Op-Ed: I'm 17 and grew up hiking the Sierra. I'm hopeful it can survive effects of climate change

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“Even in just a decade, I’ve watched the Sierra wilt under the brute force of climate change, the sanctuary of my youth burning to ashes.”

As a 17-year-old born and raised in the Central Valley, I grew up with the Sierra Nevada as my second home — backpacking through sequoia groves, drinking alpine water and gazing at cobwebs of stars.

But over the past year, wildfires, a viral pandemic and college applications have limited my outdoor excursions. When I returned to my old home for a backpacking trip, I was shocked at the stark difference between the current reality and my idyllic memories. Even in just a decade, I’ve watched the Sierra wilt under the brute force of climate change, the sanctuary of my youth burning to ashes.

In July, my family drove to Kings Canyon National Park to backpack the Rae Lakes Loop, a 41.4-mile trail chock full of silky lakes and crumbling mountain passes. It was the first time we’d been in the mountains sincea year and a half ago, and years since our first glimpse of Kings Canyon. An odd sense of emptiness hovered about our car as we slithered up Highway 180. The forest that once repressed sharp rays of sun had given away to stretches of black ash. The remaining pines, once capable of surviving subzero winters on 80-degree granite slopes, were reduced to blackened toothpicks. Even the immense granite faces and magnificent jagged cliffs of Kings Canyon were yellowed and left barren by the intense heat and wildfires of the past months.

 

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