Volume 2, Number 42 - Thursday, May 2
Published every Monday and Thursday
Perspective
SMOKEY BEAR probably wouldn’t like to be called “controversial.” His image, after all, has been carefully curated by The Ad Council and the U.S. Forest Service for years. I recently learned that an Act of Congress passed in 1952 removed Smokey from the public domain and placed him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture. The Act provided for the use of collected royalties and fees for continued wildfire prevention education. (You can read about his 80th birthday below.)
As a journalist, I’ve written about people I’ve called “controversial” a few times through the years, and sometimes they’ve objected to this description — or label.
Apparently, no one likes to be thought of as controversial.
Of course, controversial is related to the noun controversy. Merriam-Webster defines controversy as a discussion marked especially by the expression of opposing views.
In some circles, the Forest Service is controversial. In other circles, the Sierra Club is controversial. The timber industry… yes, controversial, as is “climate change.”
Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project is controversial. Sometimes, when I publish something about him, I get notes from readers that are something like this: “Can’t you just leave him out of your newsletter?’
Here’s a fact. I don’t think it’s controversial: A small group of environmentalists have kept the Forest Service (and now the National Park Service) in court over giant sequoia issues for years.
Are they right? Is the government right? I suppose it depends on your perspective. Most of us like to surround ourselves with like-minded people. I don’t think words like activist and controversial are negative labels. They’re just descriptive words.
I write about the giant sequoias of California's Sierra Nevada and the many challenges they face, not the least of which is disagreement (perhaps we could call it controversy) about how the lands where they grow should be managed.
So, of course, I covered Hanson’s recent talk at a Sierra Club chapter meeting. You can read what he had to say below. — Claudia Elliott
Chad Hanson called a ‘forest superhero’ at Sierra Club banquet in Bakersfield
By Claudia Elliott
Giant Sequoia News
CHAD HANSON WAS AMONG FRIENDS when he spoke at the awards banquet of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club in Bakersfield on April 27.
Club member Carla Cloer, whose activism related to giant sequoias was recognized in 2001 by what was then the Sierra Club’s highest award,* introduced Hanson, calling him a “forest superhero.”
Cloer provided biographical information about the speaker, noting that he hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 1989.
“Chad loves the forest,” Cloer said, noting that the hike triggered his interest in forests. “It was a tutorial for him of what rampant logging was doing to our nation's forest,” she said. “And love and anger were there, but they are not enough. Love and anger won't save the imperiled forest.”
Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project, affiliated with Earth Island Institute, in 1996 after receiving a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and earning a law degree in 1995. In 2007, he earned a Ph.D. in ecology from UC Davis, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology. In 2021, his book, “Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate,” was published by the University Press of Kentucky.
“In my mind, he's made himself into a forest superhero,” Cloer said. “He's trained as an attorney, so he can read and apply laws and precedents to legal standards for agencies. He has a Ph.D. in ecology, learning the myriad of processes involved in forest life. … And now the third layer — the ability to educate voters, and judges and the administration in terms of simple enough terms that they can understand. And the last final hope to save our forests really would be all of us, and all the voters.”
‘Most misunderstood tree on Earth’
Hanson’s talk was titled “The Most Misunderstood Tree on Earth: The Fire-Dependent Giant Sequoia and its Struggle to Survive Our Love.”
“We, as a society, have been successfully keeping fires out of giant sequoia groves for over a century,” Hanson said. “Until recent years, until about 2015, we had almost completely kept the fire out of giant sequoia groves. And we did this as a society thinking that we were protecting giant sequoias from fire.”
Hanson challenges what he calls the dominant narrative from the Forest Service, National Park Service and “a lot of politicians” that giant sequoias need more low-intensity, frequent surface fire.
“The giant sequoias depend on fire for regeneration, but we want low-intensity fire,” he said, referring to that message. “And they say over the past century, giant sequoia regeneration has stopped. Well, that's true. It had stopped almost entirely.”
The speaker referenced an NPS project that will use mechanical fuels removal (cutting trees), followed by prescribed fire and low-intensity fire to decrease hazardous fuels and promote giant sequoia regeneration.
“They say they’re doing this to protect Giant Sequoias from extreme wildfire,” he said.
Again, this is a sentiment that they're saying, ‘We’re doing this because we love sequoias, and we're protecting sequoias.’ But … is this really what sequoias need? Do they need low-intensity fire? Are they actually threatened by high-intensity fire? Or is it more complicated than that?
Hanson thinks it is — more complicated — and shared photos of natural regeneration in giant sequoia groves following high-intensity wildfire. In one area of the Redwood Mountain Grove in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, which burned in the 2021 KNP Complex Fire, Hanson said there were about 50,000 giant sequoia seedlings per acre.
“And that's common in these high-intensity fire patches,” he said. “The norm is thousands per acre, in many cases tens of thousands per acre.”
Environmental groups, including Earth Island Institute and the Sierra Club, have filed suit against federal agencies related to projects initiated by the Forest Service and National Park Service to counteract impacts of large wildfires in recent years.
According to Christy Brigham, Chief of Resources Management and Science at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, “During 2020 and 2021, two major wildfires burned through numerous sequoia groves within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Between 2020 and 2021, three major fires, the SQF Complex, the Windy Fire, and the KNP Complex, are estimated to have killed as many as 14,000 large giant sequoias, or 19 percent of all giant sequoias in their range.”
Hanson said he doesn’t believe that work approved by federal agencies is needed.
“The sequoia regeneration in these areas that burned at high-intensity is so abundant, so rich in these places that the Park Service and the Forest Service have been telling the public and politicians that there's little or none,” he said.
