With bark that can be more than one foot thick and high levels of tannins to repel insects, giant sequoias are regarded by experts as some of the world’s most resilient trees. Close to 130 million trees of other species died in California over the past decade after being weakened by a five-year drought, but no mature giant sequoias perished, according to Sue Beatty, a restoration ecologist who helped lead the project. Even so, Ms. Beatty and other experts said they saw some signs of stress in the sequoias.
Giant sequoias do not have a central taproot. Instead, they develop a shallow network of roots, around 3 feet deep, that spreads as far as 200 feet from the trunk, Ms. Beatty said. The asphalt and the trampling feet of visitors in the grove were making the trees more vulnerable.
“This project was all about the trees,” she said. “We wanted to improve their survivability in the time of a changing climate.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/us/yosemite-sequoia-mariposa-grove.html
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