This is National Park Week
This is National Park Week
Giant sequoias grow in three national parks
Volume 2, Number 40 - Thursday, April 25, 2024
Published every Monday and Thursday
Perspective
THERE ARE LOTS OF GOOD REASONS to celebrate National Park Week (April 20-28 this year), but among them is that giant sequoias grow in three national parks.
Most visitors to Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks are happy to see what some people call the “museum trees,” and they are wonderful. The parks have purposely created places where visitors can see large numbers of exceptionally large trees — although visitors not familiar with the area are sometimes disappointed to learn that the areas aren’t accessible year-round (because of snow).
Traffic delays and closures are also sometimes a problem, and this year, visiting Yosemite—even just to “drive through”—will require a reservation during certain hours and on certain days (information HERE). Sequoia and Kings Canyon—managed together and often referred to as SEKI—also have planned road closures that impact the public (information HERE).
Visitors to the national parks may see giant sequoias, but they may not know that the groves most accessible to tourists are just part of the giant sequoia story.
The trees naturally occur only on the western slope of California’s Sierra Nevada, and, according to a report issued earlier this year by the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, they face an existential threat. Astoundingly large wildfires over the last decade killed many giant sequoia trees, and Yosemite and SEKI visitors will likely see some evidence of these fires.
Visitors may not be aware of the extensive work the NPS (and other giant sequoia land managers) have been doing over the past few years.
Along with two other federal agencies — the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — the state of California, UC Berkeley, Tulare County, the Tule River Tribe, and Save the Redwoods League — the NPS has been involved with the lands coalition in efforts to collaborate on the conservation and stewardship of giant sequoia groves.
In the coalition’s 2023 Progress Report published earlier this year (read it HERE), the NPS reported on its most recent work related to giant sequoias.
Here are excerpts from their reports:
SEKI
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks contain 37 giant sequoia groves, ranging from a few to tens of thousands of giant sequoia trees per grove.
In 2023, Sequoia and Kings Canyon worked closely with several partners to accomplish critical work to protect giant sequoias. Beyond the important research initiatives mentioned in the Scientific Advancements and Monitoring section above, fuels treatments and replanting were critical in post-fire recovery efforts.
Not to be outdone, nature joined these efforts with a lightning strike that resulted in a beneficial, largely low-intensity wildfire near Redwood Meadow in Sequoia National Park. The Redwood Fire, which was ignited in August, was beneficial because of above-average precipitation the previous winter. The precipitation allowed for a confine-and-contain strategy instead of immediate fire suppression. This strategy resulted in beneficial burning in three remote giant sequoia groves that had been identified as at high risk. Now the groves will be much better protected against future potentially catastrophic wildfires.
Crews conducted a critical replanting project in two giant sequoia groves and adjacent fisher habitat. Replanting was deemed necessary in areas of Board Camp and Redwood Mountain groves, where natural regeneration wasn’t sufficient to establish a new generation of sequoias following the catastrophic 2021 KNP Complex fire.
The accomplishments of 2023 were made possible in large part thanks to congressional funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and disaster supplemental funding for giant sequoia preservation, along with other federal, state and philanthropic funding.
Yosemite
Yosemite National Park contains three giant sequoia groves: Mariposa, Tuolumne and Merced groves.
In 2023, the park treated more than 350 acres in and around the Merced and Mariposa groves with biomass removal and broadcast burning as part of its parkwide fire management program. In Merced Grove, 11 acres within the grove and 31 acres around the grove were mechanically treated in preparation for prescribed fire. In Mariposa Grove, 20 acres within the grove and 134 acres around the grove were mechanically treated.
In late May, 68 acres within Mariposa Grove and 100 acres around the grove were broadcast burned. This burn connected the grove with the 2022 Washburn Fire footprint to the west, decreasing the potential wildfire threat to the nearby community of Wawona. According to the mechanical treatment prescription in both groves, conifers fewer than 20 inches in diameter were thinned, thousands of hazard trees were removed, and slash and large, downed woody debris was removed, chipped or piled.
Approximately $2.5 million was spent on fuels reduction in and around Merced Grove and Mariposa Grove through grants by California Climate Investments and California Wildlife Conservation Board; 66 people conducted the work.
Lawsuit update
In late February, I reported HERE that the Sierra Club, Earth Island Institute and Sequoia ForestKeeper had sued the Forest Service over what the organizations call “two large logging and vegetation management projects in the Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Forest.”
Last week, the litigants filed documents that appear to have moved the lawsuit from the United States District Court, Northern District of California, to the district court’s Eastern District of California, Fresno Division.
I’ve asked attorney René P. Voss why the move was made but haven’t heard back yet.
From my quick review, it appears that the complaint is identical but the case has a new number: 1:24-cv-00473.
You can read it here:
Chad Hanson will speak at Sierra Club banquet in Bakersfield
As The Bakersfield Californian reported HERE, Chad Hanson will be the keynote speaker at the Sierra Club Kern-Kaweah Chapter's spring banquet this Saturday in Bakersfield.
Hanson will lead a talk on "The Most Misunderstood Tree on Earth: The Fire-Dependent Giant Sequoia and Its Struggle to Survive Our Love."
Hanson, a research biologist, is also director of the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute.
Wildfire, water & weather update
Here’s a cool way to quickly look at fire weather across the country — check out this map HERE from the Fire Environment Mapping System. According to wildfire.gov, FEMS is a wildland fire IT application that will support wildland fire preparedness and decision-making with better access to fire environment datasets and online analysis tools. The data includes not just weather but also fuel moisture levels.
Stormy weather isn’t over for the Sierra Nevada. I said that Monday, and it’s still true. Forecasts include the possibility of high winds, thunderstorms, rain and snow at higher elevations. The best Sierra Nevada weather forecasts are at NWS Hanford, HERE, and NWS Sacramento, HERE.
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