Baby_Nutz

Scientists have launched a project aimed at solving the mystery of the giant redwood tree: What allows it to grow so tall and live so long?
Arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts recently climbed almost 300 feet up three redwood trees in Roy's Redwoods Open Space Preserve in Marin County, Calif., to collect samples of new growth as part of an effort to clone some of the oldest and biggest redwood trees in the western USA.

The project will take genetic material from the trees to create a "living library" so researchers can study what allows these trees to become the tallest and largest living things on Earth, says David Milarch of the Champion Tree Project, which is working with Bartlett and the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund on the project.

Milarch hopes to plant the clones near universities. Because the young trees will be identical to the trees from which they were cloned, scientists can study their genetics without having to make the climb up the older trees to gather samples, which is expensive and difficult.

Scientists also will cross-pollinate some of the clones from different areas of the 500-mile-wide redwood range. Some of the second-generation trees created by the project might be capable of growing bigger and older than their parent trees under the right conditions, Milarch says.

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