By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff
The 70-year-old dawn redwood (Metasequoia) on Mt. Edgecumbe High School property has gotten some sprucing up.
The tree, planted by Fred Geeslin in 1950, was one of 165 seedlings sent to Juneau in 1948. Geeslin was the assistant superintendent of MEHS, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The tree is located in what is now the backyard of MEHS Superintendent Janelle Vanasse, and until recently it was being crowded out by salmonberry bushes and mountain ash.
“I knew (the Metasequoia required) some special care and that not just anybody can go in and take care of it,” Vanasse told the Sentinel.
MEHS hired local landscape architect Barth Hamberg to help with the Metasequoia’s care.
“MEHS was noticing that the tree was getting encroached upon by other trees around it and was wondering if it should be pruned,” Hamberg said. “I said we should let it do what it wants to do but said that it shouldn’t be crowded out by other trees.”
Landscape architect Barth Hamberg talks about the dawn redwood tree on Japonski Island recently. Hamberg worked on landscaping around the tree, which is part of a study of the unique tree species. The dawn redwood, which until 1944 was thought to be extinct, is native to China. The Sitka tree was planted in 1950 by Fred Geeslin. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Vanasse hopes that the tree can become a part of the school’s science curriculum.
“We were going to tie (the tree in) with some of our science classes,” she said.
Both she and Hamberg suggested that future Edgecumbe students put together a new interpretive sign for the tree.
The current interpretive sign, made from hand-milled yellow cedar planks, is fading and is being overtaken by the tree.
The cedar sign tells some of the Metasequoia’s history. This includes that dawn redwoods were common in the Sitka area in Mesozoic times – an era that occurred from around 250 to 65 million years ago.
The dawn redwood was believed to be extinct until rediscovered in 1944 in Sichuan province, China. Fossil evidence of the tree had first been discovered three years prior by Japanese botanist Shigeru Miki.
Following World War II, seeds from the dawn redwood were sent from China to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. From there, 600 packages of seeds were distributed to institutions and individuals in the U.S. and in Europe.
This included the 165 seedlings sent to Juneau by Ralph W. Chaney, then a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
The dawn redwood – located on Japonski Island – is the only surviving specimen of the original 165 Juneau seedlings.
Hamberg said the Japonski Metasequoia is growing differently from other dawn redwoods he has seen.
This includes the other three dawn redwoods located around town. All three were grown from clippings propagated from the Japonski Metasequoia in the 1980s, meaning that all Sitka Metasequoias are genetically identical.
“(The other Metasequoias) around town look like a redwood tree,” Hamberg said, different from the round and shrub-like appearance of the Japonski Metasequoia.
Hamberg said the Japonski tree’s unique form may have been caused by heightened exposure to wind and salt from the Sitka Channel. He estimated it could have been between 60 and 70 feet tall if it had grown in a different environment.
The other surviving Sitka Metasequoias are located outside the main entrance to Sitka Longterm Care; on the Pioneers Home grounds near the steps on Lincoln Street; and beside the basketball court on the Sea Walk, across Lincoln Street from the Sheldon Jackson Campus. Differences between the three and the dawn redwood on Japonski are clear, as the other trees are growing in a more upright fashion. The appearance and color of the trees’ foliage is the same.
Three other trees propagated from the Japonski Metasequoia were planted on the Sheldon Jackson Campus in the 1980s. It is believed that all three were destroyed by a lawnmover.
