Thread by @ezraromero, I fell inw/giant sequoias as a kid. We lived in a farm [...]

I fell in

w/giant sequoias as a kid. We lived in a farm town an hr away from the big trees. I've camped under them, hiked through them, took dates to see them.

But climate change (drought, fires & now beetles) are threatening them. Here's a bit of my love affair with the trees.

I fell inw/giant sequoias as a kid. We lived in a farm town an hr away from the big trees. I've camped under them, hiked through them, took dates to see them.But climate change (drought, fires & now beetles) are threatening them. Here's a bit of my love affair with the trees.

Five years ago @UCBerkeley researchers began scaling giant sequoias to measure how drought harmed them. Turns out it sorta of got to them, but wasn't as harmful as expected.

We harpooned a giant sequoia, the most fun I've ever had on a story. @KVPR @NPR https://www.npr.org/2015/08/17/432265475/to-measure-droughts-reach-researchers-scale-the-mighty-sequoia

To Measure Drought's Reach, Researchers Scale The Mighty Sequoia

After a scientist on a hike in Sequoia National Park saw trees with thin and browning needles, it got scientists thinking: Did the drought cause this? So they're climbing up them to study the damage.

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/17/432265475/to-measure-droughts-reach-researchers-scale-the-mighty-sequoia

A year later after the Rough Fire in the mountains east of Fresno baby giant sequoia seedlings began taking root.

“There are a lot of the sequoia groves that burned in the Rough Fire that had never seen fire,” Tony Caprio @SequoiaKingsNPS

@KVPR

https://www.kvpr.org/post/months-after-rough-fire-millions-giant-sequoia-seedlings-take-root#stream/0

In 2017 Pres. Trump's Department of Interior wanted to remove monument status from Giant Sequoia National Park.

Carla Cloer, then 74, dedicated her life to the ancient trees.“If I have the energy I will keep fighting if the worst comes to pass."

@KVPR

https://www.kvpr.org/post/under-review-whats-stake-giant-sequoia-national-monument#stream/0

In 2018, @YosemiteNPS reopened the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias so people wouldn't trample roots. I talk about it with @EineKleineKerry in @CapRadioNews' YosemiteLand podcast.

https://www.capradio.org/yosemiteland

Then this year wildfire may have killed a THOUSAND giant sequoias in one series of fires. @SequoiaKingsNPS says around 300 dead so far.

“The trees just got wiped out in a way that is unprecedented ... it's like watching elephants go extinct.” Christy Brigham, science chief

Part of the problem is giant sequoias are not mapped well, says US Forest Service Ecologist @Wuenschenleiner .

“It would be wonderful if we had maps of the groves/of all the individual trees so we could just check them out using satellite imagery now, but we don't have those."

Now native bark beetles are attacking some of the trees. They're not the same beetles that killed 129 million pines in the drought.

USGS' Nate Stephenson is trying to understand if there are ways to control them while not "accidentally make trees more vulnerable to it."

The good news is there are solutions to all this, says @klshive @savetheredwoods.

1. Climate Action, Immediate and future
2. Prescribed burns and thinning forests. First in the groves in the best condition.

For more detail check out my @CapRadioNews story:

“This threat is real and it's big, and we are on the verge of continuing to lose a lot of the world's ancient giant sequoias if we don't act. - @klshive https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/12/10/after-drought-and-wildfires-californias-great-sequoias-face-a-new-enemy-bark-beetles/

After Drought And Wildfires, California’s Giant Sequoias Face A New Enemy: Bark Beetles

A few years ago Giant Sequoias drought threatened Giant Sequoias, but the trees mostly won. This year wildfire killed hundreds of the ancient trees, and now a new threat is here: bark beetles that...

https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/12/10/after-drought-and-wildfires-californias-great-sequoias-face-a-new-enemy-bark-beetles/

Never have I ever (until today) had people tell me a digital story made them cry and they had to put it down and come back to it. But how wildfire is killing giant sequoias is moving people. This is why climate action and wildfire prevention is so needed. Gems are disappearing.

Also, check out this way cool interactive story by @nytclimate: They're Among the World's Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them.

Story: @JohnBranchNYT
Photos: Max Whittaker
Interactive: @veronica_penney https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/09/climate/redwood-sequoia-tree-fire.html

They’re Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them.

California’s redwoods, sequoias and Joshua trees define the American West and nature’s resilience through the ages. Wildfires this year were their deadliest test.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/09/climate/redwood-sequoia-tree-fire.html

And this incredibly descriptive @latimes story by @boxall.

"There were no sounds of life on this fire-ravaged mountainside in the McIntyre Grove, one of the monument areas hardest hit by the Castle fire." https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-11-16/sierra-nevada-giant-sequoias-killed-castle-fire

Hundreds of towering giant sequoias killed by the Castle fire — a stunning loss

This year's Castle fire killed hundreds of giant sequoias, the latest in a string of Sierra Nevada wildfires that is taking an alarming toll on the world's most massive trees.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-11-16/sierra-nevada-giant-sequoias-killed-castle-fire

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