Costal Giant - Sitka Spruce

IN THE FIELD

How can a mile long hike take so long? I would often think this to myself as we haphazardly made our way in the dark forest before dawn. The approach to this tree quickly transforms from a pleasant track teaming with banana slugs and dancing ferns, to a ruthless trudge through squelching mud. We duck under branches and haul gear over fallen logs with anything but agility. The numerous fallen trees lined with broken branch stubs seem perfectly made to catch on every loose raincoat hood or backpack strap. We are exhausted before too long. The two shallow creek crossings are a continual worry, it seems impossible to predict even the most familiar stepping stone and frequently boots are plunged into the icy water. Still, as we reach the first vantage point and crane our necks upwards, the difficult trudge was immediately forgotten. We had reached ‘The Coastal Giant’.

This tree makes its home beside a growling creek in a deep muddy valley and has withstood countless howling storms for hundreds of years. Like most tall Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis), this tree has not escaped the storms unscathed. A gigantic scar covering a 2’ x 6’ section of the trunk is visible just beside the climber in the yellow jacket. Towards the top of the tree, just above the climber in the blue jacket, a regrowing crown from where it was snapped long ago indicates this tree has had its fair share of hardships.

Rarely growing far from the ocean, Sitka Spruce is a maritime species which is found from northern California to Alaska. This species thrives on the windswept and very wet coastlines and along floodplains of large, ocean-flowing rivers. The Sitka spruce temperate rainforests are known to have some of the highest growth rates ever reported. 200-300 year old trees can be gigantic, making them important carbon sinks. Most of the largest Sitka spruce trees were cut down during the mid-20thcentury. Its wood has an extremely high strength to weight ratio and was ideal for the first military aircraft.

The forest floor in these moist, coastal environments is often covered by a thick carpet of moss and vegetation which makes it difficult for seeds to germinate. A newly fallen logs surface provides an ideal place for a new generation to get started. These so called nurse logs are the reason why mature Sitka spruce trees are often in a straight line. These nurse logs, once rotted away, produce trees that have incredible buttressed bases and bizarre root systems that effectively seem to hold the trees base above the ground. These challenging environmental conditions give each old growth Sitka Spruce a fantastic personalised structure.

★★★★★