Popular Science - USA (2020 - Winter)

POPSCI.COM / WINTER 2020 91

This 275-foot Tas-

manian

Eucalyptus

regnans

—named

Gandalf ’s Staff—was one of Pearce’s first tree shoots. The 500-year-old wonder is still at risk for log

ging: It falls just shy of the country’s legal protections for old growth, which kick in at 278.8 feet. It took Pearce two months of camping to get four days without heavy winds that would disrupt the cam

era’s sensitive pulley system. His lenses repeatedly fogged, as the cold metal and glass caused conden

HALF MILLENNIAL sation as they rose through multiple climate zones.