It isn't going well for the General.

General Sherman is the largest tree in the world. It has been in our country's care taking. The Park Service and the National Forest Service have worked really hard to clean up the ground of any ignitable litter and wrapped The General in fireproof blankets. The ancient grove has trees older than the birth of Jesus. Most are well over 2000 years old, nearly 3000 years old.

September 17, 2021

By Paul Rogers

Firefighters on Friday (click here) were able to keep a slowly advancing wildfire away from the most famous grove of giant sequoia trees at Sequoia National Park, the Giant Forest, which is home to five of the world’s 10 largest trees, including the largest of them all, the General Sherman Tree.

But as fire crews and park lovers focused attention on that iconic area — where some of the massive trees had been wrapped with fireproof aluminum blankets — nearby flames were already burning into different groves of ancient sequoias with trees at least 200 feet tall and 2,000 years old.

One grove on fire 30 miles to the south in Sequoia National Forest, Long Meadow Grove, was visited 21 years ago by former President Bill Clinton when he signed a proclamation establishing Sequoia National Monument at the area’s famous “Trail of 100 Giants.”

“These groves are just as impressive and just as ecologically important to the forest,” said Tim Borden, sequoia restoration and stewardship manager at Save the Redwoods League, a San Francisco environmental group. “They just aren’t as well known. My heart sinks when I think about it.”...