Yosemite Fire...It Happens Every YearUnderbrush and pine needles are fuel when lighting strikes in the High Sierras. A Yosemite fire often makes the national news. Yet, fires, floods and rockslides are all a part of this national parks history. Most fires occur in the summer and fall months here in Yosemite National Park. The weather is hot and dry and fires can sometimes consume hundreds of acres at a time. Yosemite has managed fires as well as natural fires. Sometimes fires are started by park officials so that they can clean up the floor of the forest. These are called prescribed fires. All burns are carefully managed by the national park. Yosemite will use helicopters to get to hard to reach fires. Rather than taking days to hike into a fire, firefighters will use the helicopters and repell down to the fire. Helicopters are also used to view the fires from above. Yosemite fires can cause bad air quality in Yosemite valley. Air quality is closely monitored in Yosemite. Visitors are told if the air quality is bad. We have had two trips cancelled because of fires. Gases and fine particles from the smoke can trigger asthma and other respitory problems in sensitive people. Trees can be burned to the point that they fall down or they can be scorched. It's easy to spot the trees that made it through a fire. The firescars are visable for years to come. Lightening from thunderstorms often happen in Tuolumne county which is above the Yosemite valley. Fires can bring good to the forest. They are an essential part of our fragile ecosystem. They thin out the floor of the forests and they allow for regrowth to come.
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