In the US, cloned sequoias from stumps, which should outgrow the "General Sherman"

If the cloning of extinct animals is still a dream of genetic scientists, the successful cloning of trees that have been cut down and from which only one stumps have remained has already become a reality. In the United States, the goal was to restore the unique sequoia stands, the trunk diameter of which exceeded 10 meters, and the first steps in this direction have already been taken.

About 100 years ago, sequoias and other species of conifers, which were impressive in size, grew on most of the Pacific coast of the United States. But the intensive felling of relict forests, the age of trees in which often exceeded 2–3 thousand years, led to the fact that redwoods became quite rare. The sequoias growing these days are no longer so grandiose in size, there are quite a few of them left, and for their protection it was necessary to organize protected areas.

Employees of the organization Archangel Ancient Tree Archive decided to restore ancient forests with giant sequoias and for this they extracted DNA from stumps found in the forest whose diameter exceeded 10 meters. The diameter of the trunk of the most famous giant sequoia "General Sherman" is 7.7 meters, but even it can not be compared with those specimens that were cut down in the forests of the United States at the end of the XIX century.

Scientists managed to get a total of 75 clones from 5 different plants, which were planted in a forest near San Francisco. Specialists hope that the new seedlings will reach the size of their venerable parents, of which they are an exact genetic copy. But the issue is not only in record sizes: the resulting plants should replenish the meager gene pool of the remaining sequoias, which will contribute to the general recovery of the population. In the long run, sequoias propagated in this way, along with other trees, will contribute to the absorption of carbon dioxide and the enrichment of atmospheric air with oxygen.