The best way to save giant sequoias may be more fire
A UC Davis study indicates that prescribed burns are highly effective at protecting giant sequoias from extreme wildfires. Trees in areas treated with controlled fire were significantly more likely to survive recent major California wildfires.
Why it matters
As climate change increases wildfire intensity, prescribed burning has become a critical management strategy for preserving ancient ecosystems.
Two devastating wildfires that swept through California's Sierra Nevada in 2020 and 2021 killed thousands of giant sequoias. A new University of California, Davis study suggests the losses would have been far worse without prescribed burns.
Published in Nature Communications , the research found that giant sequoias exposed to prescribed fire during the previous 10 years were nearly four times more likely to survive the 2020 Castle Fire and the 2021 KNP Complex Fire than nearby untreated trees.
"Prescribed burns are effective at reducing giant sequoia mortality, even for today's extreme wildfires," said lead author Dan Dixon, who was a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher in Professor Yufang Jin's lab when the study was conducted. "If the goal is protecting giant sequoias, prescribed fire is an essential tool available to managers."
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in