John Muir giant sequoia cloned

This is the first clone of a giant sequoia planted by conservationist John Muir in the 1880s on his homestead in Martinez, Calif. (David Milarch /  Archangel Ancient Tree Archive)

Horticulturists announced  they had successfully cloned a genetic replica of an ailing 130-year-old giant sequoia planted by conservationist John Muir in the 1880s on his ranch in Martinez, Calif.

If all goes according to plan, the first clone nurtured in a Michigan laboratory will be shipped within a year to California for planting at Muir’s homestead, which is now a national historic site about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco, said David Milarch, cofounder of the nonprofit Archa

Muir, regarded as the father of the modern conservation movement, returned from a Sierra Nevada trip with the original seedling wrapped in a damp handkerchief. He planted the specimen beside a carriage house on his family’s Martinez fruit ranch.

Today, the sequoia is 70 feet tall and dying of an airborne fungus.

read more original article LA Times

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/our_ancient_future_the_archangel_ancient_tree_archive_story/