More than just an unnerving sign of how the climate crisis is already unfolding, these soaring forests feel like family – and I have had to report from the frontline of their demise in some of the places I cherish most. Devastating droughts and scorching temperatures have added new stressors for the giant sequoias in California, which now struggle to bounce back after extreme wildfires.
These trees evolved to thrive in flames, and old-growth stands have built-in resiliency, cultivated over lifespans that stretch for thousands of years. But severe shifts in the environment – and a century of poor management decisions that suppressed healthy fires on the landscapes – led to the huge blazes that have destroyed a stunning 20% of the giant sequoias over the last decade and limited their ability to reproduce. Enormous walls of flames, fuelled by overgrowth in vegetation and drier, hotter conditions, can climb into canopies where these trees are vulnerable, killing them and their seed source.
“Extensive field surveys have shown that sequoia reproduction has been only a fraction of what has typically been seen in the past – from as little as 1% to less than half the usual reproduction,” says Dr. Joanna Nelson, director of science and conservation planning for Save the Redwoods League.
The damage lingers long after these catastrophic fires are extinguished and the acrid air clears. Even years later, the scars remain; seas of blackened stumps puncture pastures of grasses that gently sway beneath them. As more stands are lost, the forests that once were begin to fade away. “Without giant sequoias to anchor the forest ecosystem, it will convert to non-forest habitat,” Nelson adds.
It is now estimated that fewer than 80,000 giant sequoias remain in California – a number now eclipsed by the hundreds of thousands of young trees taking root on the other side of the Atlantic in Britain. Seeded by hand, roughly 500,000 transported trees are thriving in gardens or tucked along driveways, according to a Forestry Commission estimate.
They are an appreciated addition to landscapes where they were left, but these new seedlings – still quite young after a couple centuries of growth – are a far cry from their wild ancient cousins in California. “Planting ‘collections’ of a species in botanical gardens or along avenues, like what the Victorians did,” Nelson said, “is very different from trying to establish an entire new ecosystem for the survival of threatened species.”
There are efforts under way in California to protect the trees, as federal agencies, states, and Indigenous communities work to bring good fire back to the land, and seed decimated landscapes with new growth.
Along with their picturesque stature, the trees are also crucial to maintaining healthy ecosystems in California by capturing carbon dioxide, providing a cooling effect when temperatures spike, and they are vital habitat for forest creatures. When they disappear, the landscapes will be for ever changed, along with the plants, animals, and people that have grown to depend on them.
I celebrate so many giant sequoias finding space to slowly climb into the sky, but if they are fully lost to California, the tragedy won’t be softened by the tall trees left growing in the UK.
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