Packsaddle Grove
A report on Save the Redwoods League work there
Volume 3, Number 20 - Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024
Published every Monday and Thursday
Perspective
SEVEN GIANT SEQUOIA GROVES in the Southern Sierra burned during the 2021 Windy Fire. You may recall, as I reported HERE, that scientists in an April report said that 35% of large giant sequoias in those groves died following the Windy Fire, and another 6% were anticipated to die by the third post-fire year.
You can download that report here:
One of the groves is the Packsaddle Grove. It’s part of Giant Sequoia National Monument and located in steep terrain in the southern part of the Monument. If you draw a line from California Hot Springs to Johnsondale, the grove is just south of midpoint. There are more precise ways of locating the grove, but that worked for me.
Former Sequoia National Forest Supervisor Teresa Benson signed a decision notice and FONSI (finding of no significant environmental impact) for the Windy Fire Restoration Project in late December 2023. The Sierra Club and others filed a suit over that and another project in February (as I reported HERE).
The litigation remains pending, and in an email on July 27, the plaintiff’s attorney, René Voss, told me he didn’t expect it to be resolved anytime soon.
Of note, Voss also told me that “In the meantime, plaintiffs have not sought to halt the Forest Service's implementation of project activities at this time but are seeking more long-term answers to our legal concerns in the Monument.”
Rules for Giant Sequoia National Monument, as discussed in the February newsletter referenced above, do not allow logging. As I wrote then:
The presidential direction that “no portion of the monument shall be considered to be suited for timber production” changed the legal purpose of the land.
In other words, logging was off-limits on monument lands.
But there is a caveat: “Removal of trees … may take place only if clearly needed for ecological restoration and maintenance of public safety.”
Whether the work covered in the Windy and Castle Fire restoration projects meets the criteria for “ecological restoration” or “maintenance of public safety” or whether the court will consider some of it to be “logging” and thus forbidden remains to be seen.
In the meantime, work approved by the Forest Service has continued, including work in the Packsaddle Grove that recently drew criticism from Sue Cag, who writes a blog called ilovetrees.net.
On Nov. 9, Cag published a piece titled “The Logging of Packsaddle Grove,” along with photos from her recent visit there.
You can read it and see her photos HERE. Here’s her intro:
Packsaddle Grove and the surrounding forest have been decimated by the Forest Service / Save the Redwoods League.
Cag has not ever responded to my inquiries about her work and limits comments on the Facebook page related to her ilovetrees.net. I didn’t waste my time asking again after her latest piece.
But I did reach out to Sequoia National Forest and Save the Redwoods League for their side of the story. I made my inquiry on Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend and I’m still waiting for response to questions I asked the Forest Service. The League responded quickly that they would reply in detail on Tuesday and they did.
As a prelude, I should mention that the Forest Service contracted with the League to do work in Packsaddle Grove and that previously, the organization did work in Long Meadow Grove (where the much more accessible Trail of 100 Giants is located).
In response to my questions, Ben Blom of Save the Redwoods League said:
We prioritized treatment of Long Meadow and Packsaddle Grove because both groves were relatively large and experienced a mix of fire severities with a “green” core surrounded by extensive high-severity areas with low levels of natural regeneration that would be prone to high-severity re-burn in the future and potential grove contraction (i.e. shrinking). Both groves were in unnatural condition prior to the Windy Fire, as a result of nearly 100 years of fire exclusion.
Blom also referenced the April report by Meyers, et al, that I linked to in the introduction above.
And continuing from his response:
We began pre-implementation monitoring/surveying and project design in summer 2023. We supplemented pre-existing monitoring data that had been collected after the Windy Fire by the Forest Service (Meyers report), adding additional pre-treatment monitoring plots. All of these plots will be revisited post-treatment on a recurring basis. We also conducted seedling surveys to determine how much natural conifer regeneration was occurring within the grove. Within the core of the groves or any areas of natural regeneration, mechanical equipment would be excluded and treatments would be conducted using “hand” crews to reduce the potential for future high-severity fire.
Other preparation work, he said, included:
• Two years of surveys for California spotted own, northern goshawk, mountain yellow-legged frogs and rare/sensitive plants;
• Archeological survey to identify and protect culturally significant plants and sites;
• Flagging areas to avoid including rare/sensitive plant areas and natural giant sequoia regeneration, as well as active California spotted owl and northern goshawk activity centers and nests (to be avoided during the nesting season).
Blom said activities in Packsaddle began in July “and will continue until the project is complete or snow prevents further access to the site. Once we are outside of fire season, we will begin burning piles generated a part of the summer’s work.”
He added (in response to my question related to Cag’s criticism) that the League uses a Forest Service system called PAL (Project Activity Leavel) to manage for an mitigate fire risk.
“This system is updated on a daily basis with fire weather considerations,” he said. “Higher risk activities are put on hold at higher levels of risk.”
Project cost
Blom said the total budgeted cost for this year’s work at Packsaddle Grove was $3,784,000, “with the vast majority of that cost going to contractors to implement the work on the ground.”
He noted that funding for this project “came from the USDA Forest Service and CalFire, with some private philanthropic funding in support of the project from Save the Redwoods League.
“All costs are paid by Save the Redwoods League with reimbursement (when requested) from Save the Redwoods League,” he said.
The League also provided copies of its agreement with the Forest Service and the CalFire grant document.
