By Laney Griffo

For more than a decade, big tree hunter Michael Taylor has been bagging big tree finds. This past October, he added the second, third and sixth tallest known sugar pines to his list of finds.

The second and third tallest Sugar Pines are located in Tahoe National Forest and measure at 267.5 ft and 267.15 ft. The 267.15 foot tree, dubbed the “Redonkulous” tree, measures at 10.5 feet in diameter at the breast height, which is 4.5 feet up from the ground. 

The sixth tallest Sugar Pine, which is still unnamed as is the second tallest, was found in Stanislaus National Forest and is 263.17 ft tall. 

Taylor is a LiDAR specialist, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. According to NOAA, LiDAR, “is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth.” Taylor said the laser gives billions and or even trillions of returns which can be used to construct a surface map. 

(Downieville) This past Saturday, January 30, the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) received information about a man from the Tahoe area who left Grass Valley for Truckee along CA-49 the previous Sunday but had not been heard from since then.

With photos of the missing individual and his vehicle in their possession, the SCSO forwarded this information to all local law enforcement agencies, CalTrans, and the California Highway Patrol (CHP), asking them to be on the lookout for the man and his truck. However, despite the efforts of these groups, as well as family members checking CA-49 through Nevada, Yuba, and Sierra counties, these endeavors proved fruitless. 

However, on Sunday, January 31, one week after going missing, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the missing person. Although the call was dropped, they confirmed it was from the missing person and obtained the caller’s GPS location, Henness Pass Road east of Alleghany in Sierra County.