Post by coolplanet on Aug 26, 2013 13:09:05 GMT -5
With Rim Fire Near, A Look Yosemite’s History with Fire
Yosemite is safe for now, but the Rim Fire is moving steadily closer.
Ker Than
for National Geographic
Published August 26, 2013
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130826-california-yosemite-national-park-rim-fire-wildfires-history-science/
A large wildfire burning in and around Yosemite National Park in California for nine days in a row, razing 134,000 acres, is one of the largest blazes in the state's history.
But the iconic national park and its environs have a long history with fire, from American Indians living in the Yosemite Valley setting fires to promote the growth of certain plants to decades of controlled burns led by the National Park Service.
Despite the efforts of more than 2,500 firefighters, the current so-called "Rim Fire" is only 7 percent contained and has led to the closure of Highway 120, a primary park entrance.
For now, the fire is confined to the park's more remote northwestern section, but close enough to two groves of giant sequoia trees, the Tuolumne Grove and Merced Grove, to prompt park officials to set sprinklers around them.
The blaze is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Yosemite Valley, far enough away that tourists visiting the park's main attractions have hardly felt its impact yet.
"It's still beautiful skies and very little smoke impact to Yosemite Valley and the park," park ranger and spokesperson Scott Gediman told the Los Angeles Times.
Located in the central Sierra Nevada of California, about 150 miles east of San Francisco, Yosemite is renowned for its natural beauty, with soaring granite pinnacles and towering waterfalls, its wildlife species—including once endangered species like the peregrine falcon and bighorn sheep—and its hundreds of miles of hiking trails.
The park is about the size of Rhode Island and attracts about 4 million visitors each year. It has been made famous by the writings and photographs of naturalists like John Muir and Ansel Adams, and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1984.
Fiery History
Fires have burned through Yosemite before. Lightning strikes spark natural blazes, and American Indians living in the valley once purposely set fires to promote the growth of plants they relied on for food, medicine, and materials to make baskets, string, and shelter.
These traditional burning practices were stopped in favor of a policy aimed at fire suppression when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill in 1864 creating the Yosemite Grant.
The grant gave California control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove, and marked the first time the federal government set aside park land specifically for preservation and public use.
In 1890, Congress passed an Act designating the land around Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as Yosemite National Park, and in 1906 those lands were united into a single national park under the protection of the federal government.
By 1970, scientists realized that the fire suppression methods that had been official policy in Yosemite since the park's inception were actually doing more harm than good. The lack of natural fires caused by lightning had led to overgrown and unhealthy forests that made them more vulnerable to larger, more dangerous fires.
As a result, the National Park Service has for the past 40 years conducted carefully managed "prescribed burns" to clear unsafe accumulations of dead wood and for ecological restoration purposes.
The effects of these fires still fall far short of what scientists think once occurred naturally, however. It's estimated that an average of 16,000 of Yosemite's 747,000 acres may have burned under natural conditions in the park each year. Since the 1970s, prescribed fires have burned between 12,200 and 15,600 acres per decade.
'Highest Priority'
The size of the Rim Fire and its proximity to Yosemite led U.S. Forest Service Dick Fleishman to call it the "highest priority fire in the country right now."
Yosemite National Park is "not just a national treasure, it's a world treasure," Fleishman told USA Today.
Despite increasing concerns about the growth of the blaze, Yosemite National Park Spokesman Tom Medema insisted Yosemite Valley is not under any imminent threat at the moment.
It would take "days and days and weeks" for the fire to get that far, Medema said.
Yosemite is safe for now, but the Rim Fire is moving steadily closer.
Ker Than
for National Geographic
Published August 26, 2013
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130826-california-yosemite-national-park-rim-fire-wildfires-history-science/
A large wildfire burning in and around Yosemite National Park in California for nine days in a row, razing 134,000 acres, is one of the largest blazes in the state's history.
But the iconic national park and its environs have a long history with fire, from American Indians living in the Yosemite Valley setting fires to promote the growth of certain plants to decades of controlled burns led by the National Park Service.
Despite the efforts of more than 2,500 firefighters, the current so-called "Rim Fire" is only 7 percent contained and has led to the closure of Highway 120, a primary park entrance.
For now, the fire is confined to the park's more remote northwestern section, but close enough to two groves of giant sequoia trees, the Tuolumne Grove and Merced Grove, to prompt park officials to set sprinklers around them.
The blaze is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Yosemite Valley, far enough away that tourists visiting the park's main attractions have hardly felt its impact yet.
"It's still beautiful skies and very little smoke impact to Yosemite Valley and the park," park ranger and spokesperson Scott Gediman told the Los Angeles Times.
Located in the central Sierra Nevada of California, about 150 miles east of San Francisco, Yosemite is renowned for its natural beauty, with soaring granite pinnacles and towering waterfalls, its wildlife species—including once endangered species like the peregrine falcon and bighorn sheep—and its hundreds of miles of hiking trails.
The park is about the size of Rhode Island and attracts about 4 million visitors each year. It has been made famous by the writings and photographs of naturalists like John Muir and Ansel Adams, and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1984.
Fiery History
Fires have burned through Yosemite before. Lightning strikes spark natural blazes, and American Indians living in the valley once purposely set fires to promote the growth of plants they relied on for food, medicine, and materials to make baskets, string, and shelter.
These traditional burning practices were stopped in favor of a policy aimed at fire suppression when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill in 1864 creating the Yosemite Grant.
The grant gave California control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove, and marked the first time the federal government set aside park land specifically for preservation and public use.
In 1890, Congress passed an Act designating the land around Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as Yosemite National Park, and in 1906 those lands were united into a single national park under the protection of the federal government.
By 1970, scientists realized that the fire suppression methods that had been official policy in Yosemite since the park's inception were actually doing more harm than good. The lack of natural fires caused by lightning had led to overgrown and unhealthy forests that made them more vulnerable to larger, more dangerous fires.
As a result, the National Park Service has for the past 40 years conducted carefully managed "prescribed burns" to clear unsafe accumulations of dead wood and for ecological restoration purposes.
The effects of these fires still fall far short of what scientists think once occurred naturally, however. It's estimated that an average of 16,000 of Yosemite's 747,000 acres may have burned under natural conditions in the park each year. Since the 1970s, prescribed fires have burned between 12,200 and 15,600 acres per decade.
'Highest Priority'
The size of the Rim Fire and its proximity to Yosemite led U.S. Forest Service Dick Fleishman to call it the "highest priority fire in the country right now."
Yosemite National Park is "not just a national treasure, it's a world treasure," Fleishman told USA Today.
Despite increasing concerns about the growth of the blaze, Yosemite National Park Spokesman Tom Medema insisted Yosemite Valley is not under any imminent threat at the moment.
It would take "days and days and weeks" for the fire to get that far, Medema said.