Sequoia seedlings
I asked Blom if naturally regenerated giant sequoia seedlings were disturbed during the work, as Cag alleged.
She wrote: “Most of the seedlings in the grove have been bulldozed over or crushed when trees were dropped on top of them. However, there are still seedlings trying to survive despite the onslaught.”
Blom said:
We conducted seedling surveys in the pre-implementation phase of the project. Natural regeneration densities were unnaturally low, with some small patches of dense regeneration in moderate-severity and on the edges of high-severity portions of the grove. Within mechanical treatment units, these areas were flagged for equipment avoidance. Within manual treatment units, contractors were instructed to avoid piling any material on natural regeneration.
Was it logging?
Cag calls the effort “The Logging of Packsaddle Grove.” And, as I’ve noted previously, rules for the Monument don’t allow logging.
The presidential proclamation does allow removal of trees for public safety or ecological restoration.
Someday, we may learn how the court interprets activities related to work done during the Castle and Windy Fire restoration projects, other work done by giant sequoia land managers including the emergency response I’ve covered here many times.
In the meantime, Blom answered my questions, as follows:
Were any living giant sequoia trees removed during this work? If so, please describe.
No live giant sequoias (or dead giant sequoias for that matter) were removed or felled during this work. Some down branches that fell during wind storms were pulled away from the trees and piled. This explains (Cag’s) picture(s) of giant sequoia branches on piles. With the exception of some green pine trees within old pine plantations and a small amount of white fir, the vast majority of trees being felled are already dead.
Will all downed logs from the grove be removed? Please explain.
Within mechanical treatment areas (he attached maps) where equipment can operate while avoiding natural regeneration and sensitive plants, logs will be shipped out of the grove. Within manual treatment areas, all material that can be safely lifted by hand will be piled for later burning. Larger material will be left on the ground to decay over time.
What will happen to the logs?
Approximately half of the logs are being sent to Sierra Forest Products in Terra Bella. Receipts from the mill will offset a small portion of project costs. We expect to receive ~$180,000 from log receipts on this project, a small portion (~5%) of the $3.7 million project cost. Removing the logs means less fuel left behind in the grove.
The remaining half of the logs are being delivered to Mulch Masters in Terra Bella, where the material is used for landscaping, or to Lignum Energy in McFarland for energy generation. We receive $150/load for deliveries to Lignum Energy and 0$/load for deliveries to Mulch Masters. All receipts for biomass energy offset a small portion of project costs. We anticipate generating less than $10,000 for biomass sales on this project, a small portion of total project costs.
Wildfire, water & weather update
I haven’t previously reported on the Happy Fire. It’s been burning since July 16 on Sequoia National Forest. Earlier this week the Forest Service reported that the fire had reached Highway 180 near the Grizzly Creek area. Here’s the full report from Facebook:
Late in the afternoon of October 14th, 2024, the Happy Fire arrived at a portion of California Highway 180, near the Grizzly Creek area. Its journey started on July 16th, 2024, when a bolt of lightning struck a tree on National Forest lands within the Monarch Wilderness. Fire Management officials with the Sequoia National Forest, Hume Lake Ranger District, promptly named it the Happy Fire in honor of the nearby Happy Gap feature.
According to district Fire Management Officer Robert Benik, the fire has been burning in an area known as a wildfire maintenance zone, which is defined in the “Land Management Plan for the Sequoia National Forest”. This plan, which was reviewed by the public in 2023 outlines when and how fires will be managed. In the case of the Happy fire, the actual activity is providing a necessary benefit to the land while also keeping firefighters safe. “Fires are a part of the ecological process of the forest” Benik said. “We assessed the risk of putting firefighters into a rugged and steep environment where there has been a history of injuries to staff. We also assessed the threat to people and infrastructure. Because the fire is contained by natural barriers and unlikely to impact these, the potential for injury to staff and the ecological benefit, the decision was made to monitor and take appropriate action to keep it within the zone” Benik stated.
Because fire crews need a safe place to work, Highway 180 only has one lane open between Grizzly Falls and Lewis Creek. Traffic control is provided by the California Department of Transportation. The Forest Service has also brought in additional resources to assist. This includes Forest Service, National Park Service and Washington State Department of Natural Resources crews. There is also an agency helicopter being used for a variety of fire management activities. Firefighters will continue to monitor the flames and smoke to ensure the fire does not cross the highway and that the integrity of the road is maintained. This is a key objective so that visitors and employees can still safely reach the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park.
On 10/14/2024, a US Forest Service (USFS) airplane flew and mapped the Happy Fire at 4,752 acres, which is an increase of 417 acres since the last mapping on 10/13. Of this, 465 acres are in Kings Canyon National Park. The fire is currently not a threat to people or infrastructure. However, smoke produced by the fire can be unhealthy to some individuals. The smoke may also reduce visibility on the highway, so motorists should drive with caution.
For more information about this and other fires: www.Incweb.wildfire.gov
It’s finally feeling like fall, at least where I live in Tehachapi, at the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada. It’s also still dry, and winds are picking up. Predictive Services (HERE) continues to show very dry fuel in the Central and Southern Sierra and there’s lots of good data on its website. The California Drought Map (HERE) shows “abnormally dry” throughout the Sierra Nevada. A web tool (HERE) lets you see a smoke forecast for the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. The best Sierra Nevada weather forecasts are at NWS Hanford, HERE, and NWS Sacramento, HERE.
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