Black Mountain Grove
Black Mountain Grove | |
---|---|
Tulare County, California, United States | |
Coordinates | 36°06′16″N 118°39′19″W / 36.10444°N 118.65528°W |
Elevation | 6,400 ft (2,000 m) |
Area | 3,310 acres (1,340 ha) |
Ecology | |
Dominant tree species | Sequoiadendron giganteum |
Black Mountain Grove is a large
The grove is partly on
History
In 1928, the wildfire burned more than 2,600 acres (11 km2), which left a large clearing in the forest.[citation needed][2]
In 1987, a lawsuit was filed against the Solo Timber Sale by the Sierra Club to stop logging the groves. The judgement made for that lawsuit was that the groves would be restored to their natural state. The 1990 Mediated Settlement Agreement (MSA) to the Sustainable land management plan extended the grove boundaries and prohibited timber harvesting within the groves. In 1992, President Bush visited the large sequoias and boosted the terms by completely protecting them from harvesting, mining, and development.[3]
In 2008, another wildfire burned about 12% of the grove.[citation needed]
In 2017, the Pier Fire burned through a large section of the grove. The fire killed 53 giant sequoias greater than 0.91 m (3.0 ft) in diameter, of which 31 were at least 3.05 m (10.0 ft) in diameter. The high mortality rate was caused by a combination of poor management of local fuel loads and climate change.[4][5]
Wildlife
Before there were laws to protect the trees in the grove, more than 500 acres of non-sequoia trees were destroyed, and more than 70% of the groves were logged. The forest still has many different kinds of species of trees standing including
Wildfires
Black Mountain Grove gets fire threats from around the area; for example, from Long Canyon or South and Middle Fork. There was a lot of dead wood around Black Mountain Grove, the dead wood, or just the high fuel in general, has not been removed since 2003; which means, it would burn a good portion of the sequoias if it were to catch on fire. This high fuel load caused the MSA to demand a “fuel load reduction plan,” which included plans for logging. Unfortunately this dense fuel load would go on to fuel two devastating wildfires in 2008 and 2017.[6][7][8]
Climate change has also been a contributing factor to an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires.[5]
Noteworthy trees
- Black Mountain Beauty: the largest known sequoia in the grove with a volume of 32,224 cubic feet (912.5 m3).
- Patriarch II: the second largest giant sequoia of the grove.
- Blasted Mammoth: the third largest giant sequoia of the grove. The tree may have once been the largest tree in the grove. It is broken off about 90 feet (27 m) above the ground and is still alive.
- Flower Pot Tree: a giant sequoia with a Pacific dogwoodgrowing out of its canopy.
- Snaggle-Top: a giant sequoia with a distinctive shape.
- Twisted Harlequin: a giant sequoia with red and pink-colored bark twisting up most of its height.
See also
References
- ^ "Black Mountain Grove". Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ Meyer, Mark (January 8, 2011). "Giant Sequoia regeneration in groves exposed to wildfire and retention harvest" (PDF). Fire Ecology. 7 (2): 4 – via Springer Open.
- ^ "Tule River Reservation Protection Project" (PDF). Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ "Surprising Number of Giant Sequoia Killed in 2017 Pier Fire Prompting Study". Save the Redwoods League. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
- ^ a b "Giant sequoias - long survivors of the forest - succumbing to climate-driven wildfires". SFChronicle.com. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
- ^ "WildfireArticle". Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ "Fuel Load Reduction" (PDF). Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ "Society of American Foresters". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.