‘There is nothing alive in that tree’: inside a giant secuoyas forest calcined by the KNP complex fire

It seemed that a bomb had exploded in the vast land of giant secuoyas on a mountain crest in the south of the Sierra.

Carbonized trees rose - the majority devoid of leaves and frightfully skeletal - in Redwood Mountain Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.The ash floated in the air and scrape the throats of the visitors on a cold afternoon of November.

About seven weeks earlier, the intense flames of the KNP complex fire had devastated the grove, which housed more than 5.200 giant secuoyas, one of the largest and oldest trees in the world.

When the smoke finally dissipated, the impact was shocking.

"It is not easy to see a giant hench."It is one of the hardest things that I have had to see in my 30 years of career in forest service".

Up to 2.380 giant secuoyas died burned or are expected to die within several years due to the KNP complex fire, which is still active.The majority grew in the Arboleda of Redwood Mountain, said Christy Brigham, head of resource management and science of the National Parks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, where the fire has calcined more than 88.300 acres.

And it is only part of a much greater devastation.

Others 1.250 trees could have been burned by the Windy fire, which burned mainly in the National Forest of Sequoia, to the south.It was triggered during the same thunderstorm that began the fire of the KNP complex in early September.

The two fires were charged up to 5% of the world population of giant secuoyas.That adds to almost 14% that was destroyed in the Castle fire last year, which burned in the same area.

Among the fire trio, almost 20% of all giant secuoyas may have perished in a period of 14 months, according to Joanna Nelson, director of scientific planning and conservation of the non -profit conservation group Save the Redwoods League.

The giant secuoyas are only found in California, mainly on the western slopes of the Sierra Sur.Before the three fires, there were approximately 75.000 of these huge copies in the world;Today, that number can be as low as 60.000.

With their very high glasses and their thick bark, giant secuoyas have adapted to support low intensity fires, and even need them to reproduce.But the fierce fires of recent years, fed by climate change, have been fatal for these trees that experts considered flames immune.

Since 2015, high intensity fires have killed the giant secuoyas "in a much higher number than ever registered," according to a national parks service report.A fire suppression story in the region, combined with a pertinazo drought and other factors, has caused the accumulation of dry vegetation such as a dusty that can feed intense flames, according to authorities.

The drought has also contributed directly to the decline of the Secuoyas, weakening their defenses and making them susceptible to the raids of the beetles of the cortex, another roof to which historically they have been immune.

Before the KNP complex fire affected Redwood Mountain Grove, Tony Caprio, fire environmentalist from the national sequoia and Kings Canyon parks, gave the alarm alarm.

"Caprio said from the beginning that the southern end of Redwood Mountain Grove was really in danger," said Brigham, who was co -author of a report with Caprio and others, on the impacts of the 2021 fire season in the giant secuoyas.The report details mortality estimates of what is considered large trees, more than 4 feet in diameter.

That part of the grove is located on a steep terrain and has not been subjected to recent controlled burning to reduce dry vegetation.Dead trees covered the areas of the mountain skirts.

Park officials knew that the great grove was vulnerable, and worked desperately to prepare the area as the KNP complex fire approached.The concern for the thousands of Arboleda Secuoyas was huge.

"If the fire is strengthened below, it is possible to go up the hillside and burn with great intensity," Brigham explained.

Fire teams began to carry out burning operations in the grove on October 1, according to the recent report, and there were plans to apply a fire retardant gel in some of the trees, an experimental method that had never been used in Secuoyas beforeof the KNP complex fire.Caprio developed a map of the places where the gel was going to be thrown with the help of a plane.

"But there was a lot of smoke," Brigham said.The plan was frustrated."And the area in which we wanted to put the gel is the area that finally suffered the most serious effects of the fire.".

At dusk on October 3, fire began to gain strength in the Redwood Mountain area, before extinction operations were completed.Apparently, it went up on the west side of Redwood Mountain Ridge before merging with another group of flames the next morning, according to the report.High intensity fire burned the southern end of the crest and the lower parts of the grove in Redwood Canyon, expanding east and north.

No one was there to witness the devastation, but some park officials believe that, in some areas, the fire emerged as a solid flame wall through the treetops, a sign of the fierce behavior of fire known as the cup fire.

The areas of the bottom of the canyon burned so much that the fire created a huge cloud of pyrocuse that rose 40.000 feet above the burned zone, said Nate Stephenson, an emeritus scientist of the United States Geological Service.

The meteorological phenomenon generated such strong winds that they started the cortex and foliage of the secuoyas, sending the rubble that rained from the sky to the north.Some Stephenson friends who live on the eastern side of the mountains sent an email to tell him that they could see the gigantic cloud on the mountains.

Stephenson and Brigham, who are the main experts in giant seduoyas, directed a visit from the media to a small part of the forest.At present, Arboleda is prohibited to the public.Caprio and Clay Jordan, Superintendent of the two national parks joined the group.

Near where Stephenson was that recent Friday, a blackened giant rose higher than an 18 -story building.With an estimated age of 800, I was alive when Gengis Khan ruled the Mongol Empire.Centuries later, he still seems as robust as a house, and his base was too wide to surround her with her arms.

But it was already history.

"There is nothing alive in that tree," Brigham said.

However, the tree had cones at the top of its cup.There is the possibility, said Stephenson, that the cones drop viable seeds, which could lead to the birth of new secuoyas.

In another place of the Arboleda, where it is believed that the fire burned with less intensity, the officials observed an equally huge tree that emitted a stream of white smoke.He was cooking from within, and would probably continue to do so for months, said the supervisor of Parks Jordan.

"The question is whether that tree will die".Jordan asked, noting that it would be extremely difficult, "maybe impossible", extinguish the fire.Not long before the fires of the KNP complex and Windy occurred, Jordan said, they saw a couple of well -known giant secuoyas - King Arturo and Floyd Otter - that still burned because of the Castle fire, occurred a year earlier.

During the tour, the burned trees suddenly appeared in the midst of a healthy -looking growth along the first kilometers of the grove.It is typical that the fire burns in a "mosaic" like that, said Jordan.

Just before the visit, those responsible for the national and forest parks - along with other land managers where giant secuoyas grow - met in an informative session at the Grant Grove of the Kings Canyon Park to give the bleak news thatThousands of Secuoyas have probably perished this year.

The imposing general tree Grant was at a short distance from the podium.With 267 feet high and 29 feet of circumference, it is considered the second largest tree on Earth.The number 1 is the general sherman tree of the Sequoia National Park.

The meeting attendees promised to join to protect the majestic giants left for future generations.In addition to riding a collective battle against climate change, participants affirmed that it is crucial to reduce the density of forests with prescribed fires and other techniques.

"The main objective is to protect the Secayas," said William Garfield, president of the Tule River Tribal Council.

The Windy fire began in the Indian Reserve of Tule River before expanding to the near national forest of Sequoia.Like the Secuoyas, the natives have lived on this land for thousands of years.

"They have a lot of history...And if they disappear, that story disappears, ”said Garfield.

When the light decreased and the officials and the media retired, Samantha Furden, 26, and George David, 42, arrived at Grant Grove to play music and sing songs.Friends had just arrived from Los Angeles, where Furden lives.

David lives part -time in the Three Rivers area, near the entrance of the Sequoia National Park.He said that hearing of the devastation of the trees was "really traumatic".

"The trees speak to the soul," said David."This is the place where I am happy".

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