During July of 2002, hot and dry weather conditions sustained large fires in the American West. One of them, the McNalley Fire, threatened centuries-old trees of the Sequoia National Forest in Kernville, California.

The giant sequoias are the largest redwood trees in existence and so far have survived innumerable fires over the years. But when an out-of control blaze approached the Trail of a Hundred Giants in 2002, firefighters thought the trees were doomed. With the area surrounded by three-hundred- to four-hundred-foot flames, the blaze would be in- accessible to firefighters.

But the weather was on the side of the giant sequoias. Winds began blowing the flames away from the trail on July 24, and the fire shifted to another direction, sparing the ancient trees.

Negative Effects on Soil Chemicals and Nutrients

Despite the positive effects that fire can have on soils, it can also...