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from the imagine-having-two-thousand-birthdays dept.
California wildfires threaten famous giant sequoia trees:
THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.
The colossal General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest, some other sequoias, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings were wrapped as protection against the possibility of intense flames, fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson said.
The aluminum wrapping can withstand intensive heat for short periods. Federal officials say they have been using the material for several years throughout the U.S. West to protect sensitive structures from flames.
[...] The Colony Fire, one of two burning in Sequoia National Park, was expected to reach the Giant Forest, a grove of 2,000 sequoias, at some point within days. It was unclear Thursday night whether that had happened. The fire didn’t grow significantly as a layer of smoke reduced its spread, fire spokeswoman Katy Hooper said.
It comes after a wildfire killed thousands of sequoias, some as tall as high-rises and thousands of years old, in the region last year.
The General Sherman Tree[*] is the largest in the world by volume, at 52,508 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters), according to the National Park Service. It towers 275 feet (84 meters) high and has a circumference of 103 feet (31 meters) at ground level.
[...] Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to grow. But the extraordinary intensity of fires — fueled by climate change — can overwhelm the trees.
That happened last year when the Castle Fire killed what studies estimate were 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias, according to the National Park Service.
[*] Wikipedia description.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Spamalope on Saturday September 18 2021, @08:09PM (2 children)
"fueled by climate change"
Fueled by preventing small fires, banning undergrowth clearing so the fires grow to this scale more like... Leaving lots of tinder around is such a good idea in drought prone areas. (that's not new, or man made... The Sequoia are evolved for fires - but not firestorms caused by human interference)
I thought CA was allowing forest management again? Was that not widespread or was it stopped before it got traction? (or is the problem so severe after decades of neglect they haven't been able to do enough?)
(Score: 2) by helel on Saturday September 18 2021, @10:52PM (1 child)
The whole "stoped all natural fires" and "never cleared the overgrowth" talking points are, at this point, decades out of date. California has employed a "let it burn" strategy starting in the 80's and especially in the mid 90's, and has only this year rolled it back because the fires, fueled by only the growth from the last few years, have become so bad they can't protect humans, property, and old trees like these without quick suppression.
The problem is that the west coast is now in a state of more-or-less perpetual drought making the sequoias (and other trees) vulnerable to fire in a way they wouldn't otherwise be and the fires themselves are hotter and faster due to everything around these giants being dried to kindling. There's simply only so much clearing out the growth every year can accomplish. Even if the budget existed to do it to the entire forest that would only solve the immediate problem of the fire itself and not the problem of the ecosystem needing those fires every so often.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @06:53AM
Bbbut socialist CA BAD!