you do realize that human intervention, especially in National Parks is actually hurting the natural evolution - especially in trees.

As noted below, the Sequoia ACTUALLY needs fire for the cones to pop open.

The huge wildfire we see in the West are natural. They are a new beginning for forests that might take 2-3 hundred years to emerge. But that time frame doesn't suit humans who want to see green trees next Spring.

A forest fire, especially a big one.. will scorch everything, including the animals. It wipes the area clean, ready to start fresh.
There was a large area (over 1000 acres) at the entrance to Yosemite that had a huge fire about 10 years ago. The first 2 years, it looked like the moon. Plenty of charred remains and stumps. All black, looked like death. Ten years later, you would be amazed at how quickly nature takes over.

I think in the scheme of Sequoia trees, the vast death like scorching gives new seedling an opportunity to start new forest areas. The areas where the giants are located are ancient forests, in their last stages - where seedling can't grow. But for humans, the process is many lifetimes to see the Sequoias mature, so in our "greedy" need to preserve the forests, we might actually be hurting them.

the trees, they are burning them to a crisp, along with everything else, and the pine cones can't pop open, they are dead. All the trees are like this and only scrub trees are growing back. We will most likely hear from the Arbor Foundation in a year or so that they needs funds to go out and replant our forests because they are virtually gone.

Read a long article from a fire forestry manager and he stated that congress gets in the way of Forestry Management.

1 - only 10% of all wildfires are on public lands - the rest the taxpayer has to fund to put out these massive fires on private property
because the landowners call congress and tell them to tell the firefighters to put out the fires. Plus congress has cut funding year after year even though there are more and mush more hotter fires. Wasn't there a report last week that this year's budget has already been depleted and the forestry service is begging for more money to put out 5,000 current fires?

2 - Bureau of Land Management too gets in the way of proper forestry management. It takes years to get the okay just to clear out the underbrush, and even more years for controlled burns. Problem too is that land owners freak out when they hear about these burns and put a stop to them.

3 - the places where they are allowed to clear brush and control burn has worked like a charm, just like they thought it would. The trees lived through them. Again, it takes years to get those reports to the proper people to get these controlled burns even on a calendar.

Our problem in the US is that we NEVER fund anything to the finish, unlike European countries. When they decide to fund something, another session can't come in and defund the programs like they do here. We never take the long vision on any plan.

There is very little "natural" about what we're currently seeing. NPR had a good series on it earlier this year: http://www.npr.org/series/158936457/megafires-the-new-normal-in-the-southwest

The low-temp ground fires that the Western forests evolved with have been replaced by high-temp crown fires of unprecedented intensity. At this point, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that much of the Western US will be transformed from pine forest into savanna and grassland by the end of this century, no matter what we do. A century of fire suppression, coupled with multiple climate change impacts (higher temps, drought, bark beetle outbreaks, invasive species, etc) make the situation unwinnable for humanity.

Something about the heat rising to the top of the trees, drying out the seed pods so they crack open and allow the seeds to fall to the ground.

I have traversed many trails in Yosemite...and have camped many times in my youth in Sequoia...long story short, I've been to many National Parks in the west.

Here's the thing, the NPS, US Forest Agency, BLM, etc. work hard at "creating" wild fires. In the effort that a range of tree's that haven't seen fire for awhile, see some fire. So that dead vegetation, brush etc. See some fire and wipe out all the fuel. I know this because I've seen it first hand.

I've hiked much of Yosemite, If God's creation of Eden is better than Yosemite.....Shit....The paradise I've imagined is virtually nothing.

But....and its a big but...you might say its a big ass......due to climate conditions, man's indirect influence etc *cough global warming *cough" or direct influence (throwing a cigarette butt out the window, etc.) Then it should be intervened. They learned that in Yellowstone in the 80's. FYI....I visited Yellowstone before the great fire. Then again in 2002 and last year (2012)....none of the pictures look the same. The Yellowstone fire was bad is it was due to no intervention....future fires may be just as bad due to the lack of actual realization and caring by the insurance industry.

But at the end of the day, to preserve the national parks in the west, you need to be both reactive and proactive. There is no middle ground at this point sad to say. At least until you have a sane government...I don't have any faith in government unfortunate. But I will continue to put my donation dollars to the National Park Foundation.