The nature park announced on Sunday that a forest fire out of control for three days in Yosemite Park, California (western United States) is now threatening the giant sequoia.
“It currently covers 644 hectares and nothing is stopping it,” said the fire, which has reached Mariposa Grove (“The Butterfly Grove”), the park’s most valuable area because it contains hundreds of the world’s largest redwoods. The park pointed out that 360 firefighters were mobilized.
A team prepares the ‘Grizzly Giant’ – the garden’s most famous, adorable and adorable giant sequoia – to approach the flames by constantly watering them.
“At 209 feet (64 m), it is the second tallest in Yosemite,” says the park, which broadcasts measures taken to protect it on social networks.
Giant sequoia trees are some of the most fire-resistant and have managed to survive for thousands of years.
But severe droughts and wildfires now lasting longer could take their toll. This is how 10,000 of them – about 14% of the total number of redwoods in the world – perished in 2020 in a major fire.
“Given the burning conditions and wildfires that we’re talking about, we expect we’ll have another four, five or six very difficult months,” California fire official Brian Venessy warned in June.
This area of Yosemite Park was largely redeveloped and reopened in 2018.
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