‘We dodged a bullet.’ Sequoias believed largely spared by California’s KNP Complex Fire
Twice during the last three weeks, I’ve nearly made Christy Brigham burst into tears.
Neither time on purpose, just to be clear. I was simply asking Brigham, chief scientist at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, about giant sequoia groves burned by the KNP Complex Fire, which has scorched nearly 88,000 acres and is 45 percent contained.
“I’m a crier,” Brigham said by way of explanation. “I cry over the sequoias.”
The first time occurred during a phone interview about the parks’ prescribed burning program and the fate of Muir Grove, a place dear to both of us.
Wednesday, it happened again. Except in this instance we were speaking face to face at Redwood Canyon Overlook along the Generals Highway — and others along on the media tour were listening in and recording the conversation.
Oops, sorry.
This time, I made the mistake of asking Brigham if she is more encouraged or less encouraged by what she’s learned over the past week about how Redwood Mountain Grove and its 5,500-plus mature giant sequoias fared in the fire.
Brigham responded by recounting the horrific evening of Oct. 4 when, from the front porch of her Three Rivers home, she watched a large pyrocumulous cloud form over Redwood Canyon. (This is when her voice began to break.) The next day, she saw a photograph of freshly charred sequoia foliage discovered several miles away near Hume Lake.
At that point, Brigham had reason to fear the worst. However, based on the latest intel, the parks’ chief of resource management and sciences since 2015 is now optimistic that Redwood Mountain Grove and others were not overwhelmed by high-intensity flames. The kind that has killed thousands of giant sequoias since 2015.
“We dodged a bullet, that’s how I feel,” Brigham said. “Because of weather and previous prescribed burning and some really hard work by the crews on this fire, we did not see the damage that we would have if that work had not been done.”
Extreme giant sequoia damage limited
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are home to 36 giant sequoia groves, roughly half of all the giant sequoia groves on Earth. Sixteen are inside the KNP Complex Fire footprint, but aerial surveillance footage taken Tuesday under clear conditions showed only four (Redwood Mountain, Suwanee, Muir and Castle Creek) experienced what Brigham termed “high intensity crown fire.”
Furthermore, the damage appears to be localized to specific portions of those four groves and not widespread throughout them.
Regarding Redwood Mountain Grove, a popular hiking area, Brigham said photos and video showed many large monarch giant sequoias with their rounded green “broccoli tops” still intact. But there were also areas lower in the grove where destructive fire got into the tree canopies.
“I saw a photo of two large monarchs that were completely torched,” she said. “Not a needle on them.”
Brigham cautioned her observations are preliminary. Park scientists won’t know for certain how those giant sequoia groves fared until next spring or summer when they can safely access them on foot.
“We do not know anything definitively,” said Brigham, as smoke from the fire’s remaining hot spots wafted in the distance. “Sequoias are mysterious creatures. They’ve survived thousands of years. So it’s going to take a lot of work to know exactly how many sequoias died.”
Brigham has seen more than her fair share of that. In June, she and U.S. Geological Survey forest ecologist Nate Stephenson co-authored a report stating last year’s Castle Fire in Sequoia National Park and the Giant Sequoia National Monument killed between 10% and 14% of all large sequoias “across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada.”
Their startling findings prompted the formation of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, an effort between government agencies, private landowners and affiliated nonprofits to better protect these majestic trees across jurisdictional boundaries.
“It’s a very scary change”
Brigham’s affection and concern for giant sequoias was evident throughout Wednesday’s tour. At one point she likened their 12-to-18-inch-thick bark to “a big ol’ shaggy dog.” At another, she compared their fire resiliency to that knight in the Monty Python flick who keeps getting his limbs chopped off while insisting he’s fine.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” I chimed in.
“Exactly — it’s just a flesh wound,” Brigham replied with a grin. “That’s these trees.”
Giant sequoias actually require low- and moderate-intensity forest fire for the species to propagate, a service that lightning or indigenous people used to provide. However, following a century’s worth of fire management practices that left forests overloaded with fuel, combined with the effects of drought and climate change, wildfires are burning hotter than before and leaving more destruction in their wake.
Even to trees once believed to be practically impervious. Until the 2015 Rough Fire, Brigham said, it was common to see giant sequoias survive despite having 90 percent of their crowns scorched by flames. That is no longer true.
The Rough Fire was also the first time she and her colleagues observed a giant sequoia get “torched” — meaning completely burned from the inside out.
“It is getting scary,” Brigham said. “These are one of the most fire adaptive organisms on Earth. It’s a very scary change.”
Although authorities believe they’ve wrestled enough control of the KNP Complex Fire to keep it from expanding, Brigham still frets about a remote giant sequoia grove along the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River that could be at risk.
“I’m a worrier,” she said. “I worry about the trees.”
Be thankful somebody like her does.
This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 10:06 AM with the headline "‘We dodged a bullet.’ Sequoias believed largely spared by California’s KNP Complex Fire ."
