Environmental News Network - Drought, Fire, Insects Destroyed Nearly a Third of Southern Sierra Nevada Forest in Last Decade

Details: By Yale Environment 360; 31.Oct

In just 10 years, fires, drought, and insect infestations have devastated close to a third of forests in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, a new study finds.

Julie Swatson

In just 10 years, fires, drought, and insect infestations have devastated close to a third of forests in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, a new study finds.

The region, which extends from Lake Tahoe in the north to the Sequoia National Forest in the south, has been hit by persistent drought, made more severe by climate change, which has left pines more vulnerable to wildfires and bark beetle infestations. From 2011 to 2020, 30 percent of conifer forests in the southern Sierra Nevada succumbed to these threats, according to an analysis of U.S. Forest Service data on tree cover, tree height, and the extent of recent wildfires.

Over the same period, 85 percent of the region’s dense mature forests either died or were substantially thinned. The findings were published in the journal Ecological Applications.

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Drought, Fire, Insects Destroyed Nearly a Third of Southern Sierra Nevada Forest in Last Decade