The 2020 fire season shattered records, burning 4.35 million acres across the state of California in a matter of months. Drought, development, and the unknown future effects of climate change haunt old-growth forests and ancient landscapes across the state. Forest mismanagement and increased temperatures have threatened and damaged our forests like never before.
This year alone, numerous ancient redwoods, more than a million Joshua trees, and hundreds of giant sequoias have perished.
Coastal redwoods tower over everything around them as the tallest trees on earth. Many of them have seen hundreds of fires over their lifetime. But the 2020 C.Z.U. Lighting Complex Fire led to the loss of about ten percent of the old-growth trees and severe damage to many others.
In another wildfire, more than a million Joshua trees burned in just two days!
Ancient groves of sequoias, some as old as the Bible, stand tall over the forest floor in a few areas of the Sierra Nevada. These trees are the largest in the world by volume. Since 2015, nearly two-thirds of groves have burned in wildfires with varying effects.
These trees have been around for thousands of years. Their characteristics and sense of wonderment have caused people to travel across the world JUST to walk among them.
Check out this article by The New York Times by clicking here to read more about these three amazing tree species and the fires they faced this year in their fight to survive.