Monday’s Top of the Scroll: California’s largest wildfire of the year explodes in size and destroys scores of buildings
… The fire also is burning near two creeks that provide critical habitat for struggling salmon. Scientists and officials said they’re concerned the fire could bring another severe blow for threatened spring-run chinook salmon, which typically spend the summer in Deer Creek and Mill Creek before spawning in the fall. “It’s a very serious threat, depending on how this fire proceeds,” said Andrew Rypel, a professor of fish ecology and director of UC Davis’ Center for Watershed Sciences. Even before the fire, biologists were so alarmed about a recent crash in the spring-run salmon population that last year they began capturing juvenile fish from Deer Creek to breed them in captivity. Rypel said a large fire like this one could seriously harm water quality to a point that would kill fish.
Related articles:
- San Francisco Chronicle: Northern California weather: Changes in store for Park Fire conditions this week
- Associated Press: Fires in the West are becoming ever bigger, consuming. Why and what can
- Los Angeles Times: Park fire flares up as crews scramble to contain 360,000-acre blaze
- New York Times: Despite Park Fire’s Rapid Spread, Some Residents Are Determined to Stay Put
- CalMatters: Map: See how much of where you live would be impacted by a blaze the size of the Park Fire
- KVPR: Kern County town of Havilah destroyed by explosive Borel Fire