GREENVILLE, Calif. — A burn scar in Northern California offers an unsettling glimpse into what forests across the Sierra Nevada could become. Bare tree carcasses are strewn across the dun-colored hills. Rock outcroppings jut out like bones.
Two massive wildfires have torn through here over the last 15 years, burning with such intensity through so large an area that the conifer forest will likely be unable to regenerate on its own, experts say.
It's a pattern that threatens to repeat across California's most extensive and iconic mountain range as wildfires have increased in both size and severity over the last two decades.
