Live data from Hacker News

2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

nbcnews.com

81–90 of 210 posts

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#81

Redwoods not only survive the fires, they tend to proliferate afterwards. After lesser trees have been cleared out by the fires, redwood seedlings take root. Redwoods also thrive in low rain areas that are prone to fog because they benefit from the fog in a way that other trees do not. I once suggested redwoods as an alternate or additional metaphor for giftedness re Stephanie Tolan's "Is it a cheetah?" https://www.s…

I was thinking redwoods are like rich people. Their scale gives them unfair advantages compared to other plants. Also metaphors make weak arguments.

At the time, I may have been Director of Community Life for The TAG Project, which I believe is the the oldest set of email lists for the gifted community on the internet and they were trying to make the transition to a formal charity and never completed the process.

So the audience would have been parents of gifted kids in need of support for how to effectively raise their kids and my opinion was somewhat respected for a fairly brief period of time in gifted circles online.

It wasn't an argument. It was an attempt to share my thoughts with people who liked my thoughts on certain subjects well enough that it got me started blogging because there was demand for my point of view on some subjects.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. I know there is a pine that does that, but I'm in rough shape and trying to stay out of trouble, which is challenging for me under the best of circumstances. I remember the pine cone of I think a yellow pine species opens up at 170 degrees, so it typically opens in response to fire. A quick google suggests it is called a Jack Pine. Hurricanes are also thought to be responsible for bringing fly species t…

Why shut up? Your post was very informative and thanks to you I learned a lot of things! However, I bet that the scale of the wildfires in our apocalyptic late-Anthropocene is something hardly seen before in healthy forests... all these species would be better off with less of it.

I have a medical condition and I was extremely frazzled. I can't judge if I'm making sense or not when I'm really frazzled. I've napped a bit, so I'm less frazzled now, but I'm still dealing with a lot of stress, as is often the case.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shut up? Your post was very informative and thanks to you I learned a lot of things! However, I bet that the scale of the wildfires in our apocalyptic late-Anthropocene is something hardly seen before in healthy forests... all these species would be better off with less of it.

I have a medical condition and I was extremely frazzled. I can't judge if I'm making sense or not when I'm really frazzled. I've napped a bit, so I'm less frazzled now, but I'm still dealing with a lot of stress, as is often the case.

You were perfectly making sense! ^^

I hope you are better now, I am sorry to hear that you had medical problems... Do not give up! Your contributions are helpful.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#84
post #49

Why are there always so many fires in California?

Coastal California sees rain from about the end of October through February, then tapers off to about nothing by May. It then does not rain again until Halloween. I used to think "doesn't rain" meant "half an inch every couple of weeks" but it does not rain in fact at all, it's totally bone dry for the hottest part of the year, until late fall. Getting three inches over the weekend is enough precipitation in the bay…

I reckon that 3" of rain in a day would cause serious flooding here in southern Colorado. It'd certainly set a record! I don't think I've seen so much in my entire life, so it floors me to hear it's no big in Dallas

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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. For fires the likes of which they've experienced in their lifetimes, perhaps. Hard to know otherwise: "What is remarkable about the CZU fire is this is a coastal fire, primarily along the the coast near the Santa Cruz mountains... in forests, a lot of redwoods, that ha…

You are aware that modern recorded history in California goes back much, much less than 1400 years?

Recorded by humans.

Tree rings are also a record of history.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#86
Let's take a moment and recognize the fear-mongering going on a few days ago where there were articles saying "this time is different because of climate change, this time climate change super fires have caused a national treasure to be destroyed"

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#87
post #86

Let's take a moment and recognize the fear-mongering going on a few days ago where there were articles saying "this time is different because of climate change, this time climate change super fires have caused a national treasure to be destroyed"

Are you saying there's not enough evidence to associate the wack storm that prefaced this with climate change?

The Bay area NEVER gets rain for like almost, 8 months of the year. This was a freak event.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#88

Redwoods not only survive the fires, they tend to proliferate afterwards. After lesser trees have been cleared out by the fires, redwood seedlings take root. Redwoods also thrive in low rain areas that are prone to fog because they benefit from the fog in a way that other trees do not. I once suggested redwoods as an alternate or additional metaphor for giftedness re Stephanie Tolan's "Is it a cheetah?" https://www.s…

So this whole thread is "Fires good because seeds on some Trees", right?

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California has been subject to century long droughts in the not too distant past (about 1000 years ago). "BEGINNING about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years. Each was much more intense than the mere six-year dry spells that afflict modern California from time to time, new studies of past climates show. The findings suggest, in fact, that…

Further to that, the global temperature anomaly has caused rainfall patterns to change, meaning some places are trending wetter, and some drier, and crucially, volatility has increased. Having wet seasons, generating fuel load, followed by dry is more problematic than a sustained drought.

I remember driving through the Santa Monica Mountains on my way to Malibu right after Southern California was absolutely deluged by rain for weeks. It was one of the most stunning displays I've ever seen in person. Three years later Malibu burned down. So it goes.

Re: 2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

#90
post #86

Let's take a moment and recognize the fear-mongering going on a few days ago where there were articles saying "this time is different because of climate change, this time climate change super fires have caused a national treasure to be destroyed"

Are you saying there's not enough evidence to associate the wack storm that prefaced this with climate change? The Bay area NEVER gets rain for like almost, 8 months of the year. This was a freak event.

I'm just saying there was a lot of mourning and saying "the redwoods are gone".

When people responded "you don't get to be a 1000+ year old tree without being able to survive fires" the response was "yeah but that was before climate change. These trees are likely gone forever now because climate change combined with fire suppression is causing super fires that burn much hotter"

Post reply on HN