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A wildfire burning near the southern part of Butterfly Grove in Yosemite National Park has become the latest fire to threaten the world’s largest trees, which have been repeatedly endangered in recent years as that climate change increases the intensity of fires.
The forest, which is home to more than 500 mature giant redwoods, closed Thursday after visitors reported seeing smoke from the Washburn Fire near a trail. Some 1,600 people, almost all tourists, evacuated the next day from the nearby community of Wawona, California, and its camp.
A forest fire in Yosemite National Park threatens more than 500 redwoods. (Video: The Washington Post)
No injuries, destroyed structures or critical damage to the redwoods had been reported until Saturday morning, said Nancy Phillipe, a spokeswoman for Yosemite fires. All the named trees, including the 209-foot Grizzly giant and the bachelor and all three graces, remained safe.
“This is one of the top priorities, it’s to protect this grove and all the history associated with it,” Phillipe said.
Redwood trees, which are only native to the Sierra Nevada and can live for about 3,000 years, have been seen as increasingly endangered by the worsening flames of recent summers. Although they are accustomed to frequent forest fires, three fires since 2020 have killed between 13 and 19 percent of all redwoods. Natural resource experts hope another large-scale death is possible this year.
The world’s largest trees are struggling to survive climate change
The Washburn fire poses another threat. Its origin is being investigated and Phillipe said there were no obvious weather-related causes.
Firefighters were using a variety of tools to protect the forest Saturday as uncontrolled fire spread to more than 700 acres, Phillipe said. Engines were spraying redwoods with hoses and building manual lines, a type of line of fire built with hand tools, to create fuel breaks. The crews were also covering redwoods with fireproof aluminum wrap.
From 2021: A fire threatens the trees of the Sequoia National Park. Flame retardant blankets are the defense.
Phillipe said the high temperatures and low humidity forecast for this weekend will complicate firefighting efforts, which have already been hampered by numerous fallen trees. Trees destroyed by bark beetles, killed by climate-induced drought and cut down by a large wind storm serve as fuel for the flames.
Prescribed burns performed regularly at Mariposa Grove in recent years have helped slow the progress of unwanted fires, Phillipe said. In areas prone to forest fires, controlled burns remove fuel and leave room for firefighters to work.
Mariposa Grove, located near the southern entrance to Yosemite, closed in 2015 and reopened three years later after a $ 40 million restoration project, the largest in the park’s history. The initiative restored the redwoods ’habitat, lined the roads and added a shuttle service from the finish area.
After all this work, Phillipe said, park employees don’t give up on protecting the forest.
“We’re suffocating this fire,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to turn it off.”
Last year, trees in California’s Sequoia National Park were threatened by fire from the KNP complex when lightning-related fire dangerously approached General Sherman’s 275-foot, the world’s largest tree for volume. The 2020 castle fire burned a third of the region’s redwood forests.
Nearly 23,000 acres have been burned by wildfires in California this year.
People who have never been considered at risk for climate change are waking up to floods and fires. (Video: Monica Rodman / The Washington Post)