This is what a giant Sequoia grove ravaged by wildfire looks like

On a dead still November morning in the Sierra Nevada, two researchers walk through a graveyard of giants. Below their feet: a layer of ash and coal. Above their heads: a charnel house of endangered trees.

This is Alder Creek Grove, a once idyllic environment for a majestic and massive specimen: the giant sequoia. It is now a blackened monument to a massive wildfire—and humankind’s far-reaching impact on the environment. But these two researchers have come to do more than pay their respects.

Linnea Hardlund and Alexis Bernal, both of the University of California, Berkeley, are studying the effects of record-breaking fires such as the one that destroyed large swaths of Alder Creek Grove in the hopes that their findings will inform forest management that might preserve giant sequoias for future generations.

So far, those findings are grim: mortality is near 100 percent where the wildfires burned most intensely. Of the mighty trees that stood watch for thousands of years, only charred skeletons remain.

About a century of aggressive fire suppression and a warming, drier climate have created a perfect environment for unprecedented fire. On August 19, 2020, it came to the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The SQF Complex was two fires—the Castle and Shotgun fires—that burned for more than four months, affecting nearly 175,000 acres. And a preliminary report on the Castle Fire estimated that 10 to 14 percent of all living giant sequoias were destroyed.

Hardlund, who is also at the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, and Bernal fear that, without scientifically informed intervention, such fires will continue to return to the Sierra Nevada—leaving the once proud guardians of the forest a memory and another casualty of our ecological failure.

[elsajohnson]

I visited Sequoia when they reopened in fall od 2021 after the wildfire. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see the devastation, such magnificant trees.

[askjeevescosby]

Um they deffinatly have adapted to wild fires. They actually reproduce more in fire zones. And saying "o these trees have no foliage" after the fire is rediculas. Of course it wont have any because it all burned off. Give it a few years and they will most likely grow new needles. These trees have probably seen 10 to 20 wildfires in their lifetime.

[zom]

We need a lot more people like the ladies in this video. And we need to make the public aware so that funds are made available to save our forests.

[SEAQUEST-R]

Took three devastating fires and over a year to hear virtually any reporting on the Giant Sequoias (including from the NPS). I save everything I can to a playlist. Barely on folks news radar. Thank Heavens for deep snow!

[sunnyjoseph]

It's heartbreaking to see a grove of tall and giant sequoias that has taken hundreds of years to grow dying down in an wildfire.

[grokeffer]

It's very sad to lose such magnificent trees. Is the dead wood going to be left standing? Can seeds be collected and germinated?

[timbermen]

I was on the castle fire and it was hard to see all the destruction

[Brown-Bird]

Woahhh! So cool! I know Lexi! She is amazing at what she does.

[mechaslugzilla]

Unless the fire burnt the roots i would hope that there would be stump sprouts and suckers on some of the giant sequoias. They may take a long time to show up though, maybe even a couple years.Thoughts i have about helping Sequoias... Many of the seedlings in high mortality areas should be fenced up to protect from trampling and animals, the surrounding forests should be selectively thinned in favor of the sequoias and to reduce fire intensity and ladder fuels, and then frequent low intensity prescribed burns should be implemented. I hope that there are people and organizations collecting seed from the giant sequoia groves and planting them north to insure their survival as a species if they can't survive in their original range in a changed climate. I think with climate change the sequoias may thrive better in oregon, washington, BC canada, and even idaho and alaska.

[runningbastards]

What action could we be taking to help the situation? Periodically remove the smaller trees to alleviate the density?

[Taskerofpuppets]

Thank you Ladies for doing this research and sharing it. I love these Monarch Trees as well.

[xstevenmaox]

Seeing this in person breaks my heart. It’s so sad

[fraserruth]

My understanding is that Sequoias need moderate to high intensity fires to reproduce. Not only that but mature trees have fire retardant bark — General Grant has probably seen much worse. The lack of allowed fires over the past ~100 years and mismanagement could be the bigger concern..

[concerned]

You all sure blame climate change without one sentence of poor past government forest management of logging (lack of logging), too much fire suppression in the last 100 years, and bark beetle kill in the surrounding forests. Sequoias are worthless to commercially harvest unlike their cousins the Redwoods and you all have a perfect opportunity to correct poor past behavior. I hope you come to some common sense conclusions like I have which I hinted to above! Please note that droughts in this state in the last thousand plus years are normal.

[skunkhome]

They keep talking about climate change but this devastation is the result of poor forest management. There are way too many trees in the understory.

[sandal_thong]

I remember when allowing fire back in Yellowstone was so controversial. Didn't CA forestry follow their lead? I did see a show on Native Americans having a tradition of using fire in CA forests, but were stopped and removed. Now that climate change has brought drought to CA, it might not be safe to allow small fires in winter.

[lexiepixie]

Do not touch it and the plants will grow back

[kyleAmadeus]

Wow this is what college students think? Haha we’re in big trouble

[treelinktree]

I Am in hopes that these young students,
Who are great researchers and empathetic to our natural forests, of our "Guardians" if you will call these Trees, as such... will realize that generations BEFORE THEM have been trying to help save the planet from the humans that are ignorant of destruction ( of LIFE on this planet)
That There are many of us, many many of us, in the millions... knowing the combination of natural course of life ( in Nature. Plus, natural course of life (in Greed and politics)
Loggers who were just trying to make a living to survive...
And arses trying to get voted to make money.. yep.
ALL play into what is evident in the here and now.
NOT to blame those, as they did Not. DID NOT have the information technologies
THAT THESE CHILDREN have today.
... we're aware now.
I hope these young students,
Have correct perspectives of 50 years to 150 to 3, 000 years in REALITY.
They, these students, are so young. Their perspectives are very Green and sort of innocent to the grander scale of reality of mother earth's LONGEST life.
Hoping there are more OBSERVERS, not judgemental people that are too young to embibe discernment.
The discernment of the years of knowledge these Trees already Know (how to survive), beyond "human understanding".

[NOLAMarathon]

Would pushing them over with a bulldozer -- provided that's even possible -- return the nutrients to the soil?