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Prescribed fires, unlike wildfires, are set off, because it will clear the ground of leaves, branches, pines, or
anything else that might be on the soil. After a fire the Giant Sequoia’s will grow better. Prescribed fires will be set off almost twice every year. Animal species increased acorn production,
berries, and plants will come in after a prescribed fire.
They started to make prescribed fires in the 1960’s. The scientists knew that the trees needed fires but when they set the first one off it was
uncontrolled. A few years later high-intensity fires hit a 2- acre section. That was definitely a “Hot Spot”. The seedlings sprouted very soon after the fire. The
scientists saw that just a fire wasn’t enough. They needed more than that. They needed at least a quarter-acre big where other species were burned off and where the heat opened Sequoia cones
so seeds could fall to the ground.
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