Firefighters race to defend sequoias from Yosemite fire
LOS ANGELES — Firefighters on Monday were racing to protect a grove of ancient sequoia trees from the 2,340acre Washburn fire in Yosemite National Park in California.
The fire, which more than doubled in size over the weekend, was within striking distance of the park’s Mariposa Grove, home to more than 500 mature sequoias including the Grizzly Giant, a 209-foot behemoth estimated to be about 3,000 years old.
“We really don’t want to leave this one to chance because this really is such an iconic tree,” forest ecologist Garrett Dickman said in a recent video showing sprinklers spraying water around the base of the Grizzly Giant.
“We’re trying to give it some preventative first aid, really, and make sure that when the fire - if the fire - comes over here, that this tree is protected,” he said. “That is, to cool flames and to increase the relative humidity and decrease the fire behavior around this tree.”
But crews had their work cut out for them: The fire on Monday morning remained zero percent contained, officials said.
The blaze, which ignited Thursday near the park’s Washburn trail, was feeding on “heavy dead and down fuels,” according to the U.S. Forest Service, including vegetation dried by the West’s worsening drought.
The fire is also threatening the community of Wawona, where mandatory evacuation orders remain in place and Highway 41 is closed.
Sequoias are known to withstand heat, and in fact have long relied on fire for reproduction. But California’s new breed of hotter, faster and more frequent fires fueled by climate change have proven a formidable foe for the giants.