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Stephen C. Sillett is an American botanist specializing in the study of old-growth forest canopies. As the first scientist to enter the redwood forest canopy, Sillett created new methods of climbing, exploring, and studying the tall trees. He has climbed many of the world's tallest trees to study plant and animal life living in their crowns and is usually recognized as an authority on tall trees, particularly coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). He is the first Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology for the Department of Biological Sciences at Humboldt State University. Sillett has been featured in Richard Preston's, The Wild Trees, as well as in academic journals, interest magazines, and nature television programs. He currently lives in Arcata, California, with his wife, Marie Antoine, a fellow botanist.
Biography[]
Early life and personal information[]
Sillett was born on March 19, 1968 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has a younger sister, Liana, and an older brother, Scott, who is also featured in Preston's, The Wild Trees. Both the Sillett brothers were inspired to pursue their careers in science by their grandmother, Helen Poe Sillett, a bird enthusiast.
He married Marie E. Antoine on December 8, 2001.
Education[]
Sillett studied biology as a student to pursue his interests in botany, later focusing particularly on tall trees and Lobaria, a type of nitrogen-fixing lichen associated with old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. In 1981, Sillett received his Bachelor of Arts from Reed College in Portland, Oregon at the age of 21. He went on after that, and in 1991 received a Master of Science in Botany from the University of Florida and in 1995 received a Doctor of Philosophy from Oregon State University in Corvallis. In 1996, Sillett began teaching at Humboldt State University, where he dedicates lots of his time to field study of coast redwoods, as well as the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), and the tallest trees found in the southern hemisphere, Eucalyptus regnans and Eucalyptus globulus. Currently, Sillett teaches courses in General Botany, Lichens and Bryophytes, and Forest Canopy Ecology at the University of Humboldt.
Early research[]
Sillett began climbing Douglas-firs while he was still an undergraduate at Reed College. While he was working on his Masters, he studied a cloud forest canopy in Costa Rica, focusing mainly on the bryophytes living in the emergent crowns of the strangler-fig (Ficus tuerckheimii). His doctorate work focused on old-growth forests of Douglas-firs in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. It was not until Sillett began teaching at Humboldt State University that he began climbing and studying redwood forests.
Later research[]
Sillett and Chris Atkins at Redwood National Park.
After Sillett moved to northern California, he began to study old-growth redwood forests and the biodiversity found in the redwood canopies. He also studies how water is transported up the trees in an effort to understand limits to tree height. One of Sillett's main interests is determining the maximum obtainable heights of the 6 tallest tree species in the world.
To reach the canopies above him, Sillett uses an arrow to set a climbing line, then goes up using a modified arborist-styled safety swing involving ropes, leather harnesses, and pulleys. Once Sillett reaches the canopy, he and his research crew move around in a style called skywalking using motion lanyards on a web of climbing ropes. To reach outlying branches on the tree, Sillett deploys a Tyrolean traverse between nearby trees.
In addition to studying the redwood canopies of California, Sillett also studies other tall forests in the United States, Canada, and Australia. He has climbed and measured each of the six tallest tree species in the world, though him and his team do not disclose precise locations of the trees. Sillett only allows students and research team members to climb with him, to maintain the the security of the trees and the safety of his fellow researchers.
Awards[]
Sillett has received many awards and honors over his life. Among these are the William Sterling Sullivant Award for Best Bryophyte Paper, which he received in 1995, a National Science Foundation Fellowship, and The Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship.
He is a member of the Save-the-Redwoods League, the American Bryological and Lichenological Society, the Northwest Science Association, the California Native Plant Society, the California Faculty Association, and the International Canopy Network.
Major accomplishments[]
- Discovery of the redwood Grove of Titans in 1998, accompanied by Michael Taylor.
- Sillett began climbing redwoods in 1987, being the first scientist ever to enter the old-growth redwood forest canopy.
- He has climbed and measured the height of the tallest live-topped tree of each of the five tallest tree species.
- In 2006, Stephen Sillett measured the Hyperion redwood, and declared it the tallest tree in the world at 379.1 ft (115.55 m).
- Sillett became the first holder of the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State University. This is the world's first, and currently only endowed chair supporting the study of one species.
- Sillett, his wife Marie Antoine, his brother Scott, and other climbing and research companions, including Michael Taylor and Chris Atkins are featured in The Wild Trees.
- His research has been published in several academic and botanic journals, such as Nature, the American Journal of Botany, Ecological Monographs, Ecological Applications, Bryologist, Northwest Science, and Madroño. His research has also been included in The New Yorker, Discover, New Scientist, and National Geographic.
- He was profiled on nature television programs, such as the Wild Chronicles by National Geographic, Planet Earth from BBC, and Oregon Field Guide by PBS.
- In 2006, Sillett was declared Scholar of the Year at Humboldt State University.