A visit to Nelder Grove
Brenda Negley's narrative is priceless
Volume 2, Number 51 - Monday, June 3, 2024
Published every Monday and Thursday
Perspective
WHEN BRENDA NEGLEY offered tours of Nelder Grove, I signed up right away for the first outing of a series on Saturday, June 1. Two types of excursions were offered — a “saunter” on Saturdays or a more rigorous adventure on Sundays.
I wisely chose the saunter as most appropriate for my (lack of) fitness level, which means I did not get to see the Nelder Tree or most of the areas Sierra National Forest burned in the 2017 Railroad Fire, reportedly killing 39 out of the 104 mature sequoias there.
You may recall that two environmental groups filed a lawsuit last July, challenging Sierra National Forest’s plans for the Nelder Grove. I reported on the lawsuit HERE and expect to provide an update on Thursday.
I did get to see the Bull Buck Tree, a massive giant sequoia believed to be about 2,700 years old, and many other giant sequoias beloved by Negley. I also saw the aftermath of the January 2021 Mono wind blowdown event that dropped hundreds of trees — and lots of evidence of work the Forest Service did as part of its emergency response announced in July 2022 to “address the hazardous fuel buildup affected by multiple events, including drought and subsequent tree mortality beginning as early as 2014” (and including the wind event).
You can read more about Mono winds HERE.
Negley’s tours this month are sponsored by the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway Association, in cooperation with Friends of Nelder Grove. Her book, “Nelder Grove of Giant Sequoias, A Granddaughter’s Stories,” provides a wealth of information about the grove. The Nelder Grove is one of two giant sequoia groves on Sierra National Forest. It’s on the Bass Lake Ranger District, in Madera County, and in part of the Fresno River watershed. It’s about six crow miles south of Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove.
I will write more about Negley, the Nelder Grove, and the Forest Service’s giant sequoia emergency action in coming editions. Today I hope you enjoy some of my favorite photos from Saturday’s saunter.
Negley spent summers in the grove with her grandparents, William “John” and Marjorie “Marge” Hawksworth. They were the first volunteer campground hosts there from 1975 to 1995. Later, she was a campground host herself for six years. She brings that personal knowledge of the land and countless hours of research to her book, and having a chance to visit Nelder Grove with her is priceless.
(Send an email to Brenda for more information about buying her book, brenda.negley@gmail.com).
Even without Brenda’s charming trail talk, the magic of the Nelder Grove is obvious on a late spring day with the dogwood still in bloom and literally hundreds of butterflies flitting about, making the most of colorful blossoms. We were too late for the azaleas, but Brenda knew where to look to show us a Mountain lady's slipper (Cypripedium montanum) in bloom.
Along the trail to the Bull Buck Tree, she showed us a giant sequoia tree that was still living despite the fact that its bark had been stripped by squirrels.
The grove is named for John Nelder, who left New Orleans in 1849 in search of California gold. By 1875, he had grown weary of prospecting and built a log cabin in the shadows of the towering trees on homesteaded land. John Muir visited him there in 1875. The area was logged extensively before it was acquired by the Forest Service in 1928, and many huge stumps remain.
One giant sequoia stump is not huge, but it is fascinating. Brenda calls it the “brain stump” because the tree’s bark kept growing after it was cut down and covered the top of the stump.
Negley said the Forest Service plans to resume work in the grove after July 1, so the few small tours she organized this month are likely to be the last chance to visit for quite some time.
Wildfire, water & weather update
So much for the lovely, cool spring. Now the news is that a heat dome is “poised to bring record high temperatures from Arizona to the Pacific Northwest this week — with some of the most intense heat in California’s interior.” That’s from the Washington Post this morning, and you can read more HERE (gift link).
Changeable weather is pretty common in California, but with so much vegetation from two wet seasons, heat — and wind — obviously pose a wildfire risk. The more fires, the more resources are stretched. Land managers with plans for prescribed burns may have to adjust plans or postpone projects if weather conditions aren’t right. The best Sierra Nevada weather forecasts are at NWS Hanford, HERE, and NWS Sacramento, HERE.
I’m losing confidence in CalFire’s incident tracker again. This morning, it shows 1,253
wildfires this season, with 13,790 acres burned. But one of those fires was Saturday’s Corral Fire near Tracy, which CalFire tallies as 14,168 acres. Maybe something is wrong with the algorithm. Check it out HERE.
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I visited Nelder Grove in 2020. I noted that the Bull Buck tree was in dire need of fuel reduction. The whole place reminded me of a climax deciduous forest with ancient giant conifers scattered here and there. Regarding the supposed need for hot fires to release the seeds. I found the ground covered with sequoia seeds in many areas.