Paco Dennis
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- Mid-Missouri
Northern California - Redwoods of Mount Shasta
- Thread starter Paco Dennis
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Paco Dennis
SF VIP
- Location
- Mid-Missouri
Here is good article talking about their resilience.
"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.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 assessment from state officials that Big Basin Redwoods, California's oldest state park, had been extensively damaged." ( I grew up about 50 miles from Big Basin )
But six months later, the news from the embers isn't hopeless. Kristen Shive, the now former director of science for the Save the Redwoods League (Shive left her position just after we spoke for this story) says redwoods are sturdy trees that have evolved to survive fire. Though 2020's ferocious fires were incredibly destructive to infrastructure on public lands, other trees and wildlife, the redwoods themselves fared relatively well.
"The most important thing to understand is that coast redwoods really are some of the most resilient species on the planet," she said. "That's why they live as long as they do. And they actually are adapted to both low and high severity fire."
Bark of armor
You don't need to be a scientist like Shive to understand why redwoods have this resiliency. Instead, all you need to do is feel one with your hand. Unlike the tough, impenetrable bark on other trees, a redwood's trunk feels soft and spongy, with stringy fibers you can peel away.It may feel counterintuitive for a tree that can grow almost 400-feet high to have such soft skin, but the bark is a redwood's suit of armor, resisting not just fire, but also decay and parasites. As Sam Hodder, the president and CEO of Save The Redwoods League told me in 2019, "We can't find anything that kills a redwood."
Redwoods die when they fall over, which repeated fires can indirectly cause. As they burn at a redwood's base over hundreds of years, fires can create cavities called basal hollows. The tallest trees continue to stand even with basal hollows large enough to fit a group of people, but over time a hollow can grow too big.
"Sometimes it's just one too many fires, and [the redwood] is no longer structurally stable," Shive said. "But the fire itself doesn't really kill them.""
3 min read more
https://www.cnet.com/news/redwoods-are-made-to-survive-fire-but-they-dont-live-alone-in-the-forest/
We visited Big Basin often and strolled on the trails finding a lot of fallen hollowed out trunks and logs because of lighting strikes. I absolutely LOVE the redwood forest!