8 votes

2,000-year-old redwoods survive wildfire at California's oldest state park

2 comments

  1. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] There is a photo gallery here.

    From the article:

    an Associated Press reporter and photographer hiked the renowned Redwood Trail at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Monday and confirmed most of the ancient redwoods had withstood the blaze. Among the survivors is one dubbed Mother of the Forest.

    [...]

    Redwood forests are meant to burn, she said, so reports earlier this week that the state park was “gone” were misleading.

    The historic park headquarters is gone, as are many small buildings and campground infrastructure that went up in flames as fire swept through the park about 45 miles south of San Francisco.

    There is a photo gallery here.

    4 votes
  2. skybrian
    Link
    It seems there is a lot of damage, though: Crews race to protect Big Basin’s ancient redwoods after inferno [...]

    It seems there is a lot of damage, though:

    Crews race to protect Big Basin’s ancient redwoods after inferno

    The majority of the iconic trees — including the cherished Mother and “Father of the Forest” — survived the blaze, this news organization confirmed Friday. But there are many big redwoods whose bases were burned to the heart, and which could be toppled by a falling fir, huge numbers of which were severely damaged because the species fares poorly in flames.

    [...]

    Already, there are enough downed redwoods that you can spot one fallen — often smashed into jagged red pieces — from almost any vantage point. Many of those are smaller trees, just a few feet in diameter. But beside the road just before the headquarters complex, a titanic redwood, 14 feet across at the base, lies horizontal on the ashy forest floor, the only truly huge tree that appears to have come down in the area around the park’s headquarters.

    2 votes