Donald Rusk Currey
Encyclopedia
Donald Rusk Currey, Ph.D. (1934 – June 6, 2004) was an American professor of geography
. While known in academia for his extensive research and exploration of relics of the ancient Lake Bonneville
in the eastern Great Basin
, he was best known to the public for his controversial felling of Prometheus
, the oldest living non-clonal organism ever known, while a graduate student in 1964.
In 1963, Currey was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
. Under a fellowship from the National Science Foundation
, Currey was studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age
using dendrochronology
techniques.
Bristlecone pine
s in the White Mountains
of California
and elsewhere were discovered to be older than any species yet dated, and in 1963 Currey became aware of a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
population in the Snake Range
and on Wheeler Peak
in particular. At the time he visited the area, in the summer of 1964, he did not know that previous researchers had examined the area. 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 and, using the scientific methods of the time, Currey began taking core samples to check. He found that some exceeded 3000 years in age, taking particular interest in a tree he designated WPN-114, the previously named Prometheus.
Currey was unable to obtain a continuous series of overlapping cores from WPN-114: he had tried at least four times with a 28 inch long borer, breaking two borers, but to no avail. He decided to ask for permission from the United States Forest Service
to fell the tree. He was already acquainted with Forest Service officials at the nearby Lehman Caves National Monument (now a part of the much larger Great Basin National Park
which includes the area Currey was working in), and made a request with Donald E. Cox, a district Forest Service ranger for permission to cut down the tree in order to examine the whole trunk in cross-section. Cox felt that the request was scientifically sound and, after convincing superiors that the particular tree was not a notable landmark, gained approval for felling it.
After securing permission, Cox informed Currey and assigned a Forest Service crew to join the young researcher and bring back the samples. The tree was cut and sectioned on August 6, 1964, and several pieces of the sections hauled out to be processed and analyzed, first by Currey, then by others in later years. To their surprise, the tree was not only old, but older than any other non-clonal
organism
ever known.
started no more than 600 years ago, many trees could presumably have provided the information he was after for that time period. However, in Currey's original report (Currey, 1965) he refers to the Little Ice Age as encompassing the period from 2000 BC to the present, thus defining the Age over a much longer time period than is currently accepted. Whether this was the common sentiment at the time is not known. In the article, Currey indicates that he sectioned the tree as much from the question of whether the oldest bristlecones were necessarily confined to California's White Mountains (as some dendrochronologists had been claiming) as from its usefulness in regard to studies of the Little Ice Age.
The incident led to a tighter restriction on the felling of old trees, the eventual creation of Great Basin National Park (now overseen by the National Park Service
), and the decision to hide the exact location of Methuselah
, the tree believed to be the current oldest. Currey personally took part in lobbying efforts to get Congress
to designate the area a part of a national park.
, he had become a member of the faculty at Chapel Hill. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Kansas
and joined the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Utah
in 1970, becoming full and later Professor Emeritus.
He spent over two decades researching and exploring relics of ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin. His papers on Lake Bonneville became the most cited papers in his department. His work examined the geomorphology
of lakes, paleolakes, lake basins, and coasts; paleolimnology
and geochronology
of Quaternary
lakes; geodynamics
of Quaternary lakes; geoarchaeology
; and desert, mountain, and Arctic environmental change
.
, with an annual field trip by The Geological Society of America, and the University of Utah Department of Geography established a scholarship in his name.
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
. While known in academia for his extensive research and exploration of relics of the ancient Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...
in the eastern Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
, he was best known to the public for his controversial felling of Prometheus
Prometheus (tree)
Prometheus was the oldest known non-clonal organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, United States...
, the oldest living non-clonal organism ever known, while a graduate student in 1964.
Death of Prometheus
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
. Under a fellowship from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, Currey was studying the climate dynamics of the Little Ice Age
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...
using dendrochronology
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
techniques.
Bristlecone pine
Bristlecone pine
The bristlecone pines are a small group of pine trees that are thought to reach an age far greater than that of any other single living organism known, up to nearly 5,000 years....
s in the White Mountains
White Mountains (California)
The White Mountains of California are a triangular fault block mountain range facing the Sierra Nevada across the upper Owens Valley. They extend for approximately as a greatly elevated plateau about wide on the south, narrowing to a point at the north, with elevations generally increasing...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and elsewhere were discovered to be older than any species yet dated, and in 1963 Currey became aware of a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, is a long-living species of tree found in the higher mountains of the southwest United States. The species is one of three closely related trees known as bristlecone pines and is sometimes known as the Intermountain or Western bristlecone pine...
population in the Snake Range
Snake Range
The Snake Range is a line of high mountains in eastern White Pine County, in east-central Nevada in the western United States. Typical of other ranges in the Basin and Range Province, it runs in a north-south direction, in this case for approximately...
and on Wheeler Peak
Wheeler Peak (Nevada)
Wheeler Peak, elevation , a mountain in the Great Basin Desert, is the highest point in Great Basin National Park. The summit is located west of the Utah border...
in particular. At the time he visited the area, in the summer of 1964, he did not know that previous researchers had examined the area. 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 and, using the scientific methods of the time, Currey began taking core samples to check. He found that some exceeded 3000 years in age, taking particular interest in a tree he designated WPN-114, the previously named Prometheus.
