Oregon makes ancient tree its official fossil

SALEM – The Oregon Senate has voted to make the ancient metasequoia tree – also called the dawn redwood – the official state fossil.

House Joint Resolution 3 passed 25-3 Wednesday, adding Oregon to 34 other states with a state fossil. The bill goes to the governor.

According to a summary of the resolution, the metasequoia “is among the most abundantly found fossils in Oregon today” and “represents Oregon’s ancient past as it flourished in the Miocene epoch.” The tree “left its record embedded in rocks across the Oregon landscape despite volcanic explosions, deep lava flows and earthquakes,” according to the summary.

Fossil enthusiasts say they hope the designation will help tourism.

“I’m definitely going to be bending the ear of the Oregon Tourism Commission,” said Guy DiTorrice, of Newport, who gives fossil tours on the coast.

He said it will bring more attention to places like the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Central Oregon.

Earlier this year, Oregon’s pear industry successfully lobbied for the pear to be the official state fruit.

A few senators said the Legislature has better things to do.

Sen. Gary George, R-Newberg, said he voted no on the state fossil to protest the direction that the Legislature is heading, said Jim Thompson, a policy adviser for George. “It just seems like every day we have some dumb bill coming up that dilutes the real business of the Legislature,” Thompson said.

Oregon now has 22 official symbols.

PPI, a Portland exhibit-design company, is making a replica metasequoia for the Thomas Condon Paleontology Visitor Center that will open this summer at the John Day Fossil Beds.

It will be incorporated with murals depicting a period 33 million years ago when central Oregon was inhabited by camels, saber-toothed tigers and rhinoceroses.

Oregon is one of the few states with a plant for its official state fossil. The fossils are common in parts of Oregon, making it a fitting symbol for a state known for its forests, some fossil enthusiasts say.

Once thought to be extinct, metasequoias were discovered in a remote region of China in the 1940s. The tree has been reintroduced to the United States and is sold by nurseries as dawn redwood.