In southern Sierra Nevada, almost one-third of forests have been killed by climate-driven scourges

As climate change continues to transform California’s landscape in staggering and often irreversible ways, researchers have zeroed in on yet another casualty of the shift: the forests of the southern Sierra Nevada.

Between 2011 and 2020, wildfires, drought and bark beetle infestations contributed to the loss of nearly a third of all conifer forests in the lower half of the mountain range, according to a recent study published in the journal Ecological Applications. Eighty-five percent of the southern Sierra’s high-density mature forests either lost density or became non-forest vegetation.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-11-01/a-third-of-southern-sierra-forest-lost-to-drought-wildfire