LOS ANGELES — Firefighters on Monday were racing to protect a grove of ancient sequoia trees from the 2,340-acre Washburn fire in Yosemite National Park in California.
The fire, which more than doubled in size over the weekend, was within striking distance of the park’s Mariposa Grove, home to more than 500 mature sequoias including the Grizzly Giant, a 209-foot behemoth estimated to be about 3,000 years old.
“We really don’t want to leave this one to chance because this really is such an iconic tree,” forest ecologist Garrett Dickman said in a recent video showing sprinklers spraying water around the base of the Grizzly Giant.
