Who's in Maxine's Tree? Facts
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The Marbled Murrelet (Mamu)
- The mamu is a member of the auk family of seabirds. Nobody knew it nested in trees until a tree climber found a chick, in 1974!
- An adult mamu is about 25cm long. It has a slender black bill and pointed wings. Its color changes according to the season.
- The mamu eats fish at sea. That's why it's surprising that it flies inland (as far as 60km!) to nest in old growth forests.
- The egg is incubated for one month, and after being fed for about forty days, the chick flies alone to the sea.
- The mamu is endangered globally because of climate change and habitat loss.
The Sitka Spruce
- Maxine's tree is a Sitka spruce. The Sitka is an evergreen tree, and it grows 50-70m tall.
- It is the largest spruce, and the third tallest cone-producing tree in the world (after the California Redwood and the Coast Douglas Fir).
- It is named after the community of Sitka, in Alaska.
- Old trees sometimes have no branches in the bottom 30-40 meters.
- The Sitka spruce grows natively all along the west coast of North America. It is also grown in Ireland, Britain and New Zealand.
- The tallest tree in Canada is a Sitka spruce on Vancouver Island.
- When they are cut down, Sitka spruce are used for timber and paper, and to make instruments such as pianos, harps, violins and guitars.
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