'A different kind of beauty'
Snapshots of the present may give us misleading pictures …
Volume 1, Number 11 - Monday, Oct. 17, 2022
The rock formation known as The Needles can be seen from Western Divide Highway in Giant Sequoia National Monument in July 2022, along with thousands of dead and dying trees. — Claudia Elliott
Perspective
I TOOK THE PHOTO YOU SEE ABOVE last summer during a drive along the Western Divide Highway in Giant Sequoia National Monument east of Porterville, California. From a spot south of the tiny mountain community of Ponderosa, there is a view of The Needles rock formation across a wide expanse of the Kern River drainage. I pulled off and remembered taking a photo from the same spot 20 or so years ago when all of the trees were green.
I also remembered a day in 1998 when I rode a horse along the same stretch of road, trailing behind Jack Shannon’s cattle as he, a group of family and friends and a paying customer were driving his herd to summer pasture. That’s a story for another day because the best thing to say about my horseback riding skill is that I should have stayed home. But I am thankful for the memory and also thankful for thoughts shared by Doug Smith, senior writer for the Los Angeles Times, about his recent horseback trip into the backcountry with Steve Day of Golden Trout Pack Station.
As Smith recounts, he worked at Woody’s Pack Station at Quaking Aspen — a predecessor to Day’s operation — for four summers as a young man in the mid-1960s. Coincidentally, my grandfather packed out of Quaking Aspen beginning sometime in the 1920s (and thereafter) and met my grandmother at nearby Camp Nelson. I’m an armchair cowgirl, probably due to that heritage, but having read all of Marguerite Henry’s horse books and watching City Slickers was not adequate preparation to ride along on a cattle drive.
Smith wrote that Henry David Thoreau’s writings inspired him to spend time outdoors, but to his credit, he actually learned to ride horses and everything else one needs to do to take stock into the backcountry. The reporter recently returned to the Sierra Nevada to relive some of those memories.
I’ll leave it to you to read his lovely story, but I’ll share some of his comments about the tremendous change to the landscape from fires in recent years:
I … knew that the Castle fire had swept over my corner of the Western Sierra in 2020. Still, I was unprepared for the epochal change I witnessed on the last leg of my five-hour drive from L.A. ascending the 27 miles of switchbacks up the Tule River Canyon on Highway 190. A ponderosa pine and cedar forest was reduced to a landscape of charcoal sticks.
Intuitively, I reached the conclusion — one I later learned was supported in a review of studies by the nation’s forest managers and experts — that the conifer forest that had inhabited these slopes for millennia could be gone forever.
He quotes his host at the pack station, who is working to rebuild a business after the beautiful lodge that once served as the base camp for a lively seasonal business burned down: “It sucks,” Day said, but then added about the burned-out landscape: “It’s a different kind of beauty. If we get mad at it, all’s we’re going to do is be mad. We just got to be happy we’re up here.”
Seeing formerly lush, green forests — including giant sequoia groves — reduced to, in Smith’s words, “a landscape of charcoal sticks,” is shocking. I will even say it’s painful. But as with other kinds of loss and pain, there can be growth in healing.
There are many kinds of wildfire — ranging from the natural fire that is part of the ecology of the Sierra Nevada to devastating “high severity” fires. As some people say about their relationships on Facebook, “it’s complicated.” Without considering fire and its impacts, we can’t really consider giant sequoias and the forestlands on which they grow — and in many cases, neighboring communities.
And with so much of the Sierra Nevada forest — including giant sequoias — lost to wildfire in recent years, among the questions to answer is, how do we cope emotionally?
I liked Day’s comment. I don’t see value in anger (or blame). I certainly wish these wildfires hadn’t destroyed so much. But I see value in remembering that — in contrast to the monarch giant sequoias that have been growing right where they are for 2,000 years or more — human life expectancy in the United States is only about 78 years (and dropping).
So for the years we have, here’s a reminder from the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
“Our view of the Sierra is flawed if we consider today’s ecological or social environment to be stable: The old-growth forests we study today developed in a different environment from our current one and are headed into a different future … Snapshots of the present may give us misleading pictures of what is needed to support a full range of biotic and human systems in the near and distant future.”
The week in wildfires
I cannot say that wildfire season in the Sierra Nevada is over for the year because, well, the year isn’t over. We’ve had very little rain, and a fourth year of drought is predicted for California.
Still, as I reported last week, wildfires that potentially threatened giant sequoias are out or under control. Let’s hope that continues.
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Giant sequoias in the news
The big news about giant sequoias this week comes from the National Park Service. Here are some stories to check out:
• The National Park Service announced Oct. 13 that it is taking emergency action to protect giant sequoias from the threats posed by high-intensity wildfire, similar to the action announced by the Forest Service on July 22.
• Congressman Kevin McCarthy, co-sponsor of the Save Our Sequoias Act, commented on the Park Service’s action. Here’s part of what he said: “We are pleased the NPS is administratively implementing part of the SOS Act with today’s announcement. However, protecting Giant Sequoias from fires cannot be piecemeal, which is why we will continue to work to advance the comprehensive SOS Act in the House, building on the momentum of these commonsense actions."
• National Parks Traveler magazine has an article with greater details about the Park Service’s planned work in backcountry giant sequoia groves.
• Mark Landis wrote this article about how giant sequoias got to Southern California. It was published in the San Bernardino Sun and other newspapers. You may have to register to read it. Of particular interest to me was mention of Forest Service plantings of giant sequoias in mountain areas near San Bernardino and elsewhere in Southern California a number of years ago.
Giant sequoias around the world
It’s a long way from the Sierra Nevada to Maine, but somehow at least one giant sequoia made it there and appears to be thriving in this 2016 photo. According to managers of the City of Portland Maine’s “Forest City” Facebook page, the tree isn’t supposed to be able to grow in the colder climate. Maine has the highest percentage of forested land of any state — about 90 percent, including about 12 million sparsely-populated acres in the northern part of the state.
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GIANTSEQUOIANEWS.COM is also a website where you can find more information about giant sequoia trees, wildfire, the public land management conundrum and more.
Thanks for reading!