A Blazing Giant Stirs California to High Alert

[Purveyor]

Source: NYTimes

By MAX WHITTAKER and MAGGIE ASTOR
Published: August 25, 2013

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A wildfire near Yosemite National Park — already one of the biggest in California’s history — continued to grow on Sunday, prompting mandatory evacuation orders for some residents and raising anxiety among officials because of the potential threat to a major source of San Francisco’s water and power supplies.

The so-called Rim Fire had burned about 134,000 acres as of late Sunday — about 9,000 acres more than it had the previous day — making it the 14th largest fire since California began keeping records on wildfires in 1932 and the second largest in Tuolumne County.

Officials said that firefighters had contained about 7 percent of the fire, which began just over a week ago, and that it had caused no loss of life or significant property damage. And although the fire has burned some acreage in Yosemite, the most visited area of the park, the Yosemite Valley, is not threatened so far, officials said.

Despite its size, the fire has not threatened population centers or heavily trafficked parts of Yosemite, but it was more the potential of the fire than the actual damage so far that spurred officials into action. Officials said that the fire tripled in size from Wednesday to Thursday and then doubled again from Thursday to Friday.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/us/a-blazing-giant-stirs-california-to-high-alert.html?_r=0

[alittlelark]

1. Hoping Hetch-Hetchy stays safe.......

[skippy66]

2. The fire season is just starting.

We have had little rain in California this year. Southern Cal is heating up as we get into the end of summer. It could get much worse without an early rain season

[defacto7]

3. There has been some strange articles lately

about the redwood trees in Yosemite that could be in danger. I don't think there is a problem there. Sequoiadendron either of the giganteum or the semperviren species are impervious to fire after they reach maturity which is about 500 years old. The large trees are well over 1000. The tree's bark has a natural fire retardant which is one of the reasons they live many thousands of years. Most big sequoias show a mere smudge where many major fires have happened in centuries past.

I don't think we have to worry about those even if they are two or three hundred years old. It's humans that are their biggest danger.

[brer cat]

4. Thanks for posting this. nt

[plantwomyn]

5. Sequoia trees

actually need fire to regenerate.

[NickB79]

10. That might not be accurate any longer (being impervious to fire)

After a century of fire suppression, along with the effects of climate change, bark beetle infestation, and invasive species, the fires we're now seeing may not be comparable to fires of millenia past.

For example: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159373770/the-new-normal-for-wildfires-forest-killing-megablazes

[defacto7]

11. It's a great point for most species

But I think there is still an exception in the case of Sequoia. If the fires were many times as hot it still would not penetrate a tree whose bark is more than a foot thick with a retardant that will not burn at all. The only thing that I could guess would make a difference would be a drier climate over a period of a century or more and even then, it may simply concentrate the tannins. Repeat, that's a guess.

On the other hand, the young sequoia of a hundred years old or less could be more in jeopardy because of lower growing foliage. Older trees have very high foliage and most other species that are present in those forests are low growing. Fallen large sequoia also have the advantage of an explosive effect when they do finally topple over. Their own weight causes the wood to explode and scatter across the forest floor turning it into basically wood mush. The outward movement clears the forest floor in the neighborhood and spreads the tannin retardants lowering the burn capabilities and clearing deciduous growth.

But here lies another problem that may support your point. Since many Giant Sequoia and Coastal Redwoods have been removed or fallen by humans in the late 19th and early 20th century, that process has been disturbed and there are remnants of old growth that have laid un-mashed so to speak for a long time, E.G. stumps and slash. Who knows what that effect may have had on the old growth forest and its natural protective process. And there again lies the human error of not thinking about the future and messing with tens of thousands of years of evolution.

I still think it's a safe bet the Giant ones are safe from fire hazard even on a large scale. They certainly are safer than all the other coniferous species.

[NickB79]

12. I'm inclined to agree

If there's any species out there that could survive a megafire, it's a 1000-yr old sequoia. At least there will be some mature giants left to reseed the land after the fires sweep through.

[Berlum]

15. This fire's temps are far far higher than usual

Thus the concern...

