Sequoiaen

Mariposa Grove lå en times kjøretur sør for dalen. Ranger Tomas hadde satt Polly av ved stistarten og gått av vakt. "Gå og se de gamle," sa han.

Mariposa Grove was an hour's drive south of the valley. Ranger Tomas had dropped Polly at the trailhead and gone off-duty. "Go see the old ones," he said.

De gamle var gigantiske sequoiaer. De er de største trærne i verden målt i volum.

The old ones were giant sequoias. They are the biggest trees in the world by volume.

Det første Polly la merke til var fargen. Sequoia-barken er ikke brun. Den er dyp rust-oransje og ser svampete ut. Hun landet på en lav gren og hakket på barken med nebbet. Barken ga litt etter. Den var nesten en halv meter tykk, myk å ta på. Denne tykke barken er treets viktigste forsvar mot brann.

The first thing Polly noticed was the colour. Sequoia bark is not brown. It is a deep rust-orange and looks spongy. She landed on a low branch and pecked the bark with her beak. The bark gave a little. It was nearly half a metre thick, soft to the touch. This thick bark is the tree's main defence against fire.

En familie gikk forbi. En liten jente sa: "Se, en papegøye!" Faren hennes sa: "Det er en kosedyr noen har glemt." Polly rørte seg ikke.

A family walked past. A little girl said, "Look, a parrot!" Her father said, "It's a stuffed toy someone forgot." Polly did not move.

Hun fløy opp langs treet, nivå for nivå. Tretti meter opp begynte grenene. De var like tykke som hennes egen kropp. Hun satte seg på en og så opp. Kronen var ytterligere førti meter høyere.

She flew up the side of the tree, level by level. At thirty metres up, the branches began. They were as thick as her own body. She perched on one and looked up. The crown was another forty metres higher.

Stien endte ved ett tre: Grizzly Giant. Det var omtrent 2 995 år gammelt. Stammen var bredere enn en bybuss.

The trail ended at one tree: the Grizzly Giant. It was about 2,995 years old. Its trunk was wider than a city bus.

Polly satte seg på et lavt sted i barken. Hun så opp.

Polly perched on a low spot in the bark. She looked up.

Tre tusen år. Treet hadde stått her da egyptiske faraoer bygde Kongenes dal. Det hadde stått her da Roma var en liten jordbrukslandsby. Det hadde vokst omtrent en centimeter bredere hvert år, i stille ro.

Three thousand years. The tree had been here when Egyptian pharaohs were building the Valley of the Kings. It had been here when Rome was a small farming village. It had grown about one centimetre wider each year, in steady silence.

Hun ble der lenge. Et lite brannarr på stammen var eldre enn de fleste land. Treet hadde overlevd dusinvis av branner.

She stayed a long time. A small fire scar on the trunk was older than most countries. The tree had survived dozens of fires.

Et frø på størrelse med en havreflak falt forbi henne. Sequoia-frø trenger brann for å vokse. Konglene åpner seg bare i varmen. Hver ny sequoia er resultatet av en gammel brann.

A seed about the size of an oat flake fell past her. Sequoia seeds need fire to grow. The cones only open in the heat. Every new sequoia is the result of an old burn.