Forest Service Chief to retire
And Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition will meet next week
Volume 3, Number 53 - Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025
Published every Monday and Thursday *
Perspective
ON MONDAY, I announced a break in my twice-weekly newsletter schedule as I take some time to travel and gather information for future reporting here. But I noted I would publish if there was news to report, so I’m back this morning with a brief report of important news.
You may know that yesterday, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced his retirement effective March 3. You can read his letter to agency staff HERE. The letter is worth a read. At the bottom of the letter is a link that allows an email response to a Forest Service employee inbox. I would love to read those responses!
Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Moore’s appointment to Chief in late June 2021 during President Joe Biden’s administration. Just over a year later, on Aug. 16, 2022, Moore announced the Giant Sequoia Emergency Response that I’ve written about many times.
Moore was very familiar with giant sequoia issues, in part because, as Regional Forester for the agency’s Region 5, Pacific Southwest Region, in August 2012, he signed the Record of Decision for the second management plan for Giant Sequoia National Monument. (The first plan was published in 2004 but was successfully challenged in court.)
He noted in his letter yesterday that the workforce at the Forest Service “will be unsettled for a while.” With staffing cuts to an agency that was already challenged, I think that’s an understatement.
Lands coalition to meet
Not in the news so far, but on many calendars is the annual meeting of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition hosted by the Tule River Tribe at its Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville on March 6 and 7.
Unfortunately, the meeting is not open to the media, so I can’t attend. A spokesperson for the coalition told me that its annual report will be released soon.
As you may know, the GSLC is a collaboration of public and non-governmental organizations committed to the conservation of giant sequoia grove ecosystems.
What I have to wonder is whether the federal agencies that have been part of the coalition — the National Park Service, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — will be allowed to continue to participate.
Given the politics, I can appreciate Coalition members keeping this meeting closed. But I hope future reports will let the public know the state of affairs.
Merced and Tuolumne Groves
Reader Jim Hamerly, whose giant sequoia grove on Mount Palomar in San Diego County continues to thrive, visited Merced and Tuolumne Groves in Yosemite National Park earlier this week and shared some photos and information with me. I’ll report more about these groves — two of three in Yosemite — in the future. One of the photos is above. Thanks, Jim!
You can read more about Hamerly’s sequoia grove HERE.
* 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.
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