Are we ready for fire season?
Federal employee cuts as mountains are 'abnormally dry'
Volume 3, Number 52 - Monday, Feb. 24, 2025
Published every Monday and Thursday *
Perspective
SOMEONE I KNOW thinks there is just too much “noise” in the media about federal job cuts and other activities of the Trump administration.
I try to keep this in mind and also realize that President Donald Trump, according to PolitiFact HERE, won both the Electoral College and the popular vote last November, when “the vast majority of counties saw their margins shift in Trump’s direction this year, both in places where Republicans historically do well and places where Democrats generally have an edge.”
So, yes, I know that while some people are concerned about recent executive orders and Elon Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency activity, others are cheering.
With this said, my concern — beyond the welfare of my own family members and friends — is for the well-being of giant sequoias.
I write about giant sequoias in part because I see them as monitors — sort of like the canary in a coal mine. As I wrote in the first edition of this newsletter (HERE), giant sequoias and all of us are facing a formidable challenge.
There is still disagreement about how giant sequoia lands should be managed, and now we have a combination of political chaos and near drought.
In the headline above, I ask, “Are we ready for fire season?”
I think that’s a good question, and I asked Google this morning with an AI response that didn’t factor in federal staffing. Still, this was the answer:
California is not fully prepared for the 2025 fire season due to climate change and a record-dry fall. The state has increased its firefighting resources and is using new technologies to help prevent and fight wildfires. However, the risk of wildfires in California is rising.
Please note that the AI search engine’s source for ways the state is preparing for wildfire refers to a news release HERE from Gov. Gavin Newsom concerning how to prepare for future urban firestorms. Somehow Google’s AI hasn’t factored in that 47% of the land in California is federal (as reported HERE).
Below are links to some recent news articles that relate to my concerns.
But I need to know more.
That’s why I’m taking a break from my twice-weekly newsletter schedule to make a few trips and try to answer my question.
I paused subscription payments for the newsletter indefinitely this morning, which means that I won’t accept new paid subscriptions, and current paid subscribers will have their subscriptions extended by the length of the pause.
This doesn’t mean I won’t publish. If there is important news related to giant sequoias, expect to hear from me.
* But I’m taking a break from most other reporting and will spend the next few weeks traveling as much as possible and doing other work to see for myself what might be going on in giant sequoia country.
I’ll let you know what I find out.
In the news…
• Gregory Thomas, travel and outdoors editor for The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the startling photo you see above on Saturday. You read the story (gift link HERE) and an excerpt:
A group of frustrated Yosemite National Park staffers hoping to draw attention to the federal government’s sweeping workforce cuts hung an upside-down American flag Saturday thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan.
• Amanda Bartlett, assistant local editor of SFGate, has a story about the Yosemite flag HERE.
• Reporter Steve Pastis of the Visalia Times-Delta has a story this morning (HERE) about a Feb. 17 rally in front of the post office in Three Rivers held in response to “firings at Sequoia and Kings national parks.” According to the article, “Nine people were terminated from Sequoia and Kings national parks following mass firings of government employees by the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency.”
• CaliforniaCityNews.org, a website that reports news of cities in California, reports HERE that a White House funding freeze has stalled “$3 billion in wildfire mitigation funding included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act — two pieces of hallmark legislation signed by Joe Biden.” (Note: There have been conflicting reports about the status of this grant funding and I don’t know where things currently stand).
• The news website Stateline (information about it HERE), reports that cuts to federal firefighting crews could have ‘scary’ consequences. Read the story HERE. (And another note, supposedly federal cuts were not supposed to impact public safety, but the devil is in the details).
A request…
Can you suggest who I might talk to to answer my question about whether the Sierra Nevada — and specifically areas where giant sequoias grove — is ready for fire season? If so, I’d like to hear from you. Send email to claudia@claudiaelliott.net or call or text me at 559-920-5720.
Wildfire, water & weather update
Sunny and mostly clear in the Sierra Nevada until the weekend when rain is expected with snow at higher elevations. The California Drought Map (HERE) shows the mountains are still abnormally dry.
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Thanks for reading!
I plan to be in the smallish Merced and Tuolomne groves in Yosemite tomorrow if I can gather any information for you.