2020 will be remembered as the year that changed everything, the year of COVID19. With our health and economy at risk we have learned to adapt and we don’t love it but we want to live. Earlier in July I road traveled to the Yosemite National Park. This is a place I love, a refuge to breathe in amazingly beautiful nature. With all travel restrictions the park was as empty as I have ever seen it. Empty is good. Solitude in nature is good for the soul and for the mind.
The valley and its surrounding areas have changed over the last ten years. Several massive fires consumed large areas. Climate change has caused severe droughts. The droughts weaken the trees, makes them more vulnerable to disease and pests. Weak and dead trees become kindling and in large areas these become massively large fires. Reading about the Giant Sequoias in Yosemite I learned that they actually need fire to survive. The Sequoias have very thick barks that protect them. They need the fire to clear competing trees and also for their seeds to release. However, the Sequoias need small fast fires, not massively large hyper hot ones. These giant trees, some of which have lived for thousands of years are now facing unprecedented stress.
It is impossible not to stop and think about the life of these amazing trees over thousands of years. Modern humanity is only a blip to all of this, yet our doings continue to change the landscape here. For some of these species it can be said….. we are the virus.
Guillermo Ceniceros Unbound 