Tag Archives: blackened

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Burned Forest, Yosemite Valley, Autumn

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Burned Forest, Yosemite Valley, Autumn
Burned Forest, Yosemite Valley, Autumn

Burned Forest, Yosemite Valley, Autumn. Yosemite National Park, California. October 31, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light in a burned section of the forest on the floor of Yosemite Valley.

I’ve been sitting on this photograph for a while, so I figure I’ll post it now. I made it last fall – on Halloween, actually! – during a fall color trip to the Valley. Late on my final evening I finally stopped and walked out across the old terminal moraine that crosses the lower Valley not far upstream from Pohono Bridge. (When you drive into the Valley, the road splits, and before long you’ll see the south end of this feature to your left as you go up a short climb.) I started at the north end and as I walked south looking for a photograph it was a very quite, still, and cold evening.

I finally found a spot where I could go down the lower side of the hill just a bit and find a relatively clear shot through the trees that wasn’t blocked by foliage closer to my position. This area has been burned, and I assume that it is the result of one of the management burns that often occur late in the season. These fires attempt to strengthen the forest by reintroducing the natural process and cycles of fire. The result is interesting charring patterns along the lower portions of the trees, temporary burned undergrowth, and then as the recovery takes place a much more open and airy sort of forest as you see in this photograph.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Burnt Forest – Yosemite Valley

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Burnt Forest - Yosemite Valley

Burnt Forest – Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. November 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Burnt trees in a managed fire area of Yosemite Valley.

Now that I understand that fire is a natural and important part of the life cycle of forests, I no longer find burned areas to be ugly – in fact I think that they can be quite compelling scenes. The start quality of charred trees and soil is interesting, and soon the new growth in the burned areas comes in and wildflowers can be abundant. The NPS now has a policy in Yosemite of allowing naturally occurring fires to burn (as long as they don’t threaten structures) and of purposefully starting “managed fires” in places like the Valley.

During my raining early -November weekend in The Valley I stopped in this recently burned forest, initially to photograph new growth of ferns on the forest floor against the dark colors of the trees. After I worked that idea I saw these lower branches on forest trees that had been burned and decided to photograph them as well.

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