US Park Service personnel have wraps the tree trunks of scores of giant sequoias in aluminum foil-covered insulation in an attempt to protect the centuries-old trees from two massive wildfires in the area, Axios reports.
The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Forest in western California, a 275-foot tree with a 36-foot wide trunk that thought to be up to 2,700 years old, is one of those trees threatened. Cal Fire estimates that the Colony Fire is one mile away from Sequoia National Forest and could be at the park’s borders by Friday morning.
The two fires threatening the sequoias were both started by lightning strikes on September 9th and have so far consumed about 9,000 acres.