KNP

Savannah Boiano, executive director of the Sequoia Parks Conservancy, said many trees died near the cave in the drought of the 2010s, then ignited in the 2021 KNP Complex fire, forcing the cave’s closure.

To tackle the question, Odwuor and two of the study's co-authors -- James Randerson, professor of Earth system science at UCI, and Alondra Moreno from the California Air Resources Board -- drove a mobile lab owned and operated by the lab of study co-author and UCI alumna Francesca Hopkins at UC Riverside, to the southern Sierra Nevada mountains during 2021's KNP Complex Fire.

"The knowledge that large-diameter fuels drive fires and fire emissions -- at least in the KNP Complex Fire -- can be useful for knowing which fuels to target with fuel treatments and what might end up in the smoke from both wildfires and prescribed fire," said Odwuor.

Many Californians will remember the KNP Complex fire of 2021, which tore through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and produced an indelible image of the giant General Sherman tree wrapped in aluminum foil to protect it from the flames.

That’s the case in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, home to giant sequoia trees and the site of the KNP Complex Fire in 2021.