Drought Is Damaging California’s Giant Sequoias

“Headache!” is what professional tree climbers yell to warn folks about falling branches. It’s also what many scientists are experiencing these days as they consider the fate of the giant sequoia, the biggest tree on Earth. Journalist Thayer Walker stomped into Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest to report “Last Tree Standing” for bioGraphic, a multimedia magazine. (The story has also appeared at atlasobscura.com.) Walker explains that California’s lengthy drought has felled many shorter leafy victims: 102 million trees and counting since 2011. But at first no one was all that worried about giant sequoias, which can live for thousands of years.