The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L.Bine.

L.Bine believes the more time you spend outside together, the better.

That's why they design products that make it

easier to take longer walks, have deeper talks, and never worry about the

weather. Discover clothing, outerware, footwear, and gear made for every type of adventure, with the outside

built right in. Because on the inside, we are all outsiders. Be an outsider with L.L. Bean. In the far west you can find one of the oldest living organisms in the world.

A tree that can live for thousands of years due to its ability to survive whatever is thrown at it.

But I'm not talking about California's giant Sequoias or the Great Redwoods.

56 years ago, the oldest tree ever known, was found, containing nearly 5,000 years

of growth rings. It germinated before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

Unfortunately, nobody knew it was the oldest known tree

until it was gone.

I'm Jason Epperson, and this is the America's National Parks Podcast. Today, Great Basin National Park,

the bristle-cone pine, and how one man accidentally killed the oldest tree in the world.

Bristlecone pines are the oldest living trees and for good reason.

They have many tricks that help them. Whistlecone pines are the oldest living trees and for good reason.

They have many tricks that help them survive, like growing in twisted gnarly shapes at high

altitude and an adaptation called sectored architecture.ctored Architecture means that the tree has roots that feed only the part of the tree directly above them.

If one root dies, only the section of the tree above it dies, and the rest of the tree keeps on living.

You'll often see bristlecone pines at high elevations with only one or two living

sections, stripes of bark growing on an otherwise skeletal body, they can endure quite a bit of torture.

Nearly 60 years ago, the oldest living bristle-cone pine met an untimely end. Here's Abigail Trebue. Bristlecone Pines in Great Basin National Park grow in isolated groves just below tree line.

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