THE ANGELS – The US Forest Service announced Friday that it will take emergency action to save the giant sequoias by accelerating projects that could begin within weeks to clear the undergrowth and protect the world’s largest trees from the growing threat of forest fires.
The move to bypass some environmental reviews could shave years off the normal approval process required to cut down smaller trees in national forests and use low-intensity fires set intentionally to reduce dense brush that has helped fuel wildfires that have caused killed up to 20% of all large sequoias in the last two years.
“Without urgent action, wildfires could wipe out countless more iconic giant sequoias,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a statement. “This emergency action to reduce fuels before a wildfire occurs will protect unburned giant sequoia groves from high-severity wildfire hazards.”
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The trees, the world’s largest by volume, are under threat like never before. More than a century of aggressive fire suppression has left forests choked with dense vegetation, fallen logs and millions of trees killed by bark beetles that have stoked raging infernos intensified by drought and exacerbated by climate change.
The forest service announcement is among a wide range of ongoing efforts to save the species found only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California. Most of the 70 groves are clustered around Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, with some extending into and north of Yosemite National Park.
Sequoia National Park, which is run by the Department of the Interior and not subject to the emergency action, is considering a novel and controversial plan to plant sequoia seedlings where large trees have been destroyed by fire.
The Save Our Sequoias (SOS) Act, which also includes a provision to expedite environmental reviews like the forest service plan, was recently introduced by a bipartisan group of congressmen, including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose district includes redwoods. .
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The group applauded Moore’s announcement on Friday, but said in a statement that more needs to be done to make it easier to cut down forests.
“Today’s Forest Service action is an important step forward for the Giant Sequoias, but without addressing other barriers to protect these groves, this emergency will only continue,” the group said. “It’s time to codify this action by establishing a truly comprehensive solution to fireproof every grove in California through the SOS Act and save our redwoods.”
Work planned to begin as early as this summer in 12 groves spread across the Sequoia National Forest and Sierra National Forest would cost $21 million to remove so-called ladder fuels made up of brush, dead wood and smaller trees that allow fires to burn. spread upwards. and sets fire to the tops of redwoods that can exceed 300 feet (90 meters) in height.
The plan calls for clearing smaller trees and vegetation and using prescribed fires, intentionally lit and monitored by firefighters during wet conditions, to remove decaying needles, sticks and logs that accumulate on the forest floor.
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Some environmental groups have criticized forest clearing as an excuse for commercial logging.
Ara Marderosian, CEO of the Sequoia ForestKeeper group, called the announcement a “well-orchestrated PR campaign.”
He said he doesn’t consider how logging can exacerbate wildfires and could increase carbon emissions that will worsen the climate crisis.
“Accelerated thinning does not take into account that roads and clearcut areas… allow wind-driven fires due to increased airflow caused by the opening in the canopy, which increases the speed and intensity of burning. forest fires,” he said.
Rob York, professor and cooperative extension specialist in managed forests at the University of California, Berkeley, said the forest service plan could be useful but would require extensive monitoring.
“To me, it represents a triage approach to address the urgent threat of giant sequoias,” York said in an email. “Treatments will need to be followed by frequent prescribed fires to truly restore and protect groves for the long term.”
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The mighty redwood, protected by thick bark and with its foliage typically above flames, was once considered nearly flammable.
The trees even thrive on occasional low-intensity flames, like the ones Native Americans historically lit or allowed to burn, that cleanse the trees competing for sunlight and water. The heat from the flames opens cones and allows the seeds to spread.
But the fires of recent years have shown that although trees can live for more than 3,000 years, they are not immortal and more measures may be needed to protect them.
During a fire last year in Sequoia National Park, firefighters wrapped the most famous trees in protective aluminum foil and used flame retardant on the treetops.
Earlier this month, when fire threatened the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park, firefighters installed sprinklers.
Flames burned through the grove, the first wildfire to do so in more than a century, but there was no major damage. A park forest ecologist credited controlled burns with protecting 500 large trees.
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