CA Wildfire Threatens Ancient Giant Sequoia Grove

YOSEMITE, CA — Crews in Northern California are working around the clock to protect an ancient grove of giant sequoias from a raging wildfire.

The Garnet Fire is currently the second-largest wildfire burning in California and Cal Fire says it has charred 54,925 acres since it ignited in the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County on Aug. 24, where the famed McKinley Grove stands.

The 100-acre grove, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, contains more than 200 giant sequoias, some of which are more than 2,000 years old. The tallest among them rises more than 230 feet, according to Save The Redwoods League.

State and local crews have taken "extraordinary measures" to protect the ancient giant sequoias by setting up water lines, deploying sprinkler systems and reducing fuels around individual trees within the grove, the league said.

Despite those efforts, approaching flames sent embers landing in the branches of several sequoias, Joe Zwierzchowski, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, told News 4.

Though firefighters were forced to retreat for their safety, specialized "smokejumpers" are now being used to climb the trees and put out the embers that landed high in the canopy, Zwierzchowski said.

Smokejumpers are typically parachuted into remote fire zones, but in this case, they are getting to the grove by vehicle.

The McKinley Grove was identified by the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition as one of the most vulnerable sequoia groves in the world to wildfires.

“Even with the team’s heroic efforts, this grove remains highly at risk," said Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration for the League. "McKinley Grove has not experienced fire in nearly 100 years, and recent severe drought has left the grove and surrounding forest filled with the dead trees and highly flammable debris now fueling the Garnet Fire."

Since 2015, some 20 percent of mature giant sequoias have been destroyed in wildfires. The phenomenon is unprecedented since giant sequoias are a fire-tolerant species that is essential to ecosystems and watersheds.

Sequoias can live for a millennium and are the world’s largest trees.

Sequoia trees are equipped with a durable armor of bark, designed to weather wildfires and even thrive within them. Their cones also release seeds when exposed to fire. But a threatening combination of drought, rising climates and relentless fire seasons has wreaked havoc on hundreds of these trees over the past decade.

“While we’ve made substantial progress in reducing threats to giant sequoias, we have an opportunity to prevent further loss of these vital forests," Blom said. "There is no time to lose.”

In 2020, hundreds of giant sequoias were lost to the devastating Castle Fire in the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Hundreds more were marred with burnt trunks and broken branches, yet they withstood the flames.

While a sequoia's crown can typically reach far above a fire line and can survive a forest fire if its crown remains just 5 percent green and unburned, there wasn't any green left on the skeletal trees found on the ridge west of Jordan Peak after the Castle Fire had wrought disaster on the area in 2020.

The Save the Redwoods League estimated that on its privately owned property alone, the Castle fire killed at least 80 monarchs, ranging from 500 years old to well over 1,000 years old that year.