- CANBERRA (AP) -- Forest authorities
in Tasmania admitted yesterday they had killed a eucalyptus reputed to
be Australia's largest tree, in a bungled burning operation to regenerate
the surrounding woodland.
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- Known as El Grande, the tree stands 79 metres (260ft)
tall and measures 20 metres around its base. The 350-year-old Eucalyptus
regnans was found last year in a logging area on the edge of the Tasmanian
wilderness world heritage area.
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- But conservationists in Tasmania declared that the tree
was dead in May, a victim of the controlled fires.
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- State forestry officials had been hoping that it would
regenerate, but acknowledged yesterday what conservationists had been telling
them for months. "A group of forest scientists has conducted an assessment
of the condition of the tree," said the general manager of operations
at Forestry Tasmania, Kim Creak. "Unfortunately, it is deceased."
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- Geoff Law, a spokesman for the environment group the
Wilderness Society, said the news of El Grande's death would reverberate
around the world, undermining the state's image as a clean, green, pristine
destination.
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- "It is significant that forestry has confessed to
killing the largest known living thing in Australia," he said. "They
have confessed to killing it through their own incompetence."
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- Although there are taller trees in Tasmania, El Grande
topped the list of the state's "most massive giants" with a volume
estimated at 439 cubic metres (15,501 cubic ft).
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- Tasmania's giant eucalyptus forests are home to many
of the country's largest trees and the world's tallest hardwoods.
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- Mr Creak said the tree's death was disappointing, but
a "learning experience", and the department had written new rules
for forest workers setting fires to burn off old growth to regenerate the
forest.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1104477,00.html
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