The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) is a landscape-scale, multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of giant sequoia grove ecosystems, composed of all federal, tribal, state and local agencies and organizations that manage giant sequoia groves in public, tribal or private nonprofit ownership.
The goals of the coalition are to increase wildfire resilience in our forests and communities; address long-term planning for climate change through research and monitoring; increase the pace and scale of treatments to reduce destructive forest fuels through prescribed burning and restoration to more natural conditions; and increase efficiency through partnerships aimed at policy changes that allow for more swift action.
Photos
2024 Progress
Restoration crews work to build burn piles of dead woody debris in the Packsaddle Grove in 2024. This sequoia survived the 2021 Windy Fire, but the Packsaddle Giant, a 24-foot-diameter monarch did not. Restoring fire resilience to the grove will be a key factor in safeguarding the remaining giants and setting up the entire grove for long-term survival. Credit: Bill Morrison
Aerial view of the 2024 Coffee Pot Fire in Tulare County, California. Credit: National Park Service
By reducing fire fuels, cultural burning can positively change the behavior of future wildfires, slowing their spread, lowering their intensity, and reducing smoke. Photo by Kyle Cooper.
Marianne Emmendorfer, forest silviculturist and giant sequoia specialist with the US Forest Service, tends a fire during the cultural burn demonstration in the Alder Creek Grove of giant sequoias in October 2024. Photo by Evan-Marie Petit Photography.
A USDA Forest Service field crew conducts a seedling census in partnership with the National Park Service in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks to assess giant sequoia regeneration following recent extreme wildfire. Credit: Cole Diemer, USGS.
In the Giant Sequoia National Monument, restoration crews work to build burn piles of dead woody debris in the Packsaddle Grove in 2024. The Windy Fire burned at high severity through parts of the grove resulting in the death of some 1,000-year-old giant sequoias and many other trees in 2021. Credit: Bill Morrison
Jesse Valdez, giant sequoia tribal liaison for Save the Redwoods League, extinguishes a fire by mixing the ash, water, and soil during the cultural burn demonstration in the Alder Creek Grove of giant sequoias in October 2024. Credit: Evan-Marie Petit Photography, Courtesy of Save the Redwoods League.
Members of the Tule River Indian, North Fork Mono, and Tübatulabal Tribes gather and lead a cultural burn demonstration in the Alder Creek Grove of giant sequoias in October 2024. Credit: Evan-Marie Petit Photography, Courtesy of Save the Redwoods League.
In the Giant Sequoia National Monument, restoration crews work to build burn piles of dead woody debris in the Packsaddle Grove in 2024. The Windy Fire burned at high severity through parts of the grove resulting in the death of some 1,000-year-old giant sequoias and many other trees in 2021. Credit: Bill Morrison
Jesse Valdez, giant sequoia tribal liaison for Save the Redwoods League, extinguishes a fire by mixing the ash, water, and soil during the cultural burn demonstration in the Alder Creek Grove of giant sequoias in October 2024. Credit: Evan-Marie Petit Photography, Courtesy of Save the Redwoods League.
2023 Progress
Save the Redwoods League and partners planted more than 50,000 native conifer trees in areas of Alder Creek Grove where the 2020 Castle Fire killed the large seed trees and the seed bank was lost. Photo by Smith Robinson Multimedia, courtesy of Save the Redwoods League
Fuels treatments and replanting were critical in post-fire recovery efforts in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Photo by Kristen Shive
Tahoe National Forest reduces fuels in the Placer County Big Trees Grove in November 2023. Photo by USDA Forest Service
Tahoe National Forest burns piles of fuels in the Placer County Big Trees Grove, November 2023. Photo by USDA Forest Service
Thousands of giant sequoia seedlings sprouted in the North Grove of Calaveras Big Trees State Park in 2023 around “The Orphans” trees. Photo by California State Parks
2022 Progress
National Park Service scientist hikes into Redwood Mountain Grove to look at post-fire effects on giant sequoias. Photo by Daniel Jeffcoach, National Park Service
Pile burning at Alder Creek Grove in 2022 to reduce fuel, part of a larger project to restore areas that were impacted by the SQF Complex fires. Photo by Noam Knopf-Boyer, FRST Corp, courtesy of Save the Redwoods League
Pile burning in Whitaker’s Research Forest within Redwood Mountain Grove. Photo by Rob York, University of California, Berkeley
Pile burning in Whitaker’s Research Forest within Redwood Mountain Grove. Photo by Rob York, University of California, Berkeley
A giant sequoia tree that died from intense wildfire in the 2020 SQF Complex fires. Photo by Save the Redwoods League
Crews in May 2022 conduct a prescribed fire to reduce the buildup of fuels and lower the risk of severe wildfire in Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Photo by Smith Robinson Multimedia, courtesy of Save the Redwoods League
Prescribed burning in Calaveras Big Trees State Park in May 2022. Photo by Save the Redwoods League
A flag stands beside a giant sequoia seedling, one of more than 248,000 native conifer seedlings that were planted by the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition in 2022. Photo by Save the Redwoods League
Forest restoration crews remove and pile fuels in Long Meadow Grove in Giant Sequoia National Monument. Photo by Save the Redwoods League
Map
Map of the approximately 80 giant sequoia groves and major land managers. Map by Save the Redwoods League
