NEW YORK - Squat, homely, dwarfed by stately oaks and poplars, and unnoticed by the tourists passing in horse-drawn carriages, it's a tree that only birds and nut-hungry squirrels could love.
But the 100-year-old European beech on Central Park's Cherry Hill was the center of attention Thursday, chosen by city officials as the first of 25 "historical" trees to be cloned as part of a plan to add a million new trees to public spaces over the next decade.
Agriculture students from a Queens high school rode hydraulic-powered tree-trimmers' buckets to upper branches of the 60-foot tree and snipped off 6- to 12-inch sections of new growth, which will be sent to a scientific tree nursery in eastern Oregon. If all goes well, the genetic-match saplings will return in two years to be replanted as part of the "Million Trees NYC" project announced last year.
"We want to break the stereotype of New York as skyscrapers and sidewalks," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benape said. "New York abounds in historical trees."
The target trees, five in each of New York's five boroughs, include nine different species. All were selected by borough foresters as historical for having existed for at least a century — either as fixtures of the urban landscape or as having special significance to local communities.
More here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080111/ap_on_sc/cloning_trees
I would have put this in weird news thread BUT i didn't see it as weird just more like interesting , I didn't know they could clone trees , Logically this should lead to stuff like repairing the rainforests right?
The only part I don't quiet understand is this maybe a stupid thing but , Say a dog urinated on the tree and they clone it wont it have dog dna mixed in? not saying i expect to see a dog-tree just something that made say hmmmm
but regardless this is a pretty bold and interesting move imo