Flames reach the giant forest, threatening the world’s tallest tree

Flames from a growing wildfire reached the Giant Forest, California’s most famous grove of giant sequoias, late Friday night.

Mark Garrett, a fire information officer, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the blaze crossed General’s Highway in Sequoia National Park and approached the giant forest. Some of the crews trying to prepare the area before the fire also fled, he said.

The arrival of the flames in the iconic area was also published by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who tweeted that officials hope preparations, including wrapping some trees in flame-retardant aluminum blankets and controlled burns in some areas, would save the grove, home to the General Sherman Tree, the world’s largest.

While much attention has been focused on the most famous section of the park, however, other groves of ancient trees, many of which reach 200 feet tall and are at least 2,000 years old, have started to burn more early.

“These groves are just as impressive and just as ecologically important to the forest,” Tim Borden, manager of redwood restoration and stewardship at Save the Redwoods League, an environmental group in San Francisco, told The Mercury News. “They just aren’t that well-known. My heart sinks when I think about it.

California is home to about 70 groves of giant sequoias, the only place they grow.

Last year, wildfires killed an estimated 7,500 to 10,600 large redwoods, or about 10 to 14 percent of all redwoods in the world, the Associated Press reported.