READ: LISTEN: prometheus and the story of the how the worlds oldest living organism, a bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), on wheeler peak in eastern nevada, usa was inadvertantly cut down

In the 1950s dendrochronologists were making active efforts at finding the oldest living tree species, in order to use the analysis of the rings for various research purposes, such as the evaluation of former climates, the dating of archaeological ruins, and addressing the basic scientific question of maximum potential lifespan. Bristlecone pines in the White Mountains of California and elsewhere were discovered by Edward Schulman to be older than any species yet discovered. This spurred interest in finding very old bristlecones, possibly older than the Methuselah tree, aged by Schulman in 1957 at over 4700 years.

Donald R. Currey was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age using dendrochronology techniques. In 1963 he became aware of the bristlecone populations in the Snake Range in general, and on Wheeler Peak in particular. Based on the size, growth rate and growth forms of some of the trees he became convinced that some very old specimens existed on the mountain, cored some of them, and found trees exceeding 3000 years old. Currey was not, however, able to obtain a continuous series of overlapping cores from WPN-114 (Prometheus). Here, stories diverge. It is not clear whether Currey requested, or Forest Service personnel suggested, that he cut down and section the tree in lieu of being able to core it. There is also some uncertainty as to why a core sample could not be obtained. One version has it that he broke or lodged his only long increment borer and could not obtain another before the end of the field season^[3], another claims he broke two of them, while another implies that a core sample was too difficult to obtain and also would not provide as much definitive information as a full cross section of the tree would.^[4]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Prometheus_tree2.jpg

also listen to radiolab's "oops" podcast covering this unfortunate event...

http://www.radiolab.org/2010/jun/28/be-careful-what-you-plan-for