Ancient Big Basin Redwoods Survive Wildfires: Report

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Despite concerns that fires ravaging the Santa Cruz Mountains would have toppled ancient redwoods in beloved Big Basin Redwoods State Park, most of the beloved trees remain standing, the Associated Press reported.

Many with fond memories at the park were devastated to hear the CZU August Lightning Complex fires had reached Big Basin. And then local preservationist group Sempervirens Fund — which was founded to advocate for the preservation of the redwoods in the area now known as the 18,000-acre Big Basin park — issued a letter stating: "Early reports are that the wildfire has consumed much of the park's historic facilities. We do not yet know the fate of the park's grandest oldest trees."

While the park's buildings have been leveled, most trees reportedly remain standing.

Associated Press sent a reporter and photographer to hike the park's acclaimed Redwood Trail and found the tree known as Mother of the Forest is among those that survived. Though wildfire tore through the park's 18,000 acres, blackened trees could see new growth when winter rains fall, Bay Area News Group reported.

"We are very fortunate that redwoods are incredibly resilient trees, a fact that helps them live to over two thousand years old," the Sempervirens wrote.

Indeed, some of Big Basin's redwoods are thought to be up to 1,800 years old.

Read: Santa Cruz County's Big Basin 'As We Have Known It ... Is Gone'

In 1980, then-University of California, Berkeley graduate student Mark Finney burned 20 plots of redwoods to test their resiliency, Bay Area News Group reported. The trees survived, despite high-intensity flames.

Fire scarring is among the traits that help identify an old-growth redwood, according to the Sempervirens. Redwood bark, filled with water, can grow at least a foot thick, shielding them from the flames of fires.

The great height of redwoods protects them from wildfires, according to the Sempervirens. Redwoods rely on their needles, which drink in sunlight and water from fog, to survive. Those needles are high above the forest floor, above the flames of a fire.

Young redwoods — lower to the ground and with thinner bark — are more vulnerable.

Big Basin remains closed to the public amid the wildfires. It's unknown when the park will welcome visitors once more.

So far, donors have contributed $33,000 to the Sempervirens for recovery efforts in Big Basin and throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.

"Big Basin is beloved by millions of people around the world. Our memories from our visits to its magnificent groves won’t soon fade," the Sempervirens wrote. "But work must begin immediately to recover from the devastation of these ongoing wildfires, here at Big Basin and throughout the region."

Donate to the Sempervirens here. Read more at the Associated Press and Bay Area News Group.