{"id":140273,"date":"2020-09-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/?p=140273"},"modified":"2020-09-28T10:19:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T17:19:31","slug":"california-asbestos-forests-no-longer-immune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/_ko\/environment\/2020\/09\/california-asbestos-forests-no-longer-immune\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s ancient ‘asbestos’ forests no longer seem immune"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\uc694\uc57d\ud574\uc11c<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

The North Coast\u2019s rainforests are hotter, drier and less foggy. That means more dangerous fires that can scar iconic redwoods.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n

In the annals of California\u2019s wildfire history, so much is happening now that seems unfathomable: The number and size of this year\u2019s fires \u2014 and their maddingly erratic behaviors \u2014 have created the worst season in the state\u2019s modern history. Nearly 4 million acres have already burned, killing 26 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what has stunned  officials most about the state\u2019s 8,000 fires is the location of the largest blazes: sizzling deep in stands of redwoods along what should be a fog-shrouded rainforest. The state\u2019s oldest park, Big Basin Redwoods<\/a>, was gutted by fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers now worry that historic fire cycles are so far off kilter<\/a> that even California\u2019s \u201casbestos forests\u201d \u2014 its millenia-old, misty coastal forests \u2014 have lost their limited immunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis idea that there are places that we can live in California that are safe from fire is a pipe dream,\u201d said Crystal Kolden<\/a>, a wildfire researcher at UC Merced. \u201cThe only places in California that are ‘safe’ from (wild)fire are places with no flammable vegetation \u2014 the urban core, the middle of Death Valley. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Woman standing on a trail looking up at a grove of giant Sequoia trees at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Photo via iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The North Coast\u2019s trees \u2014 redwoods, oaks and sequoias \u2014 stand as a metaphor for power and resilience. Novelist John Steinbeck called redwoods \u201cambassadors from another time.\u201d It\u2019s not hyperbole: Coastal redwoods are the tallest living things on the planet, soaring up to 300 feet and living 1,000 years or more, and only growing in the ridges and valleys facing the Pacific, running from Big Sur in the south to the Oregon border in the north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home to mountain lions, bears, salmon and rare spotted owls and seabirds, the dense stands are now under attack from the same menace that stalks much of the state: wildfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a collective sensation that we are reaching a tipping point,\u201d  said Lenya Quinn-Davidson<\/a>, a fire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension. \u201cThis year was not just the fluke burning horrifically. This is 3.2 million acres of fire that burned in a month. It was complete triage and disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warmer nights and dried-out trees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Five of the six largest fires in California history<\/a> have occurred this summer. Climate change has been amplifying these extreme fires, abetted by extended drought, record heat waves and an epidemic of millions of dying trees<\/a>, according to climate and fire scientists. August was the hottest month in California history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coastline is experiencing less fog and higher summer temperatures<\/a>, especially at night. Lightning was responsible for sparking the state\u2019s largest fire,<\/a> which has already charred more than 1,300 square miles of the North Coast\u2019s forests since mid-August and is still burning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only places in California that are \u201csafe\u201d from (wild)fire are places with no flammable vegetation\u2014the urban core, the middle of Death Valley. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>Crystal Kolden, wildfire researcher at UC Merced<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But rather than an anomalous freak of weather creating once-in-a-decade wildfires, experts say the recent blazes provide a vision of a future with much more fire endangering the North Coast\u2019s pine and oak forests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re starting to see fires and devastating type of activities in the redwoods, which doesn’t happen. In our lifetimes, this has not happened,\u201d Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter recently told CNN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancient conifers and oaks of the North Coast are historically so resilient to fire that they are known as \u201casbestos forests.\u201d Fire has long been part of the coastal landscape, yet the typical low-intensity burns don\u2019t permanently harm redwoods because they are armored in two-foot-thick bark. But uncontrolled fire among giant trees is a more urgent matter that poses a new danger to the forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a long-held belief that redwood forests just don\u2019t burn or are resistant to fire. Not true,\u201d  said Angela Bernheisel, a Cal Fire Division Chief in the San Mateo\/Santa Cruz Unit, where multiple fires are burning in coastal zones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the recent high-severity fires are not likely to kill entire forests. Older, larger trees can withstand scorching. Park officials<\/a> at Big Basin Redwoods said that flames burned the understory but the tallest trees are expected to recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Bernheisel said the ferocity of this year\u2019s fires in the big trees should sound an alarm about the changes underway in California\u2019s forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy hope is that this fire and the new awareness that people have of the risk that is out there will actually move people to action,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a big backlog of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cwork\u201d is  the expensive and time-consuming task of burning or cutting through millions of acres of overgrown tracts, some of them untouched by any modern management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n