Fire and Trees
I wrote a trees vs. fire piece the East Bay Express published two weeks ago . It appears to be affecting others' fire reportage in the region . Here's the S.F. Chronicle today, with more specificity of what burned and what didn't in the Big Basin Fire: More than 90% of the park’s countless redwoods, which can grow 300 feet tall and live for 2,000 years, survived the fire. Their foot-thick bark warded off flames even as most of the giants are now saddled with large black scars on their trunks. The forest’s Douglas fir and tan oak didn’t fare as well. Large swaths of mountainside are filled with crisp, copper-colored trees and scorched brown earth. Roughly 97% of the 18,000-acre park burned. Still, across much of the forest, new shoots of redwoods and other trees have begun to poke through the moonscape, offering a glimpse of the greening that is sure to accelerate. Room for fire reportage improvement remains. Those young green shoots are more vulnerable to fire than the ...