Currey was unable to obtain a continuous series of overlapping cores from WPN-114: he had tried at least four times with a 28 inch long borer, breaking two borers, but to no avail. He decided to ask for permission from the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
to fell the tree. He was already acquainted with Forest Service officials at the nearby Lehman Caves National Monument (now a part of the much larger Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park is a United States National Park established in 1986, located in east-central Nevada near the Utah border. The park derives its name from the Great Basin, the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. Topographically, this area is...
which includes the area Currey was working in), and made a request with Donald E. Cox, a district Forest Service ranger for permission to cut down the tree in order to examine the whole trunk in cross-section. Cox felt that the request was scientifically sound and, after convincing superiors that the particular tree was not a notable landmark, gained approval for felling it.
After securing permission, Cox informed Currey and assigned a Forest Service crew to join the young researcher and bring back the samples. The tree was cut and sectioned on August 6, 1964, and several pieces of the sections hauled out to be processed and analyzed, first by Currey, then by others in later years. To their surprise, the tree was not only old, but older than any other non-clonal
Clonal colony
A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively from a single ancestor. In plants, an individual in such a population is referred to as a ramet...
organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
ever known.
Aftermath
It took a few years for the information about the felling of Prometheus to reach the public, but once it did there was great controversy. Most criticism centered on the U.S. Forest Service's decision to permit the tree to be cut. However, some critics questioned how the cutting of such an old tree was necessary given the topic Currey was studying. Since the Little Ice AgeLittle Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...
started no more than 600 years ago, many trees could presumably have provided the information he was after for that time period. However, in Currey's original report (Currey, 1965) he refers to the Little Ice Age as encompassing the period from 2000 BC to the present, thus defining the Age over a much longer time period than is currently accepted. Whether this was the common sentiment at the time is not known. In the article, Currey indicates that he sectioned the tree as much from the question of whether the oldest bristlecones were necessarily confined to California's White Mountains (as some dendrochronologists had been claiming) as from its usefulness in regard to studies of the Little Ice Age.
The incident led to a tighter restriction on the felling of old trees, the eventual creation of Great Basin National Park (now overseen by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
), and the decision to hide the exact location of Methuselah
Methuselah (tree)
Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. Its measured age of 4,842 years makes it the world's oldest known living non-clonal organism...
, the tree believed to be the current oldest. Currey personally took part in lobbying efforts to get Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
to designate the area a part of a national park.
Later career
Currey went on to a successful academic career. By the time his paper on his finding was published in the journal EcologyEcology (journal)
Ecology is a scientific journal publishing research and synthesis papers in the field of ecology. It was founded in 1920, and is published by the Ecological Society of America.- External links :**...
, he had become a member of the faculty at Chapel Hill. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
and joined the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
in 1970, becoming full and later Professor Emeritus.
He spent over two decades researching and exploring relics of ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin. His papers on Lake Bonneville became the most cited papers in his department. His work examined the geomorphology
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
of lakes, paleolakes, lake basins, and coasts; paleolimnology
Paleolimnology
Paleolimnology is a scientific subdiscipline closely related to both limnology and paleoecology. Palaeolimnological studies are concerned with reconstructing the paleoenvironments of inland waters – and especially changes associated with such events as climatic change, human impacts , and...
and geochronology
Geochronology
Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments, within a certain degree of uncertainty inherent to the method used. A variety of dating methods are used by geologists to achieve this, and schemes of classification and terminology have been proposed...
of Quaternary
Quaternary
The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...
lakes; geodynamics
Geodynamics
Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes, faulting and...
of Quaternary lakes; geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and subject matter of geography, geology and other Earth sciences to examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought...
; and desert, mountain, and Arctic environmental change
Environmental change
Environmental change is defined as a change or disturbance of the environment by natural ecological processes, and is described in the following articles:*Climate change*Environment...
.
Death
Currey died shortly after being hospitalized for a sudden illness at age 70. He was honored during the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Association of American GeographersAssociation of American Geographers
The Association of American Geographers is a non-profit scientific and educational society founded in 1904 and aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields...
, with an annual field trip by The Geological Society of America, and the University of Utah Department of Geography established a scholarship in his name.
In print
- Currey, D.R. 1965. An Ancient Bristlecone Pine Stand in Eastern Nevada. Ecology 46(4):564–566.
External links
- The "Prometheus" Story, Great Basin Online, National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
, August 2, 2002, Accessed July 24, 2010. - Carl T. Hall, Staying Alive — High in California's White Mountains grows the oldest living creature ever found, San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 1998
- Donald R. Curry faculty page, Department of Geography, University of Utah, Accessed Sept. 12, 2006.
- Radiolab's podcast episode "Oops" has a segment on the felling of Prometheus.