Muir’s 130-year-old giant sequoia cloned

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times

Horticulturists recently announced that 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.

And many more are apparently on the way, they say.

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 in the East Bay, said David Milarch, co-founder of the nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.

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.

Read the whole story