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Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of giant sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature specimens. Two of its trees are among the 30 largest giant sequoias in the world.

The Mariposa Grove was first visited by non-native people in 1857 when Galen Clark and Milton Mann found it. They named the grove after Mariposa County, California, where the grove is located.[1] Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on June 30, 1864, ceding Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the state of California. Criticism of stewardship over the land led to the state's returning the grove to federal control with the establishment of Yosemite National Park.

The grove closed on July 6, 2015, for a restoration project and reopened on June 15, 2018.[2] The Mariposa Grove Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Threats from wildfires and climate change

Fuels reduction in Mariposa Grove (lower right inset) saved giant sequoias from the 2022 Washburn Fire[3]

The grove was threatened by the Washburn Fire in July 2022.[4][5] However, several decades of intentional controlled burns and other forms of fuels reduction enabled fire fighters to save the giant trees, even while the fire itself was impossible to prevent spreading into Yosemite National Park.[3]

Fire is not the only threat to the survival of the giant sequoias. Climate change has already caused the deaths of other conifer trees within and surrounding the grove.[6][7] An ominous sign of sequoia distress was the grove's massive and unprecedented release of seeds in 2022 from the multi-year crop of cones that otherwise would have opened only if the fire penetrated the grove. Seed release was deemed futile because seeds can establish only on ground only where the soil itself is fully exposed.[8] Signs of climate distress in the Mariposa Grove are exceeded by climate-induced deaths of giant sequoias in groves managed by the National Park Service southward in the Sierra Nevada.[9]

Noteworthy trees

The giant sequoia named Grizzly Giant is between probably 1900–2400 years old: the oldest tree in the grove.[10] It has a volume of 34,010 cubic feet (963 m3), and is counted as the 25th largest tree in the world. It is 210 feet (64 m) tall, and has a heavily buttressed base with a basal circumference of 28 m (92 ft) or a diameter of 30 feet (9.1 m); above the buttresses at 2.4 m above ground, the circumference is only 23 m. Grizzly Giant's first branch from the base is 2 m (6 ft) in diameter. Another tree, the Wawona Tree, had a tunnel cut through it in the nineteenth century that was wide enough for horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles to drive through. Weakened by the large opening at its base, the tree fell down in a storm in 1969.

Some of the trees in the grove are:

Gallery

Museum

The Mariposa Grove Museum, also known as the Mariposa Grove Cabin, is a large cabin built in 1930. It sits in the shadow of two prominent giant sequoia trees: General Grant and General Sheridan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[11][12]

The museum features numerous historic photographs and details the history of Mariposa Grove. Restrooms are inside.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ Farquhar, Francis P. (1926). Place Names of the High Sierra. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
  2. ^ Forgione, Mary (June 15, 2018). "It's back to the big trees. Yosemite's Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias reopens after three-year restoration project". Los Angeles Times.
  3. ^ a b Hankin, Lacey E.; Anderson, Chad T.; Dickman, Garrett J.; Bevington, Parker; Stephens, Scott L. (2023). "How forest management changed the course of the Washburn fire and the fate of Yosemite's giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum)". Fire Ecology. 19 (1): 40. Bibcode:2023FiEco..19a..40H. doi:10.1186/s42408-023-00202-6.
  4. ^ Fernando, Christine (July 9, 2022). "Thick wildfire smoke hangs over Yosemite; flames reached notable giant sequoia grove". USA Today. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  5. ^ Westervelt, Eric (July 19, 2022). "Decades of 'good fires' save Yosemite's iconic grove of ancient sequoia trees". www.npr.org. NPR. Retrieved July 26, 2022. The iconic grove of giant and ancient sequoia trees in California's Yosemite National Park is no longer under direct threat from the wildfire still burning through a southern section of the park and the nearby Sierra National Forest ... foresters and ecologists say a half-century of intentional burning or 'prescribed fire' practices in and around the area dramatically reduced forest 'fuel' there, allowing the blaze to pass through the grove with the trees unscathed.
  6. ^ Crossman, Matt (February 28, 2023). "Climate change is hitting national parks hard. Here's how the park service is reacting". Experience Magazine.
  7. ^ Robbins, Jim (November 9, 2023). "Can 'Immortal' Sequoias Survive the Ravages of Climate Change?". Yale Environment 360.
  8. ^ Weise, Elizabeth (October 6, 2022). "Yosemite in peril: How climate change's grip is altering America's national parks". USA Today.
  9. ^ National Park Service. "Wildfires Kill Unprecedented Numbers of Large Sequoia Trees: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks". nps.gov. U.S. Government. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  10. ^ Stephenson, Nathan L. (January 2002). "Estimated Ages of Some Large Giant Sequoias: General Sherman Keeps Getting Younger". Sierra Nature Notes. 2.
  11. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  12. ^ Leslie Starr Hart (September 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Mariposa Grove Museum". National Park Service. and accompanying two photos and a map
  13. ^ "Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias - Yosemite National Park". U.S. National Park Service. Mailing Address: PO Box 577 Yosemite National, CA US. 95389 Phone: 372-0200. Retrieved November 6, 2019.

Further reading

External links