{"id":17031,"date":"2011-12-02T15:51:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T23:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=17031"},"modified":"2018-02-01T23:59:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:59:06","slug":"can-giant-sequoias-survive-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/12\/02\/can-giant-sequoias-survive-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Giant Sequoias Survive the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fragile seedlings are highly vulnerable to drought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hear my companion radio feature<\/a> on The California Report weekly magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Giant sequoias naturally grow only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When William Tweed talks about giant sequoias, he doesn’t beat around the bush.<\/p>\n

“Sequoias capture human interest because they’re the perfect thing,” says the writer<\/a>, historian, and former National Park Service ranger. “They’re the world’s largest trees. We humans like big stuff. They\u2019re also exceedingly old, and they also charm us because they’re rare. We humans go chasing around for the big, the old, and the rare.”<\/p>\n

He says while other parks have charismatic megafauna, like bears, or bison, or elk, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park and the other national parks in the Sierra Nevada have charismatic megaflora<\/em>: the giant sequoia.<\/p>\n

The Sierra parks — Yosemite and the merged Sequoia-Kings Canyon — have some of the nation’s oldest; all three were created in 1890 (the Park Service itself didn’t exist until 1916)<\/a>. The Service’s long history with the giant sequoia is clear even down to the ranger uniform. There are sequoia cones on rangers’ belts and hats, and a giant sequoia on their badges.<\/p>\n

But the giant sequoias may not last in the parks where they live now. Climate change threatens to make summers in the Sierra warmer and drier. Under those conditions, sequoia seedlings won’t take root. When a giant sequoia dies — and the recent toppling of two<\/a> of them reminds us that they eventually do —\u00a0 there may not be a young one ready to spring up and take its place.<\/p>\n