Wildland Firefighters Mount Effort to Protect Planet's Oldest Trees

Aidin Vaziri, Brooke Park

San Francisco Chronicle

(TNS)

Sep. 9—Firefighters in California are mounting extraordinary efforts to shield some of the planet's most venerable trees from the fast-moving Garnet Fire, which has burned nearly 55,000 acres in the Sierra National Forest.

The blaze, ignited by lightning late last month, surged into McKinley Grove this week, a 100-acre stand of more than 160 giant sequoias — some rising over 230 feet and believed to be 2,000 years old. The fire has so far failed to significantly harm the towering conifers, with fire authorities instead reporting a "low intensity fire" helping instead to clear dead vegetation from the forest floor. Their preservation is credited to the crews who installed a 24-hour sprinkler system around the grove, cleared brush from the forest floor, and are now deploying smokejumpers trained to climb trees and extinguish embers that lodged in their branches.

"There is no crown fire within the grove, there are no trees fully on fire, these are embers that lofted into branches and have nestled in place," the U.S. Forest Service said in a Monday update. Firefighters remained in place until conditions became too dangerous, retreating only after spot fires ignited nearby.

"I saw very little issues with all the large giant sequoias, and everything's looking really good in there," Chad Costa, the operations chief at the fire, said at a briefing Tuesday evening. "Just low intensity burning all the ground litter."

Sequoias are naturally adapted to withstand periodic fires, which open their cones and clear competing vegetation. But climate change, drought and decades of fire suppression have fueled a series of megafires that burn hotter and faster than the trees can endure, according to park service officials. Since 2020, wildfires have destroyed between 13 and 19% of the world's sequoias, data from the US Geological Survey shows.

Ben Blom, director of stewardship at Save the Redwoods League, feared that the grove remained "highly at risk" despite the "heroic efforts" of fire crews. He called for urgent state and federal investment in forest restoration, including the release of voter-approved funds.

Higher humidity levels are expected to reduce the frequency of spot fires especially around McKinley Grove, where pine needles, sticks and branches resemble a ready-to-burn campfire, according to Kevin Montoya, a fire behavior analyst who spoke at the briefing Tuesday.

The Garnet Fire is California's third-largest wildfire this year and was 14% contained as of Tuesday, according to fire officials. Evacuation orders have been expanded to cover roughly 400 square miles east of Fresno. Fire teams are aiming to reach full containment within the next 14 days.