SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, California: The U.S. Forest Service has said that it is taking emergency action to save giant sequoia trees from wildfires by clearing underbrush.
Over the past two years, up to 20 percent of all large sequoias were killed by wildfires.
The move to bypass environmental reviews could cut years off the normal approval process required to remove smaller trees in national forests.
In a statement, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said, “Without urgent action, wildfires could eliminate countless more iconic giant sequoias. This emergency action to reduce fuels before a wildfire occurs will protect unburned giant sequoia groves from the risks of high-severity wildfires.”
The announcement is part of the overall efforts to save the ancient trees, which are only found on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada range in central California.
Sequoia National Park, managed by the Interior Department, is also considering a novel and controversial plan to plant sequoia seedlings where large trees have been wiped out by fire.
The Save Our Sequoias Act, which includes a provision to speed up 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 sequoia forests.
But some environmental groups have criticized forest thinning as an excuse for commercial logging.
Rob York, professor and cooperative extension specialist at forests operated by the University of California, Berkeley, said the forest service’s plan could be helpful, but would require extensive monitoring.
In an email, he said, “To me it represents a triage approach to deal with the urgent threat to giant sequoias. The treatments will need to be followed up with frequent prescribed fires in order to truly restore and protect the groves long-term,” he said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
