Forest

A tree-climbing scientist and his team have learned surprising new facts about giant sequoias by measuring them inch by inch. On a gentle slope above a trail junction in Sequoia National Park, about 7,000 feet above sea level in the southern Sierra Nevada, looms a very big tree. Its trunk is rusty red, thickened with deep layers of furrowed bark, and 27 feet in diameter at the base. Its footpri