The bark beetle has killed so many pine trees in the Sierra Nevada that officials are afraid dying trees could hurt hikers. FM89’s Ezra David Romero reports.
As of Tuesday the popular Trail of the 100 Giants in the Sequoia National Forest east of Porterville is now off-limits to visitors. In September, hikers and crews noticed a large amount of dying pine trees in the area and later the Forest Service deemed it unsafe. Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Alonzo says no giant sequoias are threatened.
ALONZO: “We’re going to try and fall the dead trees and remove those so we can get the trail reopened when it normally does about springtime.”
In 2004, the trail was closed for about a month also because of dead trees. At the end of the path there’s a grove of giant sequoia trees said to be 1,500 years or older. The Forest Service encourages hikers to explore other areas of the Sequoia.