Behold, the Mauritian Tambalacoque tree.

• They're HUGE (this is a single tree pictured, not a grove!)
• They're old (the youngest is well over 4 centuries old)
• They're unlike any other tree; their wood renowned for its hardness.

And sadly, they're going extinct.

There's only 13 of them left in the entire world, and there's nothing we can do to save them.

Why? .....because these trees are only found on the island of Mauritius, the former home of the Dodo bird. Its seeds, a food staple for the Dodo, only germinated and grew after being swallowed and passed by that specific bird.

Dodos were wiped out via human destruction by 1662. Without the birds, the trees cannot reproduce; thus they've been slowly dying for the past 350+ years, with only the youngest dozen remaining. Unfortunately, thousands of them were cut down and sent to lumber, before anyone realized that they weren't reproducting.

What have we learned in all of this, on this Earth Day 2018?

I ironically just finished building a fence today. It was a 6.5 foot treated pine picket on picket. About 195 feet in total. The old fence was cedar and I found someone who used the old pickets to line the walls in their renovated house a-la ship lap style.

Wood is a renewable resource as well.

I do miss the great American Chestnuts though. They used to be the the most common tree in the USA and now they are virtually extinct due to the wooly adelgid.

CCGPV wrote:

I ironically just finished building a fence today. It was a 6.5 foot treated pine picket on picket. About 195 feet in total. The old fence was cedar and I found someone who used the old pickets to line the walls in their renovated house a-la ship lap style.

Wood is a renewable resource as well.

How does any of that relate in any way to the topic at hand?

LAX772LR wrote:

CCGPV wrote:

I ironically just finished building a fence today. It was a 6.5 foot treated pine picket on picket. About 195 feet in total. The old fence was cedar and I found someone who used the old pickets to line the walls in their renovated house a-la ship lap style.

Wood is a renewable resource as well.

How does any of that relate in any way to the topic at hand?

I don't know I was just talking about my love for wood and trees in general. Being outside these past few days face to face with wood you just start to think about it all. Its a beautiful thing.

I apologize please suggest deletion if you think it was not on topic.

CCGPV wrote:

I was just talking about my love for wood

That's quite a revelation, does your wife know?

bgm wrote:

CCGPV wrote:

I was just talking about my love for wood

That's quite a revelation, does your wife know?

Only when I have too much Merlot.

Is there no way to genetically modify the seeds to make them germinate under different circumstances? Though i suppose that would take a lot of money and Mauritius is a poor country with more pressing spending priorities.

CCGPV wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

CCGPV wrote:

I ironically just finished building a fence today. It was a 6.5 foot treated pine picket on picket. About 195 feet in total. The old fence was cedar and I found someone who used the old pickets to line the walls in their renovated house a-la ship lap style.

Wood is a renewable resource as well.

How does any of that relate in any way to the topic at hand?

I don't know I was just talking about my love for wood and trees in general. Being outside these past few days face to face with wood you just start to think about it all. Its a beautiful thing.

I apologize please suggest deletion if you think it was not on topic.

I agree. Wood is great. A fantastic resource and the forrestry industry is the greenest on the planted. Completely renewable and a great carbon sink. Lots of fun to work with also and recycleable too.

zkojq wrote:

Is there no way to genetically modify the seeds to make them germinate under different circumstances? Though i suppose that would take a lot of money and Mauritius is a poor country with more pressing spending priorities.

CCGPV wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

How does any of that relate in any way to the topic at hand?

I don't know I was just talking about my love for wood and trees in general. Being outside these past few days face to face with wood you just start to think about it all. Its a beautiful thing.

I apologize please suggest deletion if you think it was not on topic.

I agree. Wood is great. A fantastic resource and the forrestry industry is the greenest on the planted. Completely renewable and a great carbon sink. Lots of fun to work with also and recycleable too.

I'm getting more into it the older I get. I prefer the big frame stuff now as my fine woodworking skill is lacking. I took the plunge and bought a nice skilsaw for this project and have been getting good at using it. What sort of wood work do you do?

zkojq wrote:

Is there no way to genetically modify the seeds to make them germinate under different circumstances? Though i suppose that would take a lot of money and Mauritius is a poor country with more pressing spending priorities.

I don't know of any attempts at genetic modification.

There have been several failed attempts at using other avian species to prompt germination though. The problem is that the seeds are large but delicate:



...it takes a sizable bird to have the ability to swallow them whole; but in doing so, most modern large birds destroy the seeds.

Scientists attempted to force-feed them to turkeys and swans, with the turkeys crushing the seeds during digestion, and the swans routinely regurgitated them.



At least one attempt via turkey successfully resulted in producing a sapling (pictured below), but it didn't survive for long.

For Earth Day, here is our agriculture minister planting the first of one billion trees that the government plans to plant over the next decade.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/ ... ecade.html

CCGPV wrote:

I'm getting more into it the older I get. I prefer the big frame stuff now as my fine woodworking skill is lacking. I took the plunge and bought a nice skilsaw for this project and have been getting good at using it. What sort of wood work do you do?

Yeah I'm mainly into the bigger, less sophisticated stuff (I'm also not so great at the finer stuff). Built a nice shed/garage last year. Currently wanting to build myself a log cabin, but with the onset of Winter and with a big shortage of spare time, it's probably not happening for a while. Have also been resurfacing an old Canoe that my grandfather built me, but that's one of those never ending projects that keeps getting put aside and forgotten about.

My parents have a workshop with a lot of the more sophisticated tools, but I don't usually use much of them. Next goal is to learn to use a router.

Beautiful tree.

LAX772LR wrote:

Why? .....because these trees are only found on the island of Mauritius, the former home of the Dodo bird. Its seeds, a food staple for the Dodo, only germinated and grew after being swallowed and passed by that specific bird.Dodos were wiped out via human destruction by 1662. Without the birds, the trees cannot reproduce; thus they've been slowly dying for the past 350+ years, with only the youngest dozen remaining. Unfortunately, thousands of them were cut down and sent to lumber, before anyone realized that they weren't reproducting.

I haven't researched this thoroughly, but it appears to be a questionable theory:

https://www.botany.org/PlantScienceBull ... 4.php#Dodo