Celebrate Earth Day: World's Oldest Tree Location Is Not Publicly Disclosed

Methuselah, the official world's oldest known living tree, is about 4,847 years old. It is a Great Basin bristlecone pine tree that grows in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. The exact location of the tree is not publicly disclosed as well as no picture of it is shared for its protection.

According to New York Times, the officials did not impart any picture of Methuselah because they fear that visitors can trace its exact location. This is to safeguard the oldest tree from any harassment such as visitors carving their names in the bark of the tree or recklessly cutting the tree. This happened before way back in 1964.

Prometheus, the former oldest tree, which was 4,900 years old, was cut down in 1964 in the Great Basin Natural Park in Nevada. Why would you cut down the oldest tree? Donald R. Currey is a graduate student who studied the effects of climate change on diminishing glaciers by assessing their impact on the size of the rings of old pine trees.

He explained then that the coring of a tree did not work, so he cut Prometheus down with the aid of some foresters. His drill bit stuck in the tree, according to some foresters. Then, Currey and the foresters cut the tree down to remove his tool. After counting its rings, he then realized that he had slain the oldest tree in the world.

Edmund Schulman, a scientist and a dendrochronologist of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, computed the age of Methuselah in 1957. He seized few samples from the tree with a tool called increment borer and then matched up the ring patterns from every sample, according to Matthew Salzer, a research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. They took samples from various parts of the tree to have an estimate of the age of the tree.

The researchers also discovered that another bristlecone pine tree might supersede Methuselah. Some organizations said that the tree is about 5,065 years old. On the other hand, the existence and the age of the tree could not be confirmed by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and the forester. They are still investigating the tree, according to Debra Schweizer, the spokeswoman for Inyo National Forest.

Bristlecone pine's trunk starts to die on its 1,000th birthday. Methuselah could last a few hundred more years, yet it is quite a life. "Methuselah" is named after a biblical figure, who lived up to 969 years old.