PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon’s weakened giant Sitka spruce has been remeasured so that park officials can keep visitors safely away in case the tree falls – which now seems its likely fate.
Using laser beams, county workers Thursday determined the Klootchy Creek Giant to be 200 feet tall.
“It’s amazing that it’s only a few feet shorter than it was two decades ago,” said Steve Meshke, Clatsop County parks director. “We had seen several figures and estimates about this tree’s height that ranged from 190 feet to 216 feet, so it’s nice to know what the actual height is.”
A mid-December storm knocked a section of rotted wood out of the trunk, aggravating damage from a lightning strike decades ago.
The tree, estimated at up to 750 years old, is cordoned off to keep the growing number of visitors at a safe distance. It attracts about 100,000 visitors a year to the Klootchy Creek County Park near Seaside on U.S. 101.
“We wanted to get a better figure about how far we need to keep people away in case this tree falls,” Meshke said.
Clatsop County commissioners will decide in the next two weeks what to do. News about the tree’s deterioration has prompted calls to use epoxy or cement to prop it up, and countercalls to let it fall of its own accord.
Meshke said a likely choice is “to let nature take its course” rather than cutting the tree down.
“There’s really not much you can do with the tree – it’s just rotting away,” he said.
In 1989, the nonprofit American Forests conservation organization listed the tree as the nation’s co-champion Sitka spruce after a friendly “largest size” competition with a Washington tree, the Quinault Lake Spruce in Olympic National Park.
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