Michigan Environment

Students celebrate Earth Day by planting sequoia clones

Michigan Public | By Sara Hoover

Published April 22, 2014 at 2:16 PM EDT

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Students in northern Michigan are planting clones of ancient sequoias today.

There's a grove of sequoias along the shores of Lake Michigan on the site of a former Morton Salt factory.

Sequoia trees are not native to Michigan, but this grove has grown in Manistee for more than 65 years when they were brought here from the West Coast. Now, those trees are going to take another trip, or their clones will.

Students who attend Interlochen Arts Academy are planting them on campus along Green Lake. The clones are from Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.

David Milarch is the group's co-founder. He says they’re planting clones of redwoods around the world today.

“Ninety-six percent of all of our redwoods have been cut down, butchered and sold,” Milarch says.

Here's a look at how the group collects genetic material from these old growth trees:

Both the Interlochen Center for the Arts and nearby Interlochen State Park have lost many trees recently due to disease and bug infestation.

Head park ranger Chris Stark has mixed feelings about the planting. He'd prefer to plant native varieties, such as the white pine.

The cuttings are kept in a soilless mix until they can grow their own root system.

Once they reach four inches tall, the saplings are moved into containers and trained to grow upright.

The cuttings are from 70 different redwoods, including stumps.

The micro-propagation room is where pieces are grown in agar in airless jars.

If the cuttings can grow in the jars, hypothetically they can grow in any tissue lab in the world. The group could then grow millions of trees at an exponential rate.

David Milarch checks on his cloned sequoias in Copemish, Michigan, in April.

David’s son Jake Milarch (right) is shipping cloned redwoods to London, England, and four other countries as part of Earth Day events around the world.