World's Tallest Christmas Tree Lit as Logging Protest
12/23/99
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Title: World's Tallest Christmas Tree Lit as Logging Protest
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 23, 1999
HOBART, Tasmania, Australia, December 23, 1999 (ENS) - A towering
Eucalyptus regnans has become a mute plea for the life of the
Tasmanian old growth forest in which it has lived for hundreds of
years. The 80 meter (262 foot) tall Eucalyptus regnans has been turned
into "the tallest ever Christmas tree in the world," by Australia's
Wilderness Society.
The conservation group is illuminating the tree in Tasmania's Styx
River Valley every night this week with 3,000 Christmas lights as a
protest against the logging planned there next year.
A team of Wilderness Society climbers has spent eight days braving
wind, rain and sleet to scale and decorate the tree. To add another
touch of Christmas, a light dusting of snow has fallen on the
surrounding mountains.
Commonly called Mountain Ash, Eucalyptus regnans are the world's
largest hardwood trees. Only the softwood Californian redwoods are
taller.
People are invited to view the tree any night this week. It is close
to Maydena, and less than two hours drive from Hobart on Australia's
island state of Tasmania. The tree is adjacent to a logging road in
the valley of the Styx River.
The Wilderness Society's Tasmanian campaign coordinator, Geoff Law,
hopes the Christmas display will focus world attention on the plight
of Tasmania's tall forests.
"Two hundred years of logging and clearing have reduced old growth
regnans to only 13 percent of their original extent," Law said. "Yet
these giants are still being destroyed by ruthless clearcutting."
Internationally known botanist and author Professor David Bellamy
said, "Congratulations to Tasmania on getting into the millenial book
of records with the tallest Christmas tree in the world. Not removed
to a shopping mall or woodchipped for export to Japan but still
gracing the last 13 percent of old growth Eucalyptus regnans forest
left intact.
This year's tallest Christmas tree elsewhere is in Grace, Washington,
USA, and only half the height of the Tasmanian specimen at 37.2 metres
(122 feet). The previous tallest Christmas tree was also in the USA in
1950. It measured 67 metres (221 feet) and was cut down and decorated
in Seattle.
Among the botany books Professor Bellamy has authored are "Bellamy's
Europe," "Bellamy's New World : A Botanical History of America,"
"World Medicine: Plants, Patients and People," and "Botanic Man : A
Journey Through Evolution with David Bellamy."
Professor Bellamy is urging protection for the forests of Tasmania. "I
beg the Tasmanian government to give a lasting present to all the
children of the world by stopping the logging of these magnificent
forests and setting Tasmania and the whole southern hemisphere on a
new course of sustainability into the new millenium," he said.
"Tourists come to see unique things. Tasmania's Eucalyptus regnans
forests are unique."