Rising seas, worsening wildfires endanger California parks cbs8.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbs8.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Climate change will make forests more susceptible to extreme wildfires. By 2100, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, one study found that the frequency of extreme wildfires burning over approximately 25,000 acres would increase by nearly 50 percent, and that average area burned statewide would increase by 77 percent by the end of the century. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (2018)
Even those deeply familiar with every woody acre of Big Basin Redwoods home to ancient trees of such stature that many are named and curated the aftermath was unsettling.
“Going back into the park for the first time, it was very hard to believe what I was seeing,” said Chris Spohrer, state parks superintendent for the Santa Cruz region. “To see what a fire of that intensity could do was disorienting. The landmarks were gone, the colors were monochromatic. It took several visits for it to sink in, to get your bearings. It was shocking.”
Redwoods are made to survive fire, but they don t live alone in the forest
While California s redwood trees didn t completely escape the effects of 2020 s huge wildfires, damage to the surrounding environment is a more pressing concern. Listen - 05:15
Redwood trees are just one part of California s coastal forestlands. James Martin/CNET
When four of the five largest wildfires in California s history were ablaze simultaneously late last summer, it certainly felt apocalyptic for the state s coastal redwoods.
Beyond burning more than 2 million acres and destroying thousands of homes and structures, the fires swept through pristine redwood groves, many with old-growth trees that had been standing before non-native settlers arrived on the West Coast hundreds of years ago. The images of flames climbing some of the largest and oldest living things on Earth were sobering, as was an assessm
Fire-damaged Big Basin receives $543,000 in donations for recovery [San Francisco Chronicle]
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Donors concerned about the recent brutal fire damage to California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods, have donated more than half a million dollars towards its recovery.
According to a Wednesday press release, two Bay Area nonprofits Save the Redwoods League and Sempervirens Fund have together raised $543,000 to date to help restore the 118-year-old locally famous park, which was hit hard by fall wildfires that swept through the Santa Cruz Mountains. The CZU Complex fires in August burned more than 86,000 acres in the region and tore through the park, destroying the visitor center, headquarters and museum and charring redwoods, firs and oak trees.
Fire-damaged Big Basin receives $543,000 in donations for recovery
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1of3Governor Gavin Newsom, left, listens as Santa Cruz State Park Superintendent Chris Spohrer, right, talks about the fire damage to Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 in Boulder Creek, Calif.LiPo Ching/Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
2of3Santa Cruz State Park Superintendent Chris Spohrer, talks about the fire damage to the amphitheater at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 in Boulder Creek, Calif.LiPo Ching/Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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The fireplace of the Nature Lodge Museum and Store at Big Basin Redwoods State Park stands among the devastation Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, in Boulder Creek, Calif., wrought by the CZU August Lightning Complex, which destroyed nearly all buildings and burned thousands of trees at the park.Shmuel Thler / APShow MoreShow Less