Volume 2, Number 37 - Monday, April 15, 2024
Published every Monday and Thursday
By Claudia Elliott
Giant Sequoia News
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST — home to the world’s largest concentration of giant sequoia groves — has a new forest supervisor.
Anthony “Tony” Edwards was named to the top job on the 1.1-million-acre national forest earlier this year and has been on the job since Feb. 26. He replaced Teresa Benson, who retired at the end of 2023 following a 35-year federal career.
The national forest — commonly identified by the acronym SQF — spans part of the Sierra Nevada in three Central California counties — Kern, Tulare and Fresno — and includes Giant Sequoia National Monument.
Its lands provide water and hydropower for San Joaquin Valley communities. And it’s within a four-hour drive of nearly 20 million California residents, making it a popular destination for recreation.
In an interview April 4, Edwards said snow in the mountains means he hasn’t been able to visit all of the national forest yet, but he has “trudged through some snow to see a couple of sequoias.”
The national forest is named for the remarkable trees that are known worldwide. SQF manages Giant Sequoia National Monument, home to more than a third of the world’s naturally occurring giant sequoia groves and the most southerly.
Edwards, 54, started his Forest Service career as a civil engineer. From early 2020 until he moved to SQF, he was the deputy forest supervisor for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison in the Rocky Mountain Region. Before that, he was a legislative affairs specialist at the USDA Forest Service’s Washington Office for nine years.
Earlier, he had various assignments on the Pike-San Isabel national forests, Cimarron and Comanche national grasslands, and as a civil engineer for the Coronado National Forest. He received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Arizona.
‘A lifespan beyond our own’
Edwards said he knew nothing about the Forest Service when he started college. He considered becoming a pilot and eventually studied aeronautical and electric engineering but switched to civil engineering — still without much idea about how he would use his degree.
What he did know was that he wanted to be productive.
His mother, a teacher, had a colleague who was married to a civil engineer for the Forest Service, and she suggested that he check out an internship opportunity.
“So, I went into a very new, very unknown situation and had that opportunity,” he said of the internship. “And I did learn a lot about engineering in the Forest Service. And I also learned a lot about the Forest Service. And what I didn’t know is just how much I did not know about the Forest Service.
“There’s just so much more involved with stewardship of the land — to work on something that would have a lifespan beyond our own, something looking out for the environment, the ecosystem of the world. That really intrigued me and started to grow inside me.”
As he learned more about the agency and gained more work experience, Edwards said he challenged himself to see how an engineer can work to have a lighter footprint.
“And then, as I started to see how things worked in the agency outside of engineering, like with timber and recreation — and the impacts we have — I began to appreciate that engineering is just a small piece.
“Because I never understood why engineering wasn’t running the world,” he added, laughing.
“I began to understand, as I was growing into this, that there’s a lot more going on here. And engineering is an important piece of that. But we’ve got to work together.”
Collaboration
As a staff officer on the Pike-San Isabel national forests in Colorado, Edwards was still involved in engineering but also gained exposure to other disciplines.
“It allowed me to engage with recreation and with the lands programs,” he said. From involvement with archeology and minerals — and even special events and filming — he began to understand and learn more about how programs are intertwined and how national forests are multi-use environments.
“(We’re) managing this environment in a manner that includes many sometimes conflicting desires, but they’re all valid, and they all have reasons and purposes of being there,” he said.
SQF is no stranger to conflict with a history of litigation over management. Edwards said he had met some of the stakeholders — including representatives of the Tule River Tribe. He’s also begun engaging with other Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition members.
The coalition comprises all federal, tribal, state and local agencies and organizations that manage giant sequoia groves in public, tribal or private nonprofit ownership. It was formed in 2021 after land managers were astounded by an unprecedented loss of giant sequoia trees.
The 2020 Castle Fire and 2021 Windy Fire killed thousands of giant sequoias on SQF and adjacent public and private lands. Former Forest Supervisor Benson approved a plan to restore some affected forestland late last year. On Feb. 22, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations sued, claiming that the proposed work is logging and not allowed by the national monument’s management plan. The litigation is pending, and the government has not yet responded in U.S. District Court.
The Forest Service does not comment on active litigation. However, Edwards acknowledged that he is actively engaged with the Office of General Counsel and interacting with the specialists involved in defending the government’s position.
Going forward, he said he plans to draw on experience gained dealing with people and issues in the Western Rockies — another region with plenty of controversy.
“I have learned the importance of collaboration and the importance of working with others who have really good knowledge,” he said.
Fire and science
“The fires we are seeing are evidence that there are things that need to be addressed and addressed rather quickly, rapidly,” Edwards said. “And we are doing that in our full capacity. We’re operating and using the folks we have here — and all the academia we can — every input we can, to work together.”
Scientists report that giant sequoias are a naturally fire-adapted species designed to withstand and benefit from fire. The Forest Service and other land managers use different types of prescribed fire — pile burning, understory/underburning and broadcast burning. They also sometimes manage wildland fires for resource benefits.
Still, Edwards admits to complicated feelings associated with fire. Flames and smoke create an emotional response.
“There’s a reaction from us as humans … I definitely have the same reaction,” he said. “But there are many, many angles to fire, and we’re trying to learn as much as we can about them and be able to respond appropriately when response is needed.”
He noted that he was able to be present recently when the Tule River Tribe was involved in a cultural burn and believes that a combination of understanding traditional methods and modern science can be beneficial.
“Especially if you think about the tribes and how long — thousands of years — they’ve been working with these same environments and the knowledge that they’ve passed on,” he said. “To be able to work with them to and share what we do and how we have learned and understand what they do and together, work together to figure (out ways that) we all can work with and live within the forest.”
More about SQF
SQF has three ranger districts — Hume Lake, Western Divide and Kern River.
Six wilderness areas encompass lands that are part of Sequoia National Forest, including Jennie Lakes, Domeland, Golden Trout, Kiavah, Monarch and South Sierra. All but the first are managed in concert with other agencies because the wilderness areas are only partly on SQF.
The forest shares borders with Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, Inyo and Sierra national forests, the BLM, Tule River Reservation, Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest and a number of private property owners.
Recreational assets on the forest include 52 developed campgrounds, hiking on more than 1,147 miles of trails, including 47 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, over 314,448 acres of wilderness, 222 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, 2,617 rivers and streams, world-class whitewater rapids, 158 ponds and lakes, boating, fishing, biking, horseback riding and more.
Information about the national forest is online fs.usda.gov/sequoia.
Reservations needed for Yosemite
Be advised that Yosemite National Park will require a reservation to drive into the park between the hours of 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. on certain days through the spring, summer, and fall of this year. Those days are as follows:
• April 13 – June 30: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays
• July 1 – August 16: every day
• August 17 – October 27: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays
Entrance reservations are acquired online at Recreation.gov. Those with camping or lodging reservations for locations inside the park do not need an additional reservation. On official “free entrance days,” such as April 20 as part of #NationalParkWeek, no entrance fees will be charged; however, a reservation to enter the park is still required. Please see the reservation FAQ for more information: go.nps.gov/reserve
Wildfire, water & weather update
There was snow over the weekend in the Sierra Nevada, but forecasts now show temperatures are set to rise this week — although it will still be cold at higher elevations — with little or no precipitation expected in the next several days.
The best Sierra Nevada weather forecasts are at NWS Hanford, HERE, and NWS Sacramento, HERE. In Central California, we’re moving from winter weather advisories to forecasts of unseasonably warm weather.
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Thanks for reading!
Thorough and fascinating article about Tony Edwards