A fast-spreading wildfire has threatened one of the rarest species of pines in the world.
The fire has burned through a grove of Torrey pines on Santa Rosa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park.
The island is one of only two places in the world where the endangered species grows, the other being San Diego.
Mike Theune, a spokesperson assigned to the fire from the National Park Service, didn’t say how many trees have burned but that the forest stand appears “intact.”
“The observations from the firefighters on the ground is that fire intensity was relatively low,” Theune told KCBX.
Santa Rosa is home to multiple rare species of plants, like the Island barberry and a unique type of Manzanita.
“Some people refer to these Channel Islands as the Galapagos of North America,” Theune said. “They're really special, they're really unique, and we want to do everything we can to limit this fire spread as soon as we are able to.”
The wildfire has grown to almost a third of the island, and is 0% contained as of Tuesday afternoon.
