Those Sequoias Didn’t Just Get Lucky
This is what preparing for wildfires looks like.
In 1901, the naturalist John Muir wrote in this magazine that no description could capture the majesty of the giant sequoia. Of course, that didn’t stop him from trying: Muir spent some 17 pages ruminating on the tree, which he called “nature’s forest masterpiece, and, as far as I know, the greatest of living things.”
This week, Americans watched as the very same specimens that so enchanted Muir more than a century ago came under threat of wildfire. The Washburn fire, first reported nearly a week ago, continues to burn in Yosemite National Park; it has swept over more than 3,000 acres and forced evacuations of several nearby areas. The burn was
