A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
One of my nephews lives not far from the Park and lost his barn, office, and house deck to falling trees, some of which were weakened by incompetent power line work on his property. His power itself will take weeks to restore, and I haven't heard yet if he's managed to protect his damaged structures from the snowfall which came soon after. There are also numerous other Sequoia groves outside of NP's difficult to reach this time of year, which might have been affected. This has been the concern all along. These are shallow-rooted trees and depends on the health of the surrounding forest as a barrier. But that greater ecosystem barrier has been greatly compromised in recent years by severe droughts, unusually severe fires, and pine beetle infestations. The time may come when sequoia groves need to be artificially watered just like garden plants - an imposting undertaking by any standard; they daily transpire tremendous amounts of water. An another sad issue is that the healthy transpiration of all these forest trees is impeded by the air pollutants of San Joaquin Valley smog that distinctly reached up into those mid elevations every summer.
We're just starting to get local new about redwood downfall over in Big Basin on the Santa Cruz coast. Right now they're more worried about fatal mudslides onto homes in the burn areas. The ash sometimes acts like a soil lubricant; so there are geologists as well as meteorologists assessing that risk and making hourly updates, using emergency broadcast options impending hours of greatest risk. Nothing like that around here, though I do expect to see some minor slides and fallen trees on trails this afternoon.
Highwy 1 south of Big Sur has been experiencing severe slides as long as I remember. They've spent a ton of money trying to prevent that, as well as up here on Hwy 1 too. Nature tends to win anyway. The quality of the rock itself is dicey. It's mostly poorly consolidated Pliocene mudstone in many sections.
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Some pictures of "1"
https://kmph.com/news/instagram/port...ed-after-storm
The last I heard, none of the famous named sequoias in Mariposa Grove were "down."
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Mariposa Grove is one of my very favorite places. Sorry to hear this.
Kent in SD
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Well, even an "adolescent" Sequoia going down would be hundreds of years old, and some of them were apparently lost.
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
I haven't heard any reports on the Sequoia Natl'l Park General's Highway or Grant Grove yet.
Re: A dozen Mariposa Grove Sequoias lost, part of Big Sur slides into the Pacific
Except in Grant Grove, where everything is carefully monitored, most of those groves are remote or on seasonally closed dirt roads, and would be hard to reach at the moment. The McKinley Grove up on the Dinkey Road received a lot of TLC attention in the past few years due to its easy access. Things are busy enough. There's all kinds if wind and slide damage in both the Sierra and here on the coast, and of course, the predictable seasonal avalanches under such conditions, though that kind of thing is well above Sequoia elevations.
