OUR STORY:

Finding the truth about Giant Sequoias and Fire

With the sun slowly rising our research team climb through the grove, ready for another 12 hour day counting Giant Sequoia seedlings and saplings. The abundance of 4 year old giant sequoias creates a sea of green that must be waded through, chest high or overhead in places, in order to reach the GPS coordinates for the first field plot, in this high-intensity fire patch, where the counting will begin. This is extreme science at its best, unique to John Muir Project, and vital to our fight to protect the next generation of Giant Sequoias--a generation that the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service deny exists. So today we are asking you to join our fight and fund our efforts to expose this lie! Every single dollar you donate today will help us to protect these young groves so they can grow to become the monarchs for future generations.

THE FALSE NARRATIVE:

Sequoias won't grow back after fire

There is no debate that Giant Sequoias are serotinous, meaning they need hot fire to allow their cones to open and release seeds, and to create the bare mineral soil necessary for those seeds to successfully germinate. Yet still, the Forest Service and Park Service insist that only lower-intensity fire is good for Giant Sequoias. Playing on people's fear, they claim hot fire, the very process that ensures Giant Sequoias can reproduce, is a threat to the groves--a false narrative that they use in an attempt to justify logging trees in these areas. Trees which have been off limits to logging and other commercial exploitation for 50 to 100 years or more.

THE THREAT:

Logging, Logging and more Logging

Using Fire as a bogey man, the Forest Service and Park Service are actively deploying their chainsaws and heavy machinery to log these groves. Mariposa Grove in Yosemite (first logging image): partially logged. Freeman Creek Grove: currently being post-fire logged, with naturally regenerating seedlings being cut, stacked in huge piles to be burned on site (second logging image). Starvation Creek Grove: a road was punched in with a bulldozer, and logging has just begun. We have two lawsuits in progress and are filing a third next week. If the Courts or Congress won't shut this down, even more Sequoia groves will be invaded and degraded with habitat lost and invasive weeds ruling the day. We need your support today!

WHAT'S AT RISK:

Logging kills Giant Sequoia seedlings and harms imperiled wildlife

Destruction of vital wildlife habitat is happening right now, including critical and essential habitat for threatened and endangered species. Our team documented: threatened California Spotted Owls nesting in a massive Giant Sequoia snag in the Freeman Creek Grove prior to logging, which began this summer; as well as endangered Pacific Fishers using an area of the the Nelder Grove, 8 years post fire, in a high-intensity burn area our lawsuit stopped them from cutting. This summer was also the first time in several decades that endangered California Condors were documented roosting in Sequoia National Forest. Most Condors have GPS trackers, which enabled us to confirm extensive use of the high-intensity (hot fire) areas, which include the Starvation Creek and Deer Creek Giant Sequoia Groves, both of which are scheduled to be logged.

Destruction of naturally regenerating Giant Sequoia trees is also a major consequence of logging these Groves. After high-intensity fire is when Giant Sequoia seedlings thrive. John Muir Project's original scientific research has discovered that in large high-intensity fire patches, regrowth of Giant Sequoia seedlings outnumbers any other tree species by at least 50 to 1, and they grow five to ten times faster than other tree species. These seedlings and saplings are growing up during a time of great climatic uncertainty, and any given seedling could be the one whose DNA and stored adaptations are the right mix to ensure these Giants survive our changing climate. But this won't happen if they are bulldozed, run-over or cut, piled and burned! Your donation can help us to stop this destruction.

HOW YOUR SUPPORT TODAY CAN HELP SECURE THE FUTURE OF GIANT SEQUOIA ECOSYSTEMS:

Your contribution will keep us in the field, support independent science (science not tied to industry or governmental funding), fund our legal challenges, and help us to hold our elected officials accountable! By giving today you will empower us to continue to counter disinformation about Giant Sequoias and fire, ensuring that what the Giant Sequoias are telling us will be translated for the public and policy makers so that decisions will actually benefit these ecosystems and not do them harm.

Photo credits in order of image: Nick Scritchfield, Redwood Mountain Grove; Chad Hanson, Freeman Creek Grove; Adam Bronstein, Pack Saddle Grove; Chad Hanson Freeman Creek Grove; Maya Khosla, Freeman Creek Grove and Nelder Grove; and Chad Hanson, Redwood Mountain Grove.

Protecting The Next Generation of Giants

Fighting For Sequoias, One Grove at a Time