Firefighters have wrapped giant sequoias, the world's tallest trees, in fireproof blankets to protect them from the wildfires ravaging chronically drought-stricken California.
A grove of these trees several hundred years old, including the "General Sherman" and his 83 meters high, considered the most voluminous tree in the world, received the visit of firefighters who rolled up the base of the trunks of leaves of aluminum in case the flames threaten these ancient trees.
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Some 2,000 firefighters in total are mobilized in the area of Sequoia National Park, in central California, to clear brush and pre-position gear there.
"They are taking extraordinary measures to protect these trees,"
said one of the park officials, Christy Brigham, as quoted by the Mercury News daily.
“We really want to do everything possible to protect these trees that are 2,000 to 3,000 years old,” she
emphasizes.
Thousands of square kilometers of forest have already burned this year in California.
The number and intensity of fires have increased in recent years throughout the western United States, with a marked lengthening of the fire season.
According to experts, this phenomenon is particularly linked to global warming: the increase in temperature, the increase in heat waves and the drop in precipitation in places form an ideal incendiary cocktail.
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Two fires burned Thursday, September 16 near the "Giant Forest" of Sequoia Park, which is home to five of the largest trees known in the world, including "General Sherman", and normally attracts tens of thousands of tourists. Low intensity fires are generally not sufficient to harm giant sequoias, adapted to these disasters with their very thick bark and their branches located high up, out of the reach of the flames. On the contrary, these trees need fires to reproduce: the heat of the flames bursts the cones like popcorn to release hundreds of seeds.
But these giants, which only grow in California on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, are not on the other hand adapted to survive the more intense fires that have broken out in recent years thanks to climate change. According to the firefighters on site, the flames are now reaching unprecedented heights, and are burning at altitudes previously unthinkable.
"In climatological terms, we are in
uncharted waters
"
, worries Crystal Kolden, fire specialist at the University of California at Merced, quoted by the Los Angeles Times. Last May, experts were surprised to discover a giant sequoia slowly burning, like a log in the fireplace, after being caught in a gigantic fire that had ravaged the region nine months earlier.