Raging California wildfires threaten ancient sequoia forest
Al Jazeera
The extraordinary intensity of the California wildfires could overwhelm the sequoia trees, some thousands of years old.
Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.
The colossal “General Sherman” tree in Sequoia National Park, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings were wrapped for protection against the possibility of intense flames, fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson said.
A wildfire last year killed thousands of sequoias, some as tall as high-rises and thousands of years old. Now, firefighters are using aluminium wrapping and prescribed burns – fires set on purpose to remove other types of trees and vegetation that would otherwise feed approaching wildfires — to help protect the sequoias.
