LOS ANGELES — When lightning ignited the bone-dry foothills of the Sierra Nevada last year, forestry crews fanned out across Sequoia National Park to defend an ancient grove of California redwoods from wildfire.
As smoke wafted through a forest of giant sequoias, a dozen crew members surrounded the gargantuan, 36-foot-wide trunk of General Sherman — the world’s largest living tree — and wrapped its base with massive sheets of fire-resistant fabric.
The rescue was a stark acknowledgment that California wildfires are burning faster and hotter than ever before, and now threaten a species that had adapted comfortably to the fires of a previous age.
