In a hospital emergency room, a triage system helps doctors and nurses decide who needs care first. A heart attack patient is rushed in immediately. Someone with a sprained ankle may have to wait. Across the Sierra Nevada, giant sequoia …
It took sprinklers and smokejumpers to prevent loss of giant sequoias during the Garnet Fire. Fire resilience is a better strategy.
Vrinda Suresh is the geographic information systems (GIS) program manager at Save the Redwoods League, where she transforms spatial data into compelling visual stories and conservation planning tools. Vrinda spoke with us about the science and art of modern mapmaking and how maps guide important conservation decisions at the League. Here’s how she brings meaning to maps.
With a flash of lightning, a fire ignites naturally near several giant sequoia groves in California’s Sierra Nevada. It’s early August and the overly dense vegetation surrounding some of the sequoias is dry and flammable. The threat of a high-intensity, …
Save the Redwoods League and the USDA Forest Service have signed a partnership agreement to accelerate stewardship activities in the threatened giant sequoia range. Under this stewardship agreement, the League will lead restoration efforts to reduce the wildfire risk in two giant sequoia groves in partnership with the Forest Service. One of the groves is among the 12 cited in the Forest Service “emergency action” announced in July 2022.
Until a few years ago, few had ever seen a giant sequoia killed by wildfire
Save the Redwoods just led a team of researchers and land stewards from all over California to learn about using prescribed fire (controlled burning) on private lands. Take a peek behind the scenes to see how we use fire as a tool to reduce hazardous buildups of combustible vegetation and improve the health of our forests across League properties and the redwood range.
Fire is a natural part of the environment and benefits many forests. Prescribed fires have long been used to encourage growth of beneficial and native plant species and reduce the amount of combustible vegetation that could fuel catastrophic wildfires. Thousands of prescribed fires are carried out across the country every year, and they are integral to forest restoration and stewardship.
Through thoughtful stewardship practices, the ways we seek to emulate aspects of the natural state of the forest can also work in conjunction with how we manage forestland into the future.
During a brief burn window in October, crews from California State Parks and the National Park Service diligently worked to restore the natural process of fire to various ecosystems in over 2,800 acres of Redwood National and State Parks.
I had just arrived at the first ever Women-in-Fire Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (WTREX), and I was one of about 30 participants from around the world who would spend the next ten days learning about, sharing experiences in, and working on controlled burning, with a focus on supporting women in fire management positions.
After witnessing the many wildfires that occurred over the past summer, it’s hard not to think of them as extremely destructive. However, fires are misunderstood; they play an integral role in the unique ecosystems that California has to offer.
The view from the picnic table was grand to be sure, the blue infinities of sea and sky meeting where the distant