CA's Oldest State Park Was Devastated In The 2020 Fire Season

Santa Cruz CA

08 December, 2020

8:44 PM

Description

BIG BASIN, CA — California's largest fire season on record didn't just burn through 4.1 million acres and displace tens of thousands from their homes — it also ravaged California's oldest state park. Big Basin Redwoods was devastated by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. The fire burned 97 percent of Big Basin's 18,000 acres of land, ripping through 4,400 acres of ancient redwoods, NPR Reported. The park now resembles something of a logging village more than the popular hiking and camping destination it has been. As rangers work to chop down trees deemed hazardous, there's a consistent rumbling of trucks and buzzing of chainsaws, NPR reported. "All of the historic structures in the park, totally destroyed, save one residence," Joanne Kerbavaz, a state park senior environmental scientist told NPR. Read more from National Public Radio: California's Ancient Redwoods Face New Challenge From Wildfires And Warming Climate Similarly, hundreds of giant sequoia trees were lost with many more marred with burnt trunks and broken branches by the Castle Fire. The fire burned through the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and charred through nearly 20 giant sequoia groves in the Alder Creek Grove area, the Los Angeles Times reported. That fire burned more than 174,000 acres of land in portions of the Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia National Park and beyond, according to the United States Forest Service. Both sequoia and redwood trees are ancient and are among the tallest on Earth. And while many of these trees did survive the fire, as they are designed to withstand wildfires, scientists now worry that these trees will face new challenges in California's La Nina winter. In dry, hot conditions and radically changing weather, these trees could have a harder time regenerating.