Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. I’m Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times assistant editor and staff writer, coming to you once again from the canyons of Echo Park.
Hyperion, the 380-foot coastal redwood named after the Greek Titan god of heavenly light, is in California’s Redwood National Park in Humboldt County, a six-hour drive north of San Francisco. The tallest tree in the world, the 600- to 800-year-old Hyperion behemoth is deep in the park, away from any trail and behind thick vegetation at a site that can be reached only by bushwhacking. For at least 16 years, the park has refused to disclose the tree’s location.
But as with vertiginous Yosemite precipices, the Rio de Janeiro Christ the Redeemer statue and most recently our own 6th Street Bridge archways, these precautions have proved small deterrent. Sturdy, Instagram-ready thrill-seekers are entranced by the behemoth’s size and challenged by the secrecy. Reaching the tree has birthed hundreds of Reddit threads with comments including “Give me 7 million dollars and a plane, and I will find it” and, more disturbing, “Think of all the napkins we could make out of that thing!”
Finally, the park last week declared that visitors caught near Hyperion could face six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
[Read “California is trying to make the world’s tallest tree invisible. Now visitors face jail, fines,” Los Angeles Times.]
Will that stop people? Given the self-inflicted peril some people face just for a photo, it’s not a given. Between 2011 and 2017, 259 people died in the pursuit of a supposedly death-defying selfie, according to a study published by the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
The worst hazard for a person on the hunt for the Hyperion might be a bad case of poison oak. But, if a possible jail term isn’t enough, maybe knowing the harm they’re causing the tree could discourage visitors. A single visitor can bring drastic and irreversible environmental damage, degrading the tree’s base, increasing soil compaction and harming its shallow roots, the park said in a statement.
California can ill afford to lose any of its magnificent woodlands. After the KNP Complex fire in 2021, upward of 10,000 fire-damaged trees near the state’s most magnificent sequoia groves had to be removed, and 3,600 sequoias died when that blaze combined with the Windy fire. General Grant, a sequoia giant that draws international tourists, was saved by firefighters wrapping its base in fire-resistant material.
Last year, the Castle fire in Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument killed an estimated 7,500 to 10,600 sequoias — 10% to 14% of the world’s natural population. And last month, the Washburn fire threatened 500 sequoias in Yosemite Park’s famed Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias.
The park in its statement acknowledged that Hyperion was just one tree. But “although you may feel like you are not making an impact, many people making a small change creates a lasting and devastating effect,” the park said.
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