California forests are vanishing as wildfires burn larger and more intensely
GREENVILLE, Calif. — A burn scar in Northern California offers an unsettling glimpse into what forests across the Sierra Nevada could become. Bare tree carcasses are strewn across the dun-colored hills. Rock outcroppings jut out like bones.
Two massive wildfires have torn through here over the last 15 years, burning with such intensity through so large an area that the conifer forest will likely be unable to regenerate on its own, experts say.
It's a pattern that threatens to repeat across California's most extensive and iconic mountain range as wildfires have increased in both size and severity over the last two decades.
"Because the last couple years have been so massive for fires, the forests don't have a chance to keep up or recover in time," said Jon Wang, an earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine. "There is an acceleration of the fire regime that is overwhelming these forests."
The Moonlight fire blazed a 100-square-mile footprint through these mountains in 2007. About 60% burned at high severity, killing most or all of the vegetation, said Jonathan Kusel, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Sierra Institute for Community and Environment. Swaths of conifer forest were replaced by shrubs, which increased from
