A tree survived logging by appearing useless to timber interests

Evidence

Even those who grew up hiking in the East Bay Hills can have a hard time finding it. When you do spot Old Survivor, you still can’t get that close, because it sits on a steep rocky slope whose ascent would require a serious scramble. That’s one reason it survived logging; the other reason has to do with its twisted shape and its height: ninety-three feet, a runt compared to other old-growth redwoods. In other words, Old Survivor survived largely by appearing useless to loggers as a timber tree. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 22

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure’ article — Old Survivor as living infrastructure/old-growth survivor parallels the tamarisk and ancient-tree threads there. — connects to: Jack pine, birches, and aspen colonize fire and logging damaged soils — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods: Seeing More in…, 861; Naming trees individually makes them family rather than timber — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1067
• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘Grafting & Growth’ article’s interest in ancient and mythic trees: this is a real old-growth survivor holding a place in collective imagination.