How wildfire restored a Yosemite watershed

Despite the risk, allowing lightning fires to burn in Yosemite's Illilouette Creek Basin has brought undeniable ecological benefits, including boosting plant and pollinator biodiversity, limiting the severity of wildfires and increasing water availability during times of drought. These benefits are likely to make the forest more resilient to the warmer, drier conditions brought by climate change. Paired with prescribed burning and forest thinning, the practice could help make the Sierra Nevada more resilient to wildfire.