Young man, do you know many fires I have seen and survived over my years?
(In other words, fires are part of nature.)
2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
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Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#12“Withstand” is a funny word. Forests need fire. Fire is destructive to the organs (flora and fauna) but beneficial to the organism (a forest). I’m thinking of all of the sequoia seeds, now germinated from the fire[1], that will sprout next year into full sunlight that hasn’t touched the forest floor in hundreds of years. It is sad though that it’s also destructive to the lives of so many people. May everyone find saf…
Um, there aren’t any giant sequoias in the areas impacted by these fires. The range for giant sequoias is a few hundred miles to the East, on the slopes of the Sierras. They don’t grow in the coastal mountains.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#13I guess 2000 is a long time biologically and I suppose those trees have seen bad fires before climate change really kicked off. I'm sure there were very dry and warm periods before this too. Even thought we might think we're dominating nature, I'm sure it has a few tricks up it's sleeve yet.
The concerning issue with this fire is that humans have spent most of the last 100 years suppressing wildfires in these forests. This leads to an unprecedented amount of fuel built up on the forest floor, which leads to abnormally large and hot wildfires. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be too much for the redwoods, though time will tell.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#14Big Basin has burned before, and was “doomed”
in 1904: https://mobile.twitter.com/DustinMulvaney/status/12977663634...
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#15Why are there always so many fires in California?
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#16“Withstand” is a funny word. Forests need fire. Fire is destructive to the organs (flora and fauna) but beneficial to the organism (a forest). I’m thinking of all of the sequoia seeds, now germinated from the fire[1], that will sprout next year into full sunlight that hasn’t touched the forest floor in hundreds of years. It is sad though that it’s also destructive to the lives of so many people. May everyone find saf…
Note that the trees in question are Coastal Redwoods, not Giant Sequoias, in Big Basin, maybe five miles from the coast, near sea level. They are TALL trees, with some over 300 feet tall.
The Giant Sequoias in the article you linked are in the Sierra Nevada mountains, at a few thousand feet elevation and a couple hundred miles from the coast. They are MASSIVE trees, truly awe-inspiring, a bit shorter than the Coastal Redwoods but with trunks 30 feet across.
I don't think Coastal Redwoods have any trouble propagating or germinating. I have one in my back yard. Apparently they can be germinated in tap water. https://www.treeseedonline.com/blog/germination-of-coast-red...
Giant Sequoias, on the other hand, I view as truly irreplaceable. Some are over 3,000 years old. I hope we can protect them as long as possible.
The two species are cousins, but it's important to differentiate between the two.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#17Why are there always so many fires in California?
Always have been. It's a part of our state's ecology. Our forests require them in order to stay healthy, and native peoples were mediating the process for thousands of years before Western settlers decided fire was dangerous and had to be stopped. Now our forests and the fuel structures therein are way out of whack and we're finding our way back toward balance.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#18Why are there always so many fires in California?
Draught and historically poor land management.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#19A hundred miles north of this fire, at the Armstrong Redwood State Park, there is another lightning-caused wildfire that is burning through an old growth grove. That fire is burning through the forest floor only, and is significantly less dangerous. The 1400-year-old Armstrong tree, and park buildings, have been protected, while the fire is free to burn through the surrounding undergrowth. Everyone involved seems to…
> The 1400-year-old Armstrong tree
The bare fact that a tree is 1400 years old is pretty strong evidence that it's unlikely to be harmed by a fire.
Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park
#20Why are there always so many fires in California?
Combination of multiple reasons that are coming to a head now. Massive heat waves, long running droughts, decreasing rainfall, with more development farther out from urban core etc.