Qualla: San Juan Spruce

San Juan Spruce: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For as long as anyone had been measuring champion trees in British Columbia, the San Juan Spruce held its rank: the second-largest known Sitka spruce on Earth by volume. Then in July 2016, lightning found it. The strike did not kill the tree outright, but it tore away significant height and mass, collapsing a portion of its crown and trunk in a catastrophic structural failure that changed its profile overnight. Photographs from before and after tell the story -- a symmetrical giant reduced to something lopsided and wounded, still alive but no longer the tree it was.

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San Juan Spruce: Shaped by Shadow and Water

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The San Juan Spruce flourished because of where it stood. Its position on the shaded southern slopes of the San Juan Valley, on the banks of the San Juan River, gave it two advantages that Sitka spruces prize above all else: moisture and protection from the worst of the Pacific s...

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San Juan Spruce: The Day the Lightning Came

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lightning strikes on individual trees are not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest, but the consequences for a tree of this size were spectacular. The July 2016 strike shattered the San Juan Spruce's upper trunk, sending tons of wood crashing through the canopy and fundamentally alt...

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San Juan Spruce: Still Standing, Still Counting

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The San Juan Spruce survived the strike. Its remaining trunk and branches continue to photosynthesize, and the tree's root system -- a sprawling underground network that anchors it to the river bank -- remains intact. But its ranking on the global list of largest Sitka spruces fe...

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