“It's so dense, you can't walk in a straight line because you want to avoid stepping (on them). You don't want to kill sequoia seedlings, you have to walk carefully, you walk circuitously.”
But in areas where fires burned at low intensity, he said, there are far fewer giant sequoia seedlings.
“And they're mostly outnumbered in many cases by white fir and said cedar and other species,” he added, noting that giant sequoias seem to have a competitive advantage over other conifer species in high-intensity fire patches.
“They grow faster, they're more abundant, they survive at higher levels,” he said.
‘Well-intentioned’
“Society was well-intentioned when we were keeping fire out of the sequoia groves before we knew much about their ecology,” Hanson said. “But the truth is what that meant is we were loving the sequoias to death. They've been slowly dying off with almost no regeneration for over a century, until these recent wildfires”
He said the number of giant sequoias lost is “not nearly what the government’s been claiming. But if there had been some that were killed … There are hundreds and hundreds that are now growing and thriving in their shadows. This is something that we have not seen in living memory — no human being alive has seen regeneration like this. This has not happened since the era before fire suppression in the late 1800s.
“And so, again, the lesson emerging is that these trees are thriving. They need this cycle of intense fire … to be regenerated, spurring the next generation of giant sequoias,” Hanson continued.
He shared a photo of downed vegetation next to an area thick with small trees.
“This is Merced Grove in Yosemite National Park. We tried to stop this,” Hanson said. “We were not able to, we'll come back at it again with probably another lawsuit, and try to stop it a second time. They call this thing restoration and fuel reduction. This is the Park Service doing … a timber sale.
“And because of the atmosphere of fear and panic and political opportunism, federal agencies are now using massive amounts of taxpayer money to subsidize logging projects on federal lands, not just on national forests, but also now on national parks, and telling the public that they're doing this to protect and save sequoias.”
Hanson added that the public agencies have closed areas to the public.
“And the public is therefore not allowed to go in and find out for themselves if the government is telling them the truth. Because the closure orders come with penalties. If you violate it, there's a big fine, you could potentially even be arrested and (spend) time in jail if you violate the closure order.”
He said he and his colleagues have been able to take the photos by threatening the federal agencies with lawsuits under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Because it turns out the Constitution protects our ability, for citizens to visit our public lands and hold the government accountable, and survey and review and monitor what they’re doing and proposing,” he said. “And they had to back off. But that's the only way we really get this information.”
Referencing the Forest Service’s work in the Nelder Grove of Sierra National Forest, Hanson shared another photo of stumps, shredded debris and a burn pile in an area next to standing dead trees and called the work “deforestation.”
“The Sierra Club, the John Muir Project — my organization — and Sequoia ForestKeeper are in court right now trying to stop further logging in the Nelder Grove, just like we're trying to stop logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument,” he said.
On Feb. 28, the organizations filed suit against the Forest Service over the planned Castle and Windy Fire restoration projects. The case is pending.
“In summary, I believe it means it's better to let nature do the restoration,” Hanson said. “Nature doesn't need our help for reforestation, it’s regenerating wonderfully on its own.”
___
* Cloer was awarded the John Muir Award in 2001. According to Wikipedia, the Sierra Club discontinued the John Muir Award in 2020 after a re-evaluation of Muir’s legacy in the context of racial justice. The club’s highest award was named the Changemaker of the Year Award starting in 2021.
Happy birthday, Smokey Bear
You may have seen Smokey Bar in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1. That was a kick-off to celebrating the fire prevention bear’s 80th birthday. You can read more HERE.
I’ve been a fan of Smokey Bear since I was a kid. I’m also aware of the controversy about Smokey — and suggestions that the loveable bear may have influenced wildfire suppression that contributed to problems with our forests today.
Here’s a great piece from PBS SoCal that I think you might enjoy. It’s by Lincoln Bramwell, chief historian of the Forest Service and was written when Smokey was celebrating 75 years. It provides history and perspective. You can read (or listen to it) HERE.
Here’s an excerpt:
There is valid criticism that suppressing all wildfire starts for decades created dense forests that are more susceptible to burning and that, combined with a hotter, drier climate, is increasing the number of acres burned over the last decade. As land managers grapple with landscape restoration and return fire to landscapes that depend upon it for their health, some feel that Smokey’s message is outdated and not ecologically sound. But Smokey’s message is about preventing unintentional, human-caused wildfires. I believe it would be a mistake to alter that message because it is still so needed today—keeping unintentional human-caused ignitions off the landscape is ecologically beneficial and reduces the strain on wildfire suppression resources. As we move further into the 21st century and human encroachment on forests steadily increases, Smokey’s simple admonition that people be careful with fire is more relevant than ever.
Wildfire, water & weather update
I guess the snow season isn’t over. “Unsettled weather” is in the forecast, including rain and snow at the higher elevations on Saturday. The best Sierra Nevada weather forecasts are at NWS Hanford, HERE, and NWS Sacramento, HERE.
The Guardian this morning has an article HERE with the headline “What’s driving California’s extreme weather?” And if you’re up to reading the science behind the article, you can read a report on Nature.com HERE.
Here’s an excerpt from the report on Nature.com:
This work emphasizes the pronounced effect of human-induced global warming on the structure and teleconnection of large-scale atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere winter, providing vital perspectives on the dynamics of current climate trends.
If you’re wondering about the reliability of Nature.com, there are reports HERE and HERE. How reliable are websites that report on media bias? I don’t know, but I sometimes check them out.
How reliable are weather forecasts? I think they’re getting pretty good, and I’m not planning a trip to the Sierra Nevada this weekend.
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