Sequoias threatened. (Clippings).

A runaway campfire came dangerously close to some of the country's oldest treasures this summer. The fire, near Giant Sequoia National Monument, started in July and grew to 57,000 acres in just a few days. Campfires weren't banned in the area, but extreme drought heightened the fire danger and permits were required.

Although the sequois escaped without burning, flames had reached within a mile of the Packsaddle Grove, a stand of ancient, towering trees including the Packsaddle Giant, which has the fourth-largest circumference of any sequoia. The fire also came within two miles of the Trail of 100 Giants, a grove of trees that are among the Earth's largest and oldest.

Wildfires are an essential natural component of our western forests, which stretch between California and South Dakota. But the wildfires burning in recent years aren't like the fires of old, thanks to the 2002 drought, which is among the worst in history.

Individual sequoias can live more than 3,200 years and their thick trunks endure countless fires as part of their natural cycle. But fires can kill when flames reach the crowns of smaller trees and leap from there to the limbs of the sequoias, high above the ground.

Decades of fire suppression--the practice of immediately putting out any wildfire--have eliminated the means by which a forest maintains its vigor and natural diversity. And decades of industrial-scale timber harvesting have substantially altered the age and species composition of many forests.

Livestock grazing has, over decades, weakened forest understories of grasses, wildflowers, and other plant life, which have their own important role in forest health.

To learn what you can do to help restore forests damaged by fire, visit AMERICAN FORESTS' Wildfire ReLeaf site at www.wildfirereleaf.org