Wildfire concerns near Yosemite grow as controlled burns nixed FacebookTwitterEmail Half Dome is barely visible through the smoke from some small burn piles ignited in Ahwahnee Meadow in January 2021.NPS Photo John Goss is worried about a gap. As the fire management officer for Sierra National Forest, he’s worried about a lot of things right now: California’s unprecedented dryness, the below average snowpack, the preponderance of dead and drought-weakened trees. These are the indicators that make his neck hair stand up a little, he says. But then there’s the narrow strip of forestland near the southwestern edge of Yosemite National Park, a mere 5 miles from the prized giant sequoias of the Mariposa Grove.