2003 To Present
A second and more significant development occurred in September 2003, when a fire caused by a lightning strike damaged the crown of the tree. National Park Service officials allowed the fire to burn without human intervention. The tree lost a large portion of its crown as a result of this fire, reducing its height to about 229 feet (70 m).
The structurally weakened tree partially collapsed in January 2005, as the result of a heavy snow load in the remaining portion of its crown. The tree lost more than half its height, most of its branches, and much of the trunk, including the entire hollow upper portion of the trunk. It is now 115 feet (35 m) high, with only a few branches living near the top of the tree.
The Washington tree is no longer one of the top ten largest giant sequoias, although the National Park Service still lists it as the second largest, due to current documentation policy (trees are calculated as if they did not suffer damage). Even in its damaged state, the tree may not be dying, as it still has half a dozen significant branches. Many other sequoias have survived with less foliage and the tree might live decades or centuries longer.
Read more about this topic: Washington (tree)
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