FRESNO, Calif. — Ten years ago this month, the Rim Fire ignited in the central Sierra Nevada. It would eventually incinerate more than 250,000 acres and 100 structures in Tuolumne County.
At the time, the Rim Fire was California’s second largest wildfire. Today, it’s not even in the top ten.
But it remains the largest fire ever within Yosemite National Park, and the 77,000 acres it burned there left a legacy: it inspired an expansion of fire prevention efforts.
“It definitely increased the urgency and scale of fire and fuels management in the park,” said Lacey Hankin, a Yosemite park fire ecologist. “We’ve expanded our use of prescribed fire, mechanical and manual fuels reduction and managed wildfire in order to accomplish community protection as well as ecological goals.”
One main priority after all these years is protecting giant sequoia trees. As many as 20% of all sequoias, globally, have been killed in recent fires.
Last year, Yosemite even set up sprinklers to protect the giants in Mariposa Grove from the Washburn Fire.
“Preventing catastrophic fire in these areas is really critical for their persistence,” Hankin said.
Another priority is protecting homes and other development built precariously in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface.
