Giant Sequoia felled

I'm not a "treehugger" - sometimes trees have to come down. But there's something particularly regal, almost mystical, about the Giant Sequoia (apart from the fact that it's the shortest word in the English language to use all five vowels). Seeing one in person for the first time is sort of like visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time - you walk ahead saying "they're big. I've seen them on TV. These are really, really big trees. They are...OMG!!! OMFG!!" Anyone who has walked through Muir Woods or other Giant Sequoia groves cannot help but be in awe of these organisms.

The National Park Service has an interesting article on the logging of the giant redwoods, which includes this note:

Although the wood's great resistance to decay was a distinct advantage, its low tensile strength and brittleness made it unsuitable for most structural purposes. When felled, the dry, fine-grained sequoia often broke across the grain, or in almost any direction. Steele (1914) described it picturesquely as breaking into "more wasteful shapes than so much frozen water." Consequently, as the cedar gave out, the king of trees was converted into such plebeian items as fence posts, grape stakes, shingles, novelties, patio furniture, and pencils for Europe—ignoble uses for a most noble tree. While the storm of resentment gathered, whole groves were cut down for these purposes beginning in 1856 and continuing intermittently until the mid-1950s.