What are ‘ghost trees’? ‘Spooky’ discovery made in California national park after fire
The massive wildfire that destroyed 83,000 acres in Northern California over the summer is also credited with birthing something strange in the ashes at Lava Beds National Monument, according to the National Park Service.
Park rangers assessing the damage — the Caldwell Fire burned 70% of the park — have found sinewy shapes scorched into the earth. These “spooky” burned shadows were once alive, the park said in a Facebook post.
“Ghost trees,” park officials wrote last month.
“As some of our trees burned, they fell to the ground and continued to smolder. That process imprinted the outlines of the tree onto the ground, along with leaving some of the twigs and branches.”
In some cases, rangers can connect the dots to figure out what the tree “looked like before it burned.”
(Though similar in name, these ghost trees are different from ghost forests, which are stands of dead trees killed by encroaching saltwater, NOAA says.)
Park staff have found other odd shapes, too, including one that is clearly the “ghost of a sign” that once directed tourists to a cave. It fell to the ground during the fire and its shape was fried into the pavement, officials say.
Lava Beds National Monument, which is about 300 miles north of Sacramento, was closed for three weeks due to the fire, which was ignited by lightning on July 22. Experts say the “very dry winter of 2019-2020” contributed greatly to the widespread destruction.
Large wildfires are part of the park’s reputation as “a land of turmoil,” including volcanic eruptions and Native American battles dating to the 1870s, according to the National Park Service. Among the site’s attractions are more than 800 lava tube caves created up to 65,000 years ago, officials say.
Park officials warned visitors over the summer the fire’s aftermath will include a growing number of dust devils, which “are large, well-formed whirlwinds that form when hot air near the ground rises quickly into cooler air, creating an updraft.”
“With 70% of the park burned from the Caldwell Fire, we can expect to continue to see these ash devils for some time to come,” the park posted Aug. 15 on Facebook.
