I'll list them in no particular order.
1. Alishan Sacred Tree
This was a Formosan cypress tree, and it lived in Taiwan until 1997, when a heavy rainstorm came and the tree collapsed. It was 3000 years old.
2. The Senator
A Pond Cypress tree from Florida, it lived a pretty long life. How long? 3500 years. It was destroyed in 2012 - it burned to the ground. So how did that happen? Apparently a retard was doing drugs in it and lit a fire, which got out of control. Some people found a few saplings growing out of it, though, so there is still a chance that it kind of survived - well, as much as you can call it survival.
3. Scofield juniper
The pic you see is not the exact tree I'm talking about - it's actually a specimen that lives in Southern California, but it IS a juniper, so you'll have the idea of what it was possibly like. Now, The Scofield Juniper was 2675 years old when it died in 1994. It was the oldest juniper tree that we know of, and that was accurately dated.
4. Arbre du Tenere
You probably know this one already - although it's age wasn't well known, it is estimated that it was part of an acacia forest over a millenia ago. As the Sahara grew all trees slowly died around it, this tree ending up being the loneliest tree in the world - no other trees were around in a radius of 400 kilometers.
It was a well known landmark for caravans in the desert, because it stood near a very deep well that was always used.
How did its life end? A drunk driver crashed into it and killed it in 1973.
5. Prometheus
So, I already mentioned this one in yesterday's post.
Prometheus was more than 5000 years old when it was cut down in 1964 by a student. How did this happen? Well, let me tell you the story.
Currey was studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age trough dendrochronology (tree ring dating). He was studying some bristlecone pines, because apparently in his head the Little Ice Age started in 2000 BC (I'm guessing it was too hard for him to check into the library to actually learn that the Little Ice Age was somewhere between the 16th and 19th centuries), and bristlecone pines live up to 3000 years old at least.
Anyways, apparently the tree didn't like to be attacked at the time, because the tree corer Currey worked with got stuck in it. An incredibly stupid park ranger (seriously? How do you become a park ranger when you can't even protect the oldest freaking tree in the world?) helped him out with that corer, and the two of them cut the freaking tree down.
A tragic story, because bristlecones are pretty good survivors - they can even cope with fires that burn most of them down, because their bark are able to function after it and keep the whole tree alive.
So what happened with Currey after it? Nothing. He got a career in science, and went down in history as the guy who cut down the oldest tree in the world ever recorded.
There was one good thing that came out of this, though. After the incident people came together to protect the bristlecone trees, and they established the Great Basin National Park for this cause. It also helped for people to finally understand that trees will not get replenished infinitely if they cut them all down, so at least that's a good step forward.
Now I don't know about you guys, but I would have LOVED to know that there was a serious repercussion for the guy. Sadly, back then trees were just trees- in their mind they would grow back.
But seriously, can you even imagine living up to 5000 years and then being cut down by some random dude?
