Four days before the Caldor Fire erupted in Grizzly Flats in August 2021, tall-tree hunter Michael Taylor located “a special grove of towering white fir” as he was scanning the LiDAR imagery for Eldorado National Forest in the vicinity of Pollock Pines outside Lake Tahoe, according to a release from the Sugar Pine Foundation.
Four days later, the Caldor Fire ignited less than 10 miles away from the grove. Luckily the grove survived the fire and in July, Taylor visited the site with photographer Joshua French. In a deep, steep-sided drainage, the enormous white fir towered above Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine and even sugar pines. White fir typically grow fast and die young and are not known to reach great age or impressive heights.
Taylor and French measured and photographed the tree, which they dubbed “Firetop,” and found it to be 265.87 feet tall, more than 16 feet around and more than 5 feet in diameter. Though slightly scorched by the fire at its base, Firetop is alive and the new-world champion white fir.
Taylor and French plan to bring this new world record white fir to the attention of Eldorado National Forest and the public to ensure that it is managed responsibly and hope to see a buffer zone established around the grove to protect it.
Read more about other record-setting trees in the region at TheTahoeWeekly.com. | sugarpinefoundation.org
