<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/23/lassen-volcanic-national-park-dixie-fire-greenville-california>
"The fire was coming.
Roughly 30 miles of dense forest withering under extreme drought stood between
Lassen Volcanic national park and the Dixie fire – land ready to ignite.
The historic town of Greenville had already been reduced to rubble by the
flames. Entire communities had fled. Jim Richardson, the park superintendent,
understood the blaze would soon be at his doorstep despite the efforts of
thousands of firefighters.
The question on his mind was what could be spared in the fire’s march across
the Sierra Nevada.
“We knew that all the fuels in the forest around us were very flammable,”
Richardson said. “Within the first two days I recognized that our park was at
risk from this fire.”
The events of August 2021 are seared into the landscape of Lassen. Hillsides
are blackened, trees are charred and toothpick-thin. A drive along the park
highway, around meandering mountains and bubbling mud pools, reveals swaths of
land reminiscent of Mordor. Fire is a part of the ecosystem here, but the park
had never before experienced one as destructive as the Dixie fire.
The blaze, California’s largest ever single fire, burned almost 70% of Lassen.
A third of the burn area saw the sort of high-severity fire that kills most
trees and bakes the nutrients from topsoil.
However, there is evidence of resilience among the devastation – sprouts
emerging from the scorched soil and the black and green mosaic of the
mountains. The recovering ecosystem in this off-the-beaten path national park
serves as a reminder of the threats to the US’s wild places and offers lessons
about how to protect public lands in an era of climate crisis."
Via
What Could Go Right? November 2, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/same-sex-marriage-world/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
