods in it. These largest of coast redwoods were discovered in 1998 by Prof. Steve Sillett & Mr. Michael Taylor. The park is between Crescent City and Hiouichi in northern California. The location remains basically unpublished. Richard Preston had written about it
One of the most photogenic redwoods in the Grove of Titans is Del Norte Titan, emerging behind ferns like an ancient Greek column. It's across the water from the campground, in the large extent of forest on the oposite side of the Smith River. The three redwoods there with the most name recognition are Lost Monarch, Screaming Titans and Del Norte Titan. See my main redwood page where a page link is provided for each.
Image at right: Del Norte Titan in Grove of Titans.
The Grove of Titans redwoods extends through an old growth valley, highlighted with autumn color from vine maples.
Rounded to the foot, the trunks are about 26' for Lost Monarch 26' and 23' for Del Norte Titan 23'. Not only is the size interesting, but what grows on these redwoods. Aragorn has a little bit of the epiphyte Oregon Spikemoss or Selaginella oregana, 110' to 120' high. El Viejo del Norte is heavily laden with hundreds of pounds of fern mats.
Several redwoods in Grove of Titans are about twice the size of the Stout Grove redwood found directly across the river from the campground. The Stout redwood is about 16' diameter. But the park may have upwards of 50 redwoods larger than the Stout redwood: not limited to the Grove of Titans, but scattered about in the several thousand acre park.
Screaming Titans in the Grove of Titan gigantic too. It's a twin redwood fused for enough of the lower trunk to considered as one redwood. It is about 30' diameter, which is almost 5 feet wider at dbh than General Sherman, the largest known Sequoidendron.
The grove has plenty of sword ferns, and no poison-oak like you may have seen along highway 199 or a Hatton trail offshoot. Although not far from Grove of Titans on Hiouchi Trail is a poison-oak on steroids nearly 180' tall.
Regeneration of the redwood species is slow in the Grove of Titans area, but it happens. And you may have heard that redwoods don't germinate a lot in some areas. During the winter of 2007, a storm broke a big limb off El Viejo del Norte. Fragments grew sprouts. My October 2008 visit during heavy rain showed more growth. I am watching it develop. If these remain alive, the redwoods will basically be genetic clones of El Viejo del Norte. Another glance in spring 2010, showed that the new redwoods were still alive.
2010 Grove of Titans News
Abuse Won't Happen? Think Again. And Why Lay Waste Vegetation?
If a link brought you directly here, and you don't know what the Grove of Titans is, scroll upward.
In 2010, a man expressed his wish about maps for the Grove of Titans: his ideology that anybody and everybody should have maps; to hasten or multiply traffic to the grove; that parks build decks or boardwalks at the cost of sub-story vegetation; and that damage to special redwoods or groves has not been a problem. That type of mindset seemed worth confronting here, not just for this grove, but for future reference. Here are a few points to fill the informational black hole:
Again, the ideology is that damage is not worth concern ...
1. Article by Tom Clynes: "Centerpiece of Tall Trees Grove ... names carved in the trunk and the top died ... attributed by one scientist to soil compaction around roots"
2. Researchers found damage in the crown of another champion redwood, the Mendocino Tree, that suggested it had been clandestinely climbed.
3. Even Luna, the redwood made famous by Julia Butterfly Hill, was deeply gouged by a chain saw a year after Hill had saved it from loggers.
4. Recently (2010) an unknown vandal slaughtered 44 specimens in Golden Gate Park.
5. Palo Alto's most treasured redwood was spoiled by graffiti. That El Palo Alto ... more than 1,000 years old and recognized as California Historic Landmark No. 2 ... was sprayed with paint.
6. It was reported that the redwood nicknamed Scarface at the Ladybird Johnson Grove in RNP received the huge chainsaw slash fairly recently: not during legal logging. A big photo may be in my albums: the trunk is about 10 feet diameter. A reputable expert from the "logging days" pointed out that this cut does not resemble what would be used for a felling notch; but resembles hit and run cutting.
7. Melborne's Royal Botanical Garden vandalism. Look at the photo if available. Police say an axe, machete or tomahawk was probably used to ringbark around the massive River Red Gum.
8. 200 year old Tree of Knowledge in Queensland Outback vandalized when someone poured herbicides around the Eucalyptus' trunk. And estimated 40 liters of herbicide.
9. Sandy Oregon, 2010: Police announc the "The Chainsaw Chicken," felling at least 20 trees along Hy. 26 near Cherryville Road. Trees were felled on roads and the highway late at night.
10. Texas 1989: a vandal poured a large amount of herbicide under the ancient Treaty Oak. The oak is a shadow of what it was.
11. Michael Taylor also mentioned a vandalized Sugar Pine: world's tallest, near Umpqua National Forest at a south Umpqua River tributary. Not long after the sign addition, the tree was girdled with a chainsaw. This is also mentioned by others, including the book a Complete Angler's Guide to Oregon.
12. Links won't be provided, but I encountered videos and photo albums posted by urban area climbers, of illegal climbs into old growth redwoods like at Rockefeller forest.
Additionally, here are some observations from Grove of Titans, and elsewhere:
1. Someone cut some vegetation off at the base of Lost Monarch, on the photo op side with something sharp like a knife. Coincidence?
2. At Sir Isaac Newton elsewhere, a large huckleberry was bent and broken at what would be a photo-op side. Coincidence, or entry-level vandalism?
Problems don't exist? Think again.
Keep in mind that I'm not advocating that nobody should find this grove. Obviously some people are looking for it, and some have found it. But that in itself is no reason to multiply traffic to an area that has very little wear on the soil and vegetation. In fact, the inconspicuous wear had started to reverse once 2009 passed.
An acid test - It's doubtful that the map ideology man would ever post maps to himself, family or friends, like how Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, put his social security number on busy streets.
Thanks for taking a moment to read.
PS:
1. If you are unfamiliar with soil or soil compaction, check out some basics here: MDV soils