Conservationists are planting giant sequoia trees in Detroit. “We’re planting the forest of the future. Diversity is the answer. There are so many natives that aren’t happy here anymore. We have to look at what trees are thriving.”
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I wonder why they aren't choosing native species that are thriving? Seems like planting a giant thirsty tree would only serve to crowd out the native canopy.
I wonder if we could get them to grow in VT?
I bought a little sapling in a tube in Redwood National Forest years ago, but never planted it.
Apparently the UK has more of them than California: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sequoias-redwoods-uk
"There are an estimated half a million redwoods in the UK and more are being planted, partly due to their public appeal. In the wild they are endangered with fewer than 80,000 giant sequoias remaining in their native California range." — https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/mar/giant-sequoias-are-rapidly-growing-feature-uk-landscape
In the early 70s my grandmother smuggled a redwood seedling (I guess you could buy these at gift shops?) back to the UK and planted it in my uncle’s garden. It eventually got quite tall and was very happy until the hurricane in 1987 blew it down.
I am learning a lot here: sequoias in the UK, hurricanes in the UK??
Here are a couple of lists of big storms in the UK (The Great Storm of 1987 was the most referenced one when I was growing up):
https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/britains-worst-storms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_in_the_United_Kingdom
I've never heard of the 1981 tornado outbreak before!
"The 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak is regarded as the largest recorded tornado outbreak in European history, and is tied with the tornado outbreak of November 22–24, 2004 as the largest November tornado outbreak globally. In the span of 5 hours and 26 minutes during the late morning and early afternoon of 23 November 1981, 104 confirmed tornadoes touched down across Wales and central, northern and eastern England."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_United_Kingdom_tornado_outbreak
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