California's Famous Giant Sequoia Trees Face Threats as Wildfires Continue

As the California wildfires continue, firefighters wrapped the bases of the largest trees in the world using a fire-resistant blanket Thursday to save a grove of the world-famous huge sequoia tree from burning in the rugged Sierra Nevada.

Giant Sequoias Threatened by California Wildfire

According to the Associated Press, fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson shared that the colossal General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park's Giant Forest and some of the other sequoias were wrapped to protect the famous trees. Aside from the huge trees, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings were also wrapped with fire-resistant materials to protect the area from the possibility of intense flames.

Based on the statement of the federal officials, they have been using the material for several years throughout the West as a protection for sensitive structures from uncontrollable flames. They added that the aluminum wrapping could withstand the intense heat but for a short period of time only, ABC News reported.

Also, homes situated close to Lake Tahoe was wrapped in protective material and survived, but those which were nearby were destroyed.

One of the fires in Sequoia National Park, the Colony Fire, was expected to reach the Giant Forest, a grove of 2,000 sequoia trees, at some point Thursday.

Saving Famous Giant Sequoia Trees

Last year, a wildfire killed thousands of sequoia trees. Some of them were as tall as high-rises and were part of the ecosystem thousands of years ago.

Moreover, the National Park Service stated that the General Sherman Tree is the largest in the world in terms of volume. The famous tree is at 52,508 cubic feet or 1,487 cubic meters with a height of 275 feet or 84 meters. It's circumference is 103 feet at ground level.

The Superintendent of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, Clay Jordan, stressed during a morning briefing for firefighters the importance of protecting the massive trees from high-intensity fire.

The parks had a 50-year history of using prescribed burns. It is a process of setting fire on purpose to remove other types of trees and other vegetation that would easily feed wildfires, especially in the parks' sequoia groves. The process was also expected to help the giant trees survive by lessening the impact if flames would be reaching them by avoiding close contact.

"A robust fire history of prescribed fire in that area is reason for optimism. Hopefully, the Giant Forest will emerge from this unscathed," Paterson said.

Furthermore, giant sequoias are adapted to fire by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that would allow young sequoias to grow. The recent fires were not like they have experienced in the past. Despite being adaptive to fire, the extraordinary intensity of fires, which were fueled by climate change, could still overwhelm the trees.

Based on the National Park Service, the incident happened last year when the Castle Fire killed what studies estimate were 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoia trees.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Jess Smith

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