SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK WRAPS GIANT TREES, STRUCTURES IN FOIL AS FLAMES APPROACH

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

By Miriam Raftery

September 18, 2021 (Sequoia National Park) – Two wildfires, the Colony and Paradise fires, have merged into one dubbed the KNP Complex Fire. Estimated at 18,000 acres, the blaze has been burning for a week inside Sequoia National Park and has now reached the edge of a historic grove of ancient giant redwoods. 

Firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service have been fighting to save some of the trees including the 275-foot-tall General Sherman Tree, which is believed to be the largest tree on earth by volume, according to the National Forest Service. Fire crews have been wrapping huge trees as well as structures such as a fire lookout tire and the signature entry sign with fire-resistant aluminum burn wraps, also clearing away vegetation and raking debris around the base of large trees and structures.

In addition, the U.S. Forest Service under the Biden administration is conducting controlled burns to create firebreaks.

The grove is home to around 2,000 giant sequoias, which grow only in California. The Castle Fire last year destroyed an estimated 10 percent of all giant sequoias, a loss of thousands of trees statewide.

“It’s a very significant area for many, many people, so a lot of special effort is going into protecting this grove,” said Rebecca Paterson, a spokeswoman for the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Fire danger has forced closure of Sequoia National Park and evacuation of park staff. Meanwhile the Windy Fire is threatening the adjacent Sequoia National Forest; the Wind Fire is now over 3,924 acres with no containment. Even a sequoia grove at Giant Sequoia National Monument is also in the path of flames.

The fire ignited Thursday in the Tule River Indian Reservation before pushing into the national

Tule River Indian Reservation residents and those in and near the communities Camp Nelson and Ponderosa are asked to continue monitoring the progress of this fire. Tulare County residents can receive county emergency notifications by registering at AlertTC.com.

Two-thirds off all mature giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevadas have burned in wildfires from 2015 to 202, the national Park Service indicates, according to CNN.

Some of these giant trees have survived fires in the past, so there is hope for forests to regenerate even as Herculean efforts to save these giant trees, some thousands of years old, continues.

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.