[Xithras]

18. Sequoias need ground fires to regenerate. Crown fires will kill them like any other tree.

Prior to colonization, these mountains would see fires on a near-annual basis that cleared out the undergrowth and kept the forest floor fairly open. Crown fires involving the entire tree were fairly rare. Because the undergrowth and tree density is so much thicker after a century of suppression, the fires now go into the crowns, killing the trees. Where the forest under the sequoias was once open and airy, the trees now stand shoulder to shoulder with douglas fir and sugar pines. The fires go straight to the crowns and hop from tree to tree well above ground level. In a fire like that, a sequoia will die like any other. Even if the trunk itself doesn't burn, the intensity of the heat will cook the inner bark, killing the trees ability to carry water from the roots to the crown. The tree won't incinerate, but it's effectively dead once that happens.

The fire ecosystem that the sequoias evolved to survive is very different than the ecosystem they exist in today.

[lapfog_1]

6. I saw this fire when it started last Saturday

when it was only 40 acres in size. I got some pictures from the "Rim of the World" overlook on Highway 120, which has since burned and the highway there is closed.

Had dinner in Groveland... I hope everything there survives this.

I sure wish they had put it out then.

[NBachers]

13. I was there at the "Rim of the World" as it was just getting started, too.

Finishing a few days in Yosemite. We stayed right there in Buck Meadows.

It looked to be at the top of a very steep hill. We'd seen the smoke on the way back from Hetch Hetchy.

I wonder how it got started?

[theHandpuppet]

7. Any chance for favorable weather?

Rain, for instance?

[XemaSab]

8. Not likely

[Adsos Letter]

9. Supposed to have high winds there tonight.

Rarely a good thing with wildfires.

[Supersedeas]

16. True this is not good

[eggplant]

14. The latest info can be found here

http://inciweb.org/incident/3660/

[happyslug]

17. The fire is headed straight for Hetch Hatchy

The fire is burning toward the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, where San Francisco gets 85 percent of its water and power for municipal buildings, the international airport and San Francisco General Hospital. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency because of the threats.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/08/24/38863/rim-fire-huge-california-wildfire-crosses-into-yos/

Most of Yosemite National Park is not affected by the fire and is relatively smoke-free. The northern part of the park, including some areas along the Tioga Road, has some smoke. Conditions may change if winds shift. However:
The Big Oak Flat Road (the continuation of Highway 120 inside Yosemite) and Highway 120 west of Yosemite are closed between the Highway 49 south junction (outside the park) to Crane Flat Campground (inside the park). If you are trying to get to Yosemite from the west, use Highway 140 from Merced. You may also enter Yosemite via Highway 41 from the south and 120 from the east (Tioga Pass).
Hetch Hetchy Road and Evergreen Road are closed.
White Wolf is closed, including the lodge, campground, road, and trails originating from White Wolf. This area is closed due to smoky conditions.
Hodgdon Meadow Campground and Hetch Hetchy Backpackers' Campground are closed.
Tamarack Flat Campground and Yosemite Creek Campground are slowly being vacated due to slow ingress/egress.
Merced and Tuolumne Groves of Giant Sequoias are closed so firefighters can work on preventive fire suppression efforts. The groves are not currently in imminent danger.
Wilderness trail closures: The area west of the Harden Lake/Pate Valley trail, north from Pate Valley to the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and continuing north along the PCT to Bond Pass is closed. The park’s boundary serves as the closure’s northern and western edge south to the Merced Grove. The closure continues east along (but not including) the Tioga Road (Hwy 120 through the park) to the White Wolf Road. The Tioga Road and the trails serving as the eastern boundary of the closed area (including the PCT) remain open, except for trails leaving White Wolf, which are now closed. View a map showing the closure [1.3 MB PDF].
All other roads and areas are open. Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, Wawona, Mariposa Grove, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows areas are all open. Campgrounds in Wawona, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite Valley, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows are open.
If you have questions specifically about Yosemite National Park, please call 209/372-0327 or 209/372-0329

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/rimfire.htm

Map of extent of the fire:
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3660

Webcams for Yosemite (none show the fire as of 8-26-2013, 10:00EST):
http://www.nps.gov/yose/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm


Alerts for the nearby Federal Forest:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/stanislaus/alerts-notices