This is so neat. I have often dreamed of undertaking afforestation on a truly massive scale. In northern CA, every time I hike through redwoods (2% of their historical range) I wonder what prevents us from growing them faster. Not enough water? Not enough nutrients in the soil? Transporting either all the way up the tree? Can we engineer our way around these problems, or is it truly the case that the planet is incapable of recovering from the havoc we have wrought until long after we are all gone.
Redwoods are massive and they need a lot of energy just to stay alive. But, in classic 2d v 3d scaling they don't gain enough sunlight for rapid growth.
EX: A 250 foot tall tree with a 25ft diamiter base ~= 1,000 25 foot trees with 1 foot diamiter bases, but 1,000 25 foot trees would collect a lot more sunlight.
PS: Redwoods do grow fairly quickly when there 'small'.
They do often occur in mixed stands though. So while they do reach a maximum that doesn't allow the collection of more sunlight, they are still quite a bit taller than their neighbor trees that cannot reach the same height.
I think that redwoods need a very specific environment. As I understand, they tend to need forest fires to grow well. This is one reason why you see controlled burns year round in places like Sequoia National Forest. Maybe that is just when they are young, because they don't really seem to die very easily once they are established. I once read that their most common cause of death is erosion, causing them to fall over (due to a shallow root system).
I would love to see more redwood forests grown, but it seems like it might be hard to do.
Common misconception, Giant Redwoods and Giant Sequoias are not the same tree.
Sequoia Sempervirens is the Coast Redwood we see in places like San Francisco and surrounding areas. The tallest tree ever recorded was a Coast Redwood. These trees grow only along the coast in areas with plenty of moisture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens
Sequoia Giganteum is the giant sequoia that grows in only on western facing slopes above ~4000ft in 68 groves in the Sierras. It is the most massive single-stem tree in the world. They also get quite tall, but not as tall as the Coast Redwood. As they mature, they become effectively fireproof, but their seeds do rely on heat to germinate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum
As far as trees go, both species grow quite fast. even as they get older, they add significant mass every year.
I know that they aren't the same, but I guess I figured that they were similar as far as environment goes. Thanks for the clarification and extra info.
It turns out the forest service/forest industry did workout how to grow deciduous trees faster at one point to maximize wood production but it involved terracing the hillside to enable mechanized planting and increase water retention.
The resulting forests were far from natural and we moved towards more sustainable levels of harvesting. It will be interesting to see if techniques could be developed to reestablish diverse forests on a larger level will be developed.
