Yosemite wildfire threatens grove of iconic sequoia trees

Yosemite, July 14 (BUS): Yosemite National Park’s largest grove of giant sequoia remained closed Saturday as firefighters battled a blaze that threatened to collect famous trees and forced hundreds of campers to evacuate.

The Associated Press reported that the rest of the park in California remained open, although smoke rising in the air obscured some of its most scenic views.

More than 500 mature sequoias on Mariposa Grove have been threatened but as of Saturday afternoon there were no reports of major damage to any identified trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Away from the trees, the small community of Wauna, surrounded by a park and campground, was under threat, as people were ordered to leave their homes and campgrounds on Friday night.

The fire was difficult to contain, as firefighters threw out “every tactic imaginable,” said Nancy Phillips, a Yosemite fire information spokeswoman. This includes air droplets from fire retardants as well as the planned use of bulldozers to create lines of fire, a tactic rarely used in a wild environment like Yosemite, Phillip said.

She said bulldozers would be used primarily to set up fire lines to protect Wuna. Approximately 600 to 700 people who were staying at Wawona camp in tents, cabins and the historic hotel were ordered to leave.

Jeffrey Barlow, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Hanford, said that although the firefighters were facing hot, dry conditions, they didn’t have to contend with heavy winds on Saturday. He said that given the fire’s relatively small size and lack of wind, smoke trails were not expected to extend far beyond the park.

The giant sequoia, which inhabits only about 70 orchards scattered along the western slope of California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, was once considered impervious to fire but has become increasingly vulnerable to wildfires fueled by shrub buildup from a century of fire suppression and drought exacerbated by Climate change is becoming more severe and devastating.

Wildfires caused by lightning over the past two years have killed up to one fifth of an estimated 75,000 large sequoias, the largest trees by size.

Philip said there was no obvious natural spark for the fire that broke out on Thursday next to the park’s Washburn driveway. Smoke was reported by visitors walking through the orchard, which reopened in 2018 after a three-year, $40 million renovation.

The fire had reached about 1.9 square miles (4.8 square kilometers) by Saturday evening.

A severe windstorm swept through the orchard a year and a half ago and toppled 15 giant sequoias, along with countless other trees.

Deciduous trees, along with huge numbers of pine trees killed by bark beetles, provided ample fuel for the fires.

The garden used the described burn to clean the brush around the sequoia, which helps protect it if the fire spreads further into the orchard.

Meanwhile, most evacuation orders were lifted Saturday in the Sierra foothills 80 miles (128 kilometers) northwest of Yosemite, where a fire broke out on July 4. Directly within the perimeter of the fire remained under evacuation orders, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

MI