Redwoods Survive Wildfire at California's Oldest State Park

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Tuesday, August 25, 2020 | Martha Mendoza

[nickcarraway]

When a massive wildfire swept through California’s oldest state park last week it was feared many trees in a grove of old-growth redwoods, some of them 2,000 years old and among the tallest living things on Earth, may finally have succumbed.

But 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.

SNIP

“But the forest is not gone,” McLendon said. “It will regrow. Every old growth redwood I’ve ever seen, in Big Basin and other parks, has fire scars on them. They’ve been through multiple fires, possibly worse than this.”

When forest fires, windstorms and lightning hit redwood trees, those that don’t topple can resprout. Mother of the Forest, for example, used to be 329 feet tall (100 meters), the tallest tree in the park. After the top broke off in a storm, a new trunk sprouted where the old growth had been.

Trees that fall feed the forest floor, and become nurse trees from which new redwoods grow. Forest critters, from banana slugs to insects, thrive under logs.

On Monday, Steller’s jays searched for insects around the park’s partially burned outdoor amphitheater and woodpeckers could be heard hammering on trees. Occasionally a thundering crash echoed through the valley as large branches or burning trees fell.

[nickcarraway]

Ping

[READINABLUESTATE]

Those old Redwoods have been through hundreds of fires.

[elbook]

.

Its why they have such thick bark ...

.

I recall hearing several times the naturalist story that there were massive fires up and down the West Coast 400 years ago which burn through much of the forests.

Note - that so many Redwood Trees in those forests are over 400 years old ...

.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks. I saw a similar article in the Merc last night. This is good news. As READINABLUESTATE says in #3, these trees have been through many fires. We’ve all seen the burned-out and hollowed-out trunks of the huge redwoods. The article I read in the Merc said that things will begin greening out with the coming winter’s rains.

[xp38]

IIRC their bark is a natural fire retardant so that would explain how they have survived forest fires over the ages.

[secretmtcman]

I have a piece of petrified wood that has a black ring in it.

[Night Hides Not]

Thanks for posting, nick. I was a firefighter at Big Basin the summer of '74. It was the year Cal Forestry moved the FF station back into the park...lots of great memories flooding back.

The previous summer, I was stationed at Saratoga Summit, on Skyline Drive. Couldn't have asked for a better summer job during college.

[SpaceBar]

Once California cedes to Mexico it will all be felled.

[milagro]

Near the southern Oregon Coast, “The Trees of Mystery” is a fantstic place to see the a whole bunch of amazing redwoods, many of them quite ancient.
Truly makes one marvel at the tenacious nature of, well, NATURE!

[CARTOUCHE]

Thanks Nick. Memories flood back of me and wife to be driving there from Concord on my first leave in 1972. Glad there wasnt greater damage.

[RitchieAprile]

my summer job that year was working at the Kaiser Moss Landing brick kilns. nastiest job ever!

[HartleyMBaldwin]

In 1974 I was fighting range fires for the BLM, in the Owyhee country of SE Oregon. It wasn’t until 1977 that I went to the Gold Beach district on the west side. Never did get to a fire in the redwood country, though.

1974-1985, BLM and USFS. Great times, but it’d kill me quick now.

[21twelve]

Back in the day when BLM was fighting fires instead of setting them!

I wonder if we could convince the protestors to leave the cities and go live on their BLM land out in some desolate place in Utah, New Mexico, etc.?

[Grampa Dave]

Those old Redwoods have been through scores of fires.

Man didn’t create lightning thousands of plus years ago nor 2 weeks ago.

Zero brush was ever cleared by man. Brush was cleared by the fires created by the lightning. Then and two weeks ago.

[martin_fierro]

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[catnipman]

actually, the fires are quite beneficial to the old growth redwood forests as fire clears out all the underbrush and new-growth non-redwood trees and basically does nothing but fire-scar a bit of the bark on the old growth redwoods ... fire pretty much just scratches their itch ...

[trebb]

Redwoods need such fires to flourish - they didn’t survive - they were refreshed...