shive

“I think the key is we have to start thinking about these as dynamic ecosystems again, rather than as museum pieces, where we naively think we can keep every single one of them around forever,” Shive said.

Both had plenty of green in their crowns and had regrown foliage since the fire, said Kristen Shive, a fire ecologist and assistant professor at UC Berkeley who has studied how much crown damage giant sequoias can sustain.

"This paper is giving us advanced warning," Shive said.

Paper co-author Kristen Shive, a UC Berkeley expert on forests, wildfires and prescribed fire, said specific burn prescriptions vary by location and vegetation type, but target temperatures commonly range from 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit with 10-20% relative humidity.

“If we’re going to say that if we can’t perfectly prep every single giant sequoia then we can’t burn, we’re taking a big gamble there,” said Kristen Shive, a fire ecologist and assistant professor at UC Berkeley.