Natural Environment Blog

The Nature Conservancy is continuing to offer green gifts this year, with its Green Gift Guide. You may remember that it launched its Green Corporate Gift-Giving Center last year.

Included in this year’s gift guide are TNC’s “Top 5 Eco-Friendly Holiday Gifts”.

1. Adopt an Acre ($50 per acre)

   Help protect threatened habitats by adopting acres in critical locations around the world at only $50 per acre. Adopt an acre in one of the following places:

   • Africa’s Grasslands and Savannas
   • Austalia’s Gondwana Link
   • Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula
   • The Appalachians in the United States
   • Las Californias in the United States
   • Southern Coastal Plain Forests in the United States
   • Brazil Atlantic Forest
2. Plant a Tree in the Atlantic Forest ($1 per tree)

   One dollar plants one tree and helps support the Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

   When you give Plant a Billion Trees as a gift, you can select the number of trees you plant and to help save paper, you can set up an e-card to announce your gift on any day you choose.

3. Adopt a Coral Reef

   The Adopt a Coral Reef program raises funds for important coral reef projects in the Dominican Republic, Palau and Papua New Guinea. The program provides critical funds for the permanent protection and restoration of these reefs.

   As some of the most biodiverse and wondrous places in the world, coral reefs need our immediate attention. If the present rate of destruction continues, 70% of the world’s coral reefs will be destroyed by the year 2050.

4. Help Save the Northern Jaguar.

   Deforestation and hunting have led to the decline of the northern jaguar. Your gift helps protect the habitat that northern jaguars need to survive and flourish.

5. Give Clean Water

   Every time a free-flowing river is altered, a lake is fouled by toxic runoff or a wetland is drained, the ability of freshwater systems to sustain life is disrupted and weakened. Your gift will help to finance conservation activities such as restoring riparian forest, setting up environmental education projects, installing equipment that tracks pollution and sedimentation rates in rivers and streams and giving families peace of mind that the water they drink is safe and clean.

So there you have it. The top 5 eco-friendly holiday gifts from The Nature Conservancy. Be sure to check out their other gifts at the Green Gift Guide.

Online colleges are gaining in popularity by the day, not just because they’re more convenient for people who want to work and study, but because they’re offering more comprehensive and accepted degrees as well.

Most of us are aware of the various advantages to studying online as opposed to going to a regular college – we save on commuting costs, we’re able to earn as we learn, and we’re allowed flexible learning schedules.

But how many of us know that an online degree helps in the fight against global warming too? If you’re asking how, read on to find out:

• By minimizing our carbon footprint: When we cut down on commuting costs, we’re also cutting down on the usage of gasoline. And the less gas we use, the lower the impact of fossil fuel on the environment. Even if you were to stay in a hostel or dormitory on campus, it’s a cheaper option to study online because you’re minimizing the use of electricity. Online colleges do not have to use electricity to power classrooms and dormitories because there are no buildings.
• By reducing the effect of construction on the environment: Since there is no need for classrooms, you’re reducing the use of materials, especially the natural ones like wood.You’re also saving the use of fossil fuels in their transportation and in the energy that would be expended to construct the buildings. When there’s no construction, you also minimize the amount of water that’s used.
• By reducing the use of paper: When you study online, your word processor replaces all your notebooks. All your essays and lessons are submitted online in the electronic form, so you don’t have to use paper. When you minimize the use of paper, you’re saving trees in the rainforest from being cut down and are thus contributing to increasing rainfall around the world.Trees play an important role in bringing us rain, holding on to the soil so that the loose earth does not cause landslides, and in providing natural canopies that shade us from the harsh heat of the summer sun. In this way, they reduce the need for air conditioners and provide natural cooling effects.

This post was contributed by Claire Webber, who writes about the best schools online.  She welcomes your feedback at Claire.Webber1223 [at] gmail.com

A 10 meter palm tree species called Corypha taliera is about to become extinct in the wild.  

The world’s last known wild Corypha taliera has begun to flower. Unfortunately for this species, flowering usually causes the plant’s death.

The plant was discovered in the 1950s growing in the scrub jungle on the Dhaka University campus, Bangladesh. It was then identified by local scientist Shamal Kumar Basu and subsequently protected in what became the enclosure of the residential quarters of the Pro Vice-Chancellor.

Attempting to Cultivate the Plant’s Seeds

Professor Md Abul Hasan, chairman of the botany department at Dhaka University, said that they would collect seeds of the dying plant and attempt to cultivate them. 

But he was not optimistic.

“We cannot say whether it would be possible to produce the plant in botanical gardens,” he said.

Red List Classification

Although this palm is the last known Corypha taliera growing in the wild, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has already classified the plant on its Red List, as being “extinct in the wild”. This is because molecular work - which is required to confirm the identification - still hasn’t been taken out on the plant. Until molecular work is carried out, they will only say that this plant has been “tentatively identified”.

Also, IUCN say that its unclear about whether or not the specimen originated from cultivated material. They also mention that the plant is effectively in a “cultivated state”, and therefore probably wouldn’t count towards the “wild” classification.

Although not in the wild, Corypha taliera specimens are currently growing in the Indian Botanic Garden and the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Florida, USA. Because these aren’t growing in the natural environment, they don’t count for “wild” plants hence the IUCN classification “Extinct in the Wild”. 

Previous Specimen

No other specimen of this monocarpic palm tree has been found in the wild in almost 30 years. In 1979, a Corypha taliera, located in a village near Shantiniketan of West Bengal, had begun flowering, and the locals fearing that it was a “ghost palmyra tree” - due to its horn-like flowers - chopped it down. The seeds of that specimen could not be saved.

The world’s tallest known hardwood tree has been found in Tasmania, Australia.

The tree, dubbed Centurion, is a eucalyptus tree (or eucalyptus regnans), standing at 101 meters tall. 

Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon says, “It is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 metres tall”.  

Actually, Centurion has broken two records. It is also the tallest flowering plant in the world.

According to some news reports, Centurion is the second tallest tree in the world - second only to this giant redwood. But I beg to differ. I can name 15 redwoods that are taller than Centurion. 

But not to take anything away from Centurion. Centurion is a hardwood tree. The giant California redwoods are softwood trees. Also, Centurion is classified as a flowering plant (and the tallest a that!).

Centurion is not the only tall eucalyptus tree to be seen in Australia. Eucalyptus trees are amongst the tallest trees ever recorded. The challenge these days, is to allow them to grow to their full potential without chopping them down.

Centurion, which measures 405 centimeters in diameter, is located about 5 kilometers from Tahune Airwalk, a popular tourist walk through the tree tops. Forestry Tasmania plan to create a boardwalk to Centurion so that the public can view the massive tree.

About the Name “Centurion”

A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army in charge of 100 soldiers. Well, to be precise, centurions initially commanded a centuria, or “century” of 100 soldiers. Later, they commanded 60 men. Then this number rose to 80 soldiers.

Let’s hope that Centurion (the tree) doesn’t lose the number of trees its in charge of!

A recent study has found that non-native trees can cause harm to rainforests.

The study, which covered more than 220,000 hectares of rainforest in Hawaii, found that there were large amounts of non-native trees causing problems to the rainforest.

The Hawaiian rainforest usually consists of mainly ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha), but non-native trees such as tropical ash (Fraxinus uhdei) and the Canary Island fire tree (Morella faya) are beginning to take over in some parts.

In particular, the study found that the non-native trees had a denser canopy, which results in less light reaching to the lower levels of the forest. This results in native understory plants, such as tree ferns, being suppressed.

Also, non-native trees can change the soil fertility, which often results in better growing conditions for invaders.

Gregory Asner, who led the research team said

Invasive tree species often show biochemical, physiological and structural properties that are different from native species. We can use these ‘fingerprints’ combined with the 3-D images to see how the invasives are changing the forest.

You can read more about this on the Stanford University website.

I’ve already posted about the tallest tree in the world. And I’ve posted about the top 15 tallest California redwood trees, which are the tallest known living trees today.

In this post, I’ll talk about the tallest tree ever recorded. Or maybe that should be, the tallest trees ever recorded.

Australia’s Eucalyptus regnans trees (also referred to as Eucalyptus trees) have been widely regarded as the tallest trees ever recorded.

Here’s a list of some of the tallest Eucalyptus trees ever recorded:

• Many sources have stated that the tallest tree ever recorded is the “Ferguson Tree” (measured by William Ferguson). On February 21, 1872, the fallen tree was measured at 132.6 meters (435 feet) - and that was after the top had broken off! The trunk, where it had broken off, was still a meter in diameter, and some estimated that the tree could have been taller than 152.4 meters (500 feet) tall.
• Another tall tree was the “Robinson Tree” (measured by G.W. Robinson) at Mount Baw Baw. In 1889, the Robinson Tree was found to be 143 meters (470 fee) tall.
• In 1867 another Eucalyptus tree was measured at 132.9 meters (436 feet)
• A Eucalytus tree known as T. Rolla Tree was measured at 124.9 meters (410 feet)
• The “David Boyle Tree” (measured by David Boyle) was located in the Dandenong Ranges (near Melbourne). In 1862 it was measured at 119 meters (390 feet), but it had fallen and had a broken top. David estimated that the tree would have been 128 meters (420 feet) if it’d kept it’s top.
• In 1888, the Menzies Creek tree was measured at 122 meters (400 feet) after it had fallen.
• In 1866, the C Walter tree was said to be 118.8 meters (390 feet)
• In 1880, the Cornthwaite tree was measured at 114 meters (374 feet) after it had been cut down. It was located in South Gippsland in the Thorpdale area.

Isn’t it a shame that the tallest trees always seem to get cut down?

There’s little argument that the California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living trees on our planet. These trees often grow to more than 100 meters tall.

In August 2006, a new “tallest tree in the world” was found. Once again, it was a California redwood, and it’s location was Redwood Forest ( Redwood National Park, California). This tree has been named “Hyperion” (from Greek mythology) and stands 115.55 meters (379.1 feet) tall!

How did they Measure the Tree?

The most accurate way of measuring a tall tree like Hyperion is to climb to the top, and drop a weighted tape measure. And that’s exactly what Steve Sillett did. Here’s a 2 part video of Steve measuring the world’s tallest tree for The Guinness Book of World Records. This video footage was taken for National Geographic.

Part 1:

Part 2:
And here’s Jim Speckler measuring the same tree:

So there you have it, the world’s tallest tree - or should I say, the world’s tallest, measured, tree!