A giant California sequoia was still slowly burning in recent days after being caught in a gigantic fire that ravaged the region at the end of summer 2020, the services of the Sequoia National Park announced on Wednesday (May 5).
"Scientists and firefighters from the National Park Service were recently studying the effects of the 2020 Castle Fire in Redwood National Park when they observed a giant sequoia that was still burning and smoking
,
"
the park wrote in a statement.
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According to experts, these are the consequences of the forest fire that was triggered by lightning on August 19, 2020 and spread throughout the region.
In total, until December 2020, it is estimated that more than 700 km² of forests have gone up in smoke because of this fire.
The sequoia in question is isolated and does not present a danger for the environment or the users of the park, but this phenomenon which persists several months after the end of the fire
"shows how dry the park is"
, underlines Leif Mathiesen , fire management expert with Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, cited in the press release.
“Given the low amount of snowfall and rain this year, there could be other surprises,”
he warns.
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In the grip of a chronic drought exacerbated by climate change, the western United States suffered wildfires of an exceptional magnitude in 2020, with 33 dead and more than 17,000 km² burned in California alone. This year again, the authorities are expecting the worst and have already started to take action in the face of the drought which is coming for the second year in a row.