The Oldest Tree in the World
Out West … high atop a deser dry mountain in Central California… you’d have a hard time finding it… but if you look hard enough… you’ll find what’s believed to be the oldest tree in the world. In fact you’ll find a few ancient Bristlecone Pines. Thick... twisted wood bent at almost unnatural angles… petrified branches swirling toward the heavens above. And topped by pine needles that look like a crew cut… that grew out a bit too much. The age of the oldest tree among them has been confirmed by scientist who drilled out a sample and counted the rings. These Bristlecone Pines have taken everything nature’s thrown at them since before the days of Moses or Mohammed. At about the time the Egyptians were first figuring out how to build a pyramid. Little sprouts sprung from the earth… high on White Mountain in California. That tree is still standing… still alive … a staggering 4 thousand 8-hundred years old. If you go to see it you’ll have to hike your way through the Inyo Forest to what they call the Methusalah Grove … where thetrees still grow at a rate of 1 inch every hundred years…. But you’ll have to guess WHICH fiBristlecone pine is the 4800 year old granddaddy. A sad statement about modern society… the NY Times reports the Forest Service won’t label the tree… it’s fire resistant… and seems to handle climate change… and the ravages of time. ut the rangers want to protect the world’s oldest tree… from man… almost expecting// that someone will vandalize it.