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One thing I do not get, how can buds that just sprouted be 1000 years old, the tree sure, but the buds?

The buds aren’t 1,000yrs old; the tree might be. Many trees do this. I’m a Horticulturalist/Botanist and this is not unusual in Nature.

4 posted on 12/04/2023 8:08:36 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)

This is the way this species of tree has evolved over the last million years.
Their thick bark protects them from the forest fires that are TYPICAL for this area over the last million years. Some softwood species require the heat of a forest fire for their cones to open. Then the cone drops a SEED(not a bud).

This is all by design. Just as some species like Douglas Fir are not SHADE tolerant. Which is why for the seedlings to grow you have to CLEAR CUT. Meaning the small young seedlings will NOT grow if they are in the shade of larger trees. Some species will ONLY repopulate AFTER a forest fire. Natures way.