I need you to picture something. Your whole class. Every single kid, all of you, holding hands in a big circle. Now picture you're all standing around a tree. But it's too big. Even with your arms all the way out, you still don't reach. That's how wide this tree is at the base. Over 100 feet around. And it's 275 feet tall. That's a 27-story building made of living wood. It weighs 2.7 million pounds. And it's been standing in the same spot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California for over 2,200 years. This is General Sherman, an enormous Sequoia tree. And it's not just the biggest tree in Sequoia National Park. It is the largest living thing on Earth. Today we're gonna find out how something gets that big and how it survived for over 2,000 years. Let's go! Welcome to National Park Scouts, the show where curious kids discover America's wildest places. I'm Jenny. Today we're starting a brand new series. And Scouts, this one is going to be big. Like genuinely the biggest. We're heading to Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. A place where the trees are so enormous they have names. Sequoia is right next door to another national park, King's Canyon. They are so close that they even share a border. Welcome to Sequoia. Because big. If you wanted to see the very top branch of General Sherman, you'd have to tilt your head back so far your hat would fall off. That top branch, it's so thick that if it fell down, it would be wider than the trees in your neighborhood park. Just one branch. But here is the secret to why this tree is the world record holder. It isn't actually the tallest tree in the world, and it isn't the widest. What makes General Sherman the largest living thing on earth is how heavy, solid, and completely packed with wood it is. Think of it this way: it doesn't just grow up like a skinny bean pole, it stays massive all the way up. If you could somehow put General Sherman on a giant scale, it would weigh more than 150 school buses. All packed into one single living plant. And it didn't get that way overnight. General Sherman has been sitting in this exact dirt for over 2,000 years. To give you an idea of how long that is, General Sherman was already a massive tree before cars were invented, before airplanes, before electricity or video games, or even smartphones. In fact, this tree was already ancient before the United States was even a country. It was standing here through every single summer and every single winter, just quietly growing in the California dirt. In fact, it's still growing so fast that every single year, it adds enough wood to make an entirely new adult-sized tree. It is not slowing down. Which raises an unpretty incredible question. How does a tree survive 2,000 years of freezing storms, blistering droughts, and raging forest fires without falling over? Okay, scouts, it's time for guess that park sound. We'll get back to our tree. But first, let's guess this sound. Now, I want you to think about where we are. We are standing next to the largest living thing on earth, ancient, towering, majestic. And this is what lives in it. Let's listen in. A very upset smoke alarm? A tiny creature that has a lot of opinions? Hold on to your guess. We'll find out right after the break. Thank you to Don from Neighborhood Naturalist for providing us with our park sound today. You can find more of his work at neighborhood-naturalist.com. That sound is a Douglas squirrel. It's also called a chicory. The chicory is about the size of your hand. It's reddish brown with bright orange belly. Here's what makes the chicory so interesting. It cuts giant sequoia cones, that's Sequoia's version of a pine cone, off the tree by the hundreds, at a rate of about 20 cones per minute. Scientists once watched one single chicory cut 538 cones from one tree in about 30 minutes. For reference, that's faster than most people can count to 538. And here's the part that surprises everyone. Those cones, they're actually part of how the biggest tree on earth makes a new baby tree. The chicory is accidentally helping the forest grow. We'll come back to that. But first, let me tell you how General Sherman is still standing after all these centuries. Okay, so here's the question we planted earlier. How does a tree live for over 2,000 years? The answer starts with armor. Giant sequoia bark can grow up to two feet thick. Two feet? That's thicker than most walls in your house. And it's not just thick, it's spongy and almost fireproof. It has no resin in it, which means there's nothing for fire to grab onto. And it's packed with something called tannins, a natural chemical that is like built-in bug spray. The tree basically comes with its own suit of armor. Now, the roots. Here's a surprising one. Giant sequoia roots are only 6 to 12 feet deep. For the biggest tree on earth, that's not very deep at all. But instead of going down, they spread out. Way out. The root system of a giant sequoia can stretch across more than one acre of ground. And here's the cool part. Sequoia roots actually intertwine underground with the roots of neighboring trees. Like they're holding hands with the forest around them for extra support. The whole grove holds itself up. But the biggest survival secret? This is one nobody expects. Giant sequoias need fire to reproduce. Not just survive, but to make more trees. This is complicated, but you'll totally get it. Here's how it works. Giant sequoia cones are small. They're about the size of a chicken egg, and they stay sealed shut and green on the tree for up to 20 years. Unless, of course, a chicory comes along. Seeds are locked inside, waiting. Nothing can get in and nothing gets out. When a fire sweeps through the forest, and fires happen naturally here, every six to thirty-five years. The heat rises into the treetops and dries those cones out. The cones crack open and release thousands of tiny seeds. Each one is about the size of a piece of oatmeal. The largest living thing on earth starts out smaller than your fingernail. But the fire does something else just as important. It burns away the thick layer of dead needles and leaves on the forest floor, and it exposes bare soil underneath. Sequoia seeds can only sprout in bare soil, not leaf litter, just clean dirt. Without fire clearing the way, the seeds land and nothing happens. You would think that fire would destroy sequoias, but fire isn't the enemy. Fire is the reason the sequoia exists. And here's where our loud little friend comes back in. Remember the chicory cutting all those cones? When it chews through those green cone scales, it's letting seeds fall out too. Year round, fire or no fire. It's not as dramatic as a whole grove opening up at once, but it keeps seeds trickling into the forest floor constantly. A tiny squirrel accidentally planting the future of the largest trees on earth. Here's something I want you to think about. General Sherman has a diary, not a written one, but every single year of its life is recorded inside its trunk as a ring. One ring per year. Scientists who study tree rings can actually read those rings like pages. A thin ring means it was a dry, tough year. A wide ring means plenty of water, plenty of growth. A dark scar burned right into the wood means fire came through that year. 2,200 rings. Droughts, snowstorms, fires, good years, hard years, all of it written in wood. And the trunk tells another story too. Look at the bark up close and you can see lightning scars. Places where branches tore away in storms. Patches where fire scorched the earth outside but never got through. This tree has been hit by lightning, buried in snow, burned more than once. A branch fell off in 2006 that was six feet wide and 98 feet long. The branch alone was bigger than most full-grown trees. And General Sherman didn't notice, it just kept going. Every scar on that tree is something it survived, and it's covered in scars. So the next time you get a scraped knee or have a really hard day, General Sherman has had about 2,000 years of those. And it's still the largest living thing on earth. Okay, scouts, it's wild card time. Today we're playing true or false. I'll read the statement, you call it. Is it true or is it false? Ready? Let's start. True or false, scientists have tried to clone General Sherman to grow mini Shermans. That's true. In 2021, scientists actually took tiny clippings from the very top of General Sherman's branches and successfully grew identical baby clones of it in a lab to save its genetics. Interesting, right? Question two true or false? If a giant sequoia loses its top in a storm, it dies. That's false. Sequoias are tough. If lightning or wind breaks the top off, the side branches just start curving upward to try and become the new top. They adapt. Last question true or false? Giant sequoias grow all over the world in forests on every continent. That's false. And this one really surprised me. Giant sequoias only grow naturally in about 75 groves scattered along the western Sierra Nevada in California. That's it. Nowhere else on earth. The largest living thing on earth only exists in a small band of mountains in one state. That's it. Alright, let's get back to the episode. I asked our scouts, would you rather see the biggest tree, the tallest tree, or the oldest tree in the world? And why? Let's hear what some of you had to say.
SPEAKER_04Hi, I am Sam. I am seven years old. I would like to see the oldest tree in the world. Because it's like going back in time.
SPEAKER_02Hi, my name is Levi, and I'm nine years old. I would rather see the biggest tree so I could climb it.
SPEAKER_01Hi, my name is Noella and I'm 12 years old. I would want to see the oldest tree in the world because it would probably have scuffs, markings, and maybe chips that would show what it's been through. And I think that would be pretty cool to see.
SPEAKER_00I love hearing from you scouts. If you want to send in a question or be featured on the show, go to National Parkscouts.com slash contact. You can also find coloring pages, word searches, and bingo cards, and sign up for our emails to find out which park we are visiting next. What did you learn today that most adults don't know? I learned that giant sequoias don't just survive fire, they actually need it. Fire opens up the sealed cones, fire clears the forest floor, so tiny seeds can take root. Without fire, new sequoias can't be born at all. The biggest living thing on earth depends on something that looks like destruction to keep the species going. And it's been working that way for thousands of years. Every scout needs a mission. Here's yours. If you're at home, find the biggest tree in your yard or your neighborhood or at a local park. Try to measure around its trunk with your arms. How many arm spans wide is it? Then look it up and find out what kind of tree it is and how old it might be. Is it 10 years old? Or is it 100? If you're visiting Sequoia National Park, walk the half mile paved trail to General Sherman. When you get there, and this is important, don't take a photo right away. Just look up, try to find the top. Notice where the trunk is still red and smooth up high. You can't touch General Sherman, but you can touch some other Sequoias that the park allows. They feel spongy and almost soft. That bark is what has kept this tree alive through thousands of years of fire. It's seen fire, drought, record heat, cold, and snow, and has faithfully grown through it all. Next time, we're going underground. Deep into Sequoia's cave to meet a creepy, crawly creature with more legs than you can count, and find out what lives in the dark. Scouts, your next adventure is waiting!