Once thought to be basically immortal, sequoias are now dying in droves

[hatrack]

17. "These fires" are not what the trees need . . . .

"These fires" are tinder-dry, overgrown forests exploding in flames and creating their own weather as a result of global warming.

"These fires" produce updrafts so intense that pilots of spotter and tanker planes trying to deal with the fire front approaching Mariposa Grove report tree branches falling from above around their aircraft.

The fire at Yosemite National Park started on July 7th, near the Washburn Trail in the National Park Mariposa Grove area. As of today, the Washburn Fires has burned nearly 4,000 acres. Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the fire and preserve the over 500 sequoias- including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. A special “ground-based” sprinkler system was installed to increase the humidity around the sequoias to protect them. While the park crew is working to save trees from the ground up, firefighters are tackling the fires from above. Pilots have confirmed dangerous flying tree branches from the fire
Here’s what we know-

Twitter user @Rob_on_sisukas posted some of the radio chatter overheard from firefighting crews on Saturday. In it, one firefighting pilot reports that his plane was almost hit by a tree branch that fell from above the plane. This confirmed that the intense wildfire is also sending debris into the skies. In the audio you can hear the pilot sharing that “a branch went right over the top…probably 50 feet above [them], coming down and falling” right in between another plane and his. The pilot says, “If we keep seeing that, we might have to knock it off. I don’t want to take the chance of busting a window on an airplane or hurting an aircraft for this.”

EDIT

https://www.yahoo.com/video/pilots-witness-tree-branches-flying-171917833.html

You've nailed what the sequoia forests need - clearing of undergrowth - and that's exactly what's been done around the Mariposa Grove in the past few years, which is one thing that helped protect the surrounding sequoia groves. The other, of course, is maximum fire crew efforts to protect a famous NPS holding.

EDIT

Prescribed burns — most recently conducted in the grove in 2018 — mimic low intensity that help sequoias by clearing out downed branches, flammable needles and smaller trees that could compete with them for light and water. The heat from fires also helps cones open up to spread their seeds.

While intentional burns have been conducted in sequoias since the 1960s, they are increasingly being seen as a necessity to the save the massive trees. Once thought to be almost fireproof, up to 20% of all giant sequoias — native only in the Sierra Nevada range — have been killed in the past five years during intense wildfires.

EDIT

https://www.joplinglobe.com/sports/preventive-fires-credited-with-saving-yosemite-sequoias/article_1ecb6393-c57c-51fb-9d8a-91e7600b629c.html

Low-intensity seasonal fires could and should protect California's remaining forests. Whether they can be staged safely in the future looks increasingly unlikely.