Not good comes to mind. As I read a National Geographic article posted through the MSN news links, one of the Yosemite ecologists apparently had something stronger to say. Here in New Mexico, particularly at the moment, we don’t look kindly on prescribed burns but it seems that the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, one of the giant sequoia last safe havens, may be the beneficiary of the positive effects of prescribed burns. As I write this, the fire is about 27% contained and the sequoias remain at risk. The long-term use of prescribed burns, since 1971, appears to have dampened the severity of the fire in the grove. Low winds and the ability to keep the trees protected with supplemental water and wraps are also helping. While the damage to all the plants in this and the many other wildfires is heart-rending, this famous grove has caught the attention of the public and the fire is receiving lots of coverage. I hope that it will serve to raise awareness of the critical need we all have to work to reduce the effects of the shifting climate.

Those who read The Plant Messiah will perhaps remember that the author, Carlos Magdalena, was greatly enamoured of water lilies. Since landing his dream job at Kew Gardens (a most inspiring story), he has been able to indulge his interests, which aren’t limited to water lilies.
I read with interest that research he and many colleagues have been doing has led to the identification of a third species of giant water lily. The link to the article is here. One thing that makes it a very interesting read is that the long paper (31 pages) covers the issues that make plant identification important for conservation and how this team wove together historical records, contemporary citizen science, and state-of-the-art genomic techniques of living samples to make their determination.