Popular Texas state park a ‘moonscape’ after fires

Popular Texas state park a ‘moonscape’ after fires

BASTROP, Texas (AP) — The normally green world at a popular Texas state park has turned black and gray.

Bastrop State Park and its signature “Lost Pines” forest were ravaged when wind-whipped wildfires scorched 50 square miles east of Austin last month. More than 1,500 homes were destroyed and the forest may never fully recover.

Rather than lush green brush under a canopy of pines, park superintendent Todd McClanahan says much of Bastrop is a charred “moonscape” — in some spots, as far as the eye can see.

The extent of the damage is still being determined. McClanahan estimates about 70 percent of the trees were destroyed. The “Lost Pines,” believed to be part of an ancient forest, were related to but genetically different from the great East Texas pine forest.