Wildfire threat to Yosemite giants
AROUND 300 firefighters were working to save giant sequoia trees from a wildfire last night.
Mariposa Grove, the largest grove of sequoias in California’s Yosemite National Park, was closed to visitors as tree trunks were wrapped in fire-resistant foil.
Over 500 mature sequoias were at risk but there were no reports of damage to any named trees, like 209ft, 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.
Two helicopters were being used to drop water on the fire which broke out on Thursday.
The sequoias, native in 70 groves along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, were once thought impervious to fire.
But lightning-sparked wildfires, which have got more intense recently, have killed up to a
fifth of the 75,000 sequoias in two years.