Two Varieties Of Iconic Western Trees Fall Victim To This Year's Heat

Many of us probably remember Looney Tunes Coyote
and Road Runner cartoons that very often had images
of Saguaro cactus, like in this scene with the
ever-present falling ACME anvil. It got too 
hot in Arizona this year for even some Saguaros to
survive the heat. 

 Saguaro cactus, those iconic big cactus in the American Southwest -  you know, the kind that were in the background of the Looney Toons Coyote and Road Runner cartoons - are falling victim to, of all things, Arizona head.

Meanwhile, another iconic tree - Joshua trees - burned in a wildfire sweeping though the Mohave Desert. 

SAGUARO CRISIS

We already told you about the relentless heat in Phoenix during July, which caused deaths from the scorching temperatures. And serious injuries to people burned through contact with hot asphalt. 

Turns out that Saguaro cacti, though built for extreme desert heat, found this summer's scorching temperatures to much for even them. 

Even though Saguaro do fine in hot weather, they need the desert air to cool somewhat to recharge, or they will suffer internal damage. Not only did Arizona experience a record long period with daily temperatures above 110, nights were also blazing hot. 

The temperature was continuously above 90 degrees in Phoenix from July 10 through the 30th. That was too warm for the cacti to adequately recover. 

Plus, even cactus need some water. The Arizona monsoon season should late.  That's when low pressure created by desert heat eventually pulls in moisture from the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, triggering thunderstorms. 

Those monsoon thunderstorms have been few and far between so far. Phoenix only had a trace of rain in July, a month that normally brings the city just under an inch of rain. 

 It has gotten a bit cooler, relatively speaking, and there is an increasing chance of monsoon storms as we go through this week. But the damage has already been done.  

The exceptional heat and dryness have caused some saguaro to lean, collapse or lose limbs. On others that appear to still be OK, internal damage caused by the heat could kill them within months or a few years.  

JOSHUA TREES

Another iconic part of nature in the Southwest is the Joshua Tree. If you need a reminder of what they look like, consult the cover of the famous 1987 U2 album "The Joshua Tree."

The so-called York Fire burned through the Mohave Desert at the beginning of this month, destroying many of these trees.   

This Joshua tree was used as the model for the artwork on
U2's The Joshua Tree album from 1987. Some idiot
vandalized and destroyed it back in 2015. A wildfire this
summer destroyed thousands more of this iconic tree,
and it's overall survival as a species is in question. 

According to CNN: 

"The Mohave National Preserve is a significant hotspot for diversity, with one conservationist calling it the 'crown jewel' of the deserts of Southern California. Joshua Trees only grow in the Desert Southwest and far northwestern Mexico, and one of the densest Joshua tree forests is within the burn area, Cody Hanford, executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust told CNN."

Joshua trees evolved in a place that historically never had many wildfires. Now there are plenty of them. 

Climate change has made some winters wetter, which increases levels of invasive grass in the desert. The deserts dry out in the summer, the grasses catch fire, and those blazes spread to the Joshua Trees. 

They are easily destroyed when a fire breaks out.  Major fires in 2005 and 2020 took out several other Joshua tree groves.    

In this case most recent case,  we don't know what percent of the Joshua Tree population was destroyed.  The fire as of Monday was 93 percent contained, which is good news, but it will take time to go through and see what was lost. 

Says CNN:

"'If an area with Joshua trees burns through, most will not survive and reproduction in that area is made more difficult,' the National Park Service says. 'Wildfires could also result in the loss of irreplaceable resources in the park, like historic structures and cultural artifacts."

The Washington Post estimated several thousand Joshua trees were probably lost in this summer's fire. Unlike some tree species, Joshua rarely survive fires.  

A new law has protected some Joshua trees from sprawl and development which have also endangered the species. But with fires now an ever growing threat, it's possible Joshua trees will be no gone sometime in the foreseeable future. 

Another iconic loss in the world of humans crushing some environments, and climate change contributing to make everything worse. 

 

Two Iconic National Parks Suffer Big Time Under Climate Related Disasters This Summer

Firefighters spray water around a giant
Sequoia last weekas part of the efforts to
fend off a wildfire that was threatening a
grove of these ancient trees in 
Yosemite National Park 

 Two of the most iconic National Parks in the United States are Yellowstone and Yosemite. 

Both are suffering serious damage, and tourists are being turned away due to separate climate related disasters. A fire is burning in Yosemite National Park in California. Yellowstone National Park is still picking up the pieces from extreme floods back in June. We''ll go to California first, then check out Yellowstone: 

YOSEMITE SEQUOIAS THREATENED

A possible worst case scenario in Yosemite looks like it was avoided this past week. i The so-called Washburn fire is threatened the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. The grove is home to about 500 mature giant sequoias. These are some of the largest and oldest living things on Earth. A few of the trees in the Mariposa Grove are probably nearly 3,000 years old, which is mind-boggling to me. 

Some of these Sequoias are over 260 feet tall and have a trunk circumference of 25 to 32 feet. So, they're the height of a good 18-story building. If a 72-passenger bus parked directly in front of one of these trees, it would just barely obscure the trunk of one of these trees.

 Firefighters were pulling out all the stops to save these trees from damage.

The fire was stubborn, burning in steep terrain with lots of dead and downed fuels in the fire, said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokeswoman quoted in the Washington Post. So this fire couldn't be contained   easily, especially considering we're at the start of peak California fire season and no rain is in the forecast. 

 According to the Washington Post:

"Fire management staffers were working to preserve the trees by removing fuels around the sequoias ad using sprinkler systems to increase humidity around the trees, among other things, according to Phillipe. She told the Associated Press that first responders were  using 'every tactic imaginable' to contain the blaze, including airdropping fire retardant."

Though it looks like the sequoias were spared this time, they remain in danger from future fires and climate change. Fires since 2020 have killed roughly 15 percent of all sequoias. So they're losing a war of attrition from fires, drought and climate change.  

The fire itself was still burning and spreading at last report, and experts say it will be weeks before they can extinguish it. 

YELLOWSTONE

Also, I'm sure you've seen news reports of the immense flooding in Yellowstone National Park back in June. 

A house near Yellowstone National Park destroyed by
massive June flooding. The park itself suffered 
extensive damage in the flood and it could take years
to fully recover from the disaster.

Amazingly no deaths were reported with the massive floods in and around Yellowstone in June just as the park was approaching its 150th anniversary.

Parts of the park are back open, and a fair number of tourists can visit large swaths of the area. But roads leading to and near the park were utterly destroyed, and countless trails within the park were also badly damaged.

It is estimated it will take years and a good $1 billion  to get the park back in shape. Even then, it might not ever be back to the way it was. 

According to the Associated Press:

"'This is not going to be an easy rebuild,' Superintendent Cam Sholly said ....as he highlighted photos of massive gaps of roadway in the steep canyon. 'I don't think it's going to be smart to invest potentially, you know, tens of millions of dollars, or however much it is, into repairing a road that may be subject to seeing a similar flooding event in the future.'"

 Here's why they're worried about equally serious floods in the future. The Yellowstone flood might have been related to climate change, it's frankly hard to tell for sure until scientists do a review of what happened. 

A cool, wet late spring built up a snowpack in the mountains. Then it abruptly turned hot, and then deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico triggered torrential rains. The result was the huge flood.

Overall, though, climate change is increasing the chances and the magnitude of droughts and floods (Yellowstone was technically experiencing a drought when the deluge hit in June). With climate change, rainfall in the west is expected to become more and more unreliable. However, when it does rain, it's more likely to come in huge deluges instead of manageable showers.