The Shadow
High temperatures and the scarcity of rain from May through Sept. each year in Yosemite National Park sets the stage for raging wildfires each year like the one currently threatening the old-growth forest.
Visitors, hiking near the park’s Washburn Trail in a grove near the south entrance to the park, spotted the smoke from the fire near the end of the first week of July and reported it to authorities.
Yosemite National Park officials evacuated hundreds of people from the area, and a crew used fire-resistant foil to wrap some of the 3,000-year-old trees that by volume are the biggest in the U.S.
Also, orders were issued by park rangers to Wawone and Wawona Campground to evacuate to the north of the park into Yosemite Valley because the southern entrance to the park at Wawone Golf Course was closed to traffic.
The wildfire had consumed 446 acres by Fri., July 8, but the 500 giant redwoods, a central attraction for visitors, had been protected from the blaze that by Sat. July 9, had yet to be extinguished.
Of the estimated 75,000 sequoias that grew in California’s Sierra Nevada range, an estimated 20 percent of them have been destroyed in recent years by wildfires.
Park authorities did not know the cause of the wildfire, and the cause is under investigation. No lightning strikes were observed that may have caused the blaze.
The area where the fire broke out had undergone a $40 million restoration that was completed in 2018 after the area was closed to the public in 2015.
A park official pointed to the buildup of undergrowth over the years that is making the task of extinguishing the fire more difficult.
Two helicopters have been dropping water onto the blaze, and one tanker aircraft has been dumping flame retardants on the area.
The famous Grizzly Giant, one of the park’s largest sequoias, has not been damaged.
Yosemite National Park is the size of R.I., and it contains 1,600 miles of streams, including the Merced River that flows past El Capitan, the world’s largest granite monolith.
The park also features Yosemite Falls, a 2,425-foot waterfall, and 800 miles of hiking trails through the more than 300 square miles of old-growth forest.
More than 400 species of vertebrates dwell within the park.
The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 to advocate for conservation and protection of Yosemite that now has 214 miles of paved roads running through it, many curving past some of the 800 ponds located within the park.
As of Sat., July 9, no reports of severe damage to the grove of 500 sequoias had been reported, and the northern section of the park remained open.
