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. 

Giant Sequoias Greatly Endangered By Forest Management, Climate Change And Current Fire

The famed General Sherman sequoia, probably
2,500 years old, wrapped in aluminum foil
in an attempt to save it from an oncoming
wildfire this week. Photo from National
Park Service.

It comes down to this now, apparently.

We're killing living things that are thousands of years old through climate change. Wildfires are closing in on California's giant sequoias as I write this. 

As the BBC reports:

"Officials fear the fire could reach the Giant Forest, a grove of some of the world's biggest trees, within hours. 

The forest hosts some 2,000 sequoias, including the 275-foot General Sherman, the biggest tree by volume on Earth and about 2,500 years old."

In desperation, crews have wrapped the base of the General Sherman and other giant sequoias in aluminum foil in a last ditch attempt to save them. 

Sequoias are actually pretty fire resistant.  Over the centuries, many wildfires have burned through sequoia groves. 

But those fires burned along the ground, perhaps scorching the lower trunks of these trees but leaving the mid and upper parts of the trees green.  Sequoias usually lack lower branches that can catch fire and then spread flames upward through the tree.

All this leaves sequoias pretty much intact in a wildfire.  

What's new is the and aggressive wildfires that have roared across California in recent years. These fires are so intense that an entire sequoia can go up in flames as flames shoot ridiculously skyward. Those flames burn entire sequoias, destroying them.

A combination of poor forest management that allowed dense, flammable undergrowth to flourish, and climate change, threatens the existence of sequoias.

Since sequoias have a storied relationship with Americans, that would be yet another big climate change tragedy on top of many others.

Last year, an intense wildfire killed more than 10,000 sequoias, representing nearly 14 percent of the world's population of these trees, noted NPR in a report aired this morning. The dead sequoias are now black, tragic, immense dead poles sticking high up into the air. 

With the new fire looming today, all we can do is hope that firefighters can keep the most destructive flames at bay and save the sequoias, including the beloved General Sherman. 

January Windstorm Trashed Yosemite's Sequoias

A giant sequoia toppled in a January 18 storm 
in Yosemite National Park 

A mid-January wind storm that swept California, causing widespread damage, really hit Yosemite National Park hard.  

Sadly, at least 15 giant sequoias were uprooted and crashed to the ground as winds reached 80 mph. 

Initially two of Yosemite's sequoias were reported to have been destroyed, but that number, after further assessments, is up to 15.

Yosemite National Park is still closed, at least through Monday, as there is widespread damage to buildings and trees. 

As the San Jose Mercury News reports, the trees were in the famous Mariposa Grove, a big patch of Sequoias that have drawn millions of visitors to the park over the years.

Reports the Mercury News: "'We have extensive damage in the park,' said Scott Gediman, a Yosemite Park spokesman. "Millions and millions of dollars. There could be more giant sequoias down. We are continuing the damage assessment."

The trees in the Mariposa grove are up to 285 feet tall, with bark more than a foot thick.  Some of the trees are 2,000 years old. They were there when Julius Caesar ruled the Roman Empire. 

The grove has about 500 mature sequoias, so about three percent of the grove died in the storm.  No other single storm in at least the past 156 years have knocked over so many sequoias.

The park had largely been evacuated before the storm, so few people were around when they fell, But you can imagine the noise they made when they did fall. 

The January 18 storm produced winds of up to 100 mph in parts of the national park. The storm damaged a lodge, restrooms, a boardwalk, about 20 employee homes and about 20 cars. The Mercury News said it will be months before the Mariposa Grove will reopen to the public. 

Last summer, a wildfire near Santa Cruz burned hundreds of enormous redwood trees. Thankfully, most of those seem to be producing new green shoots and are expected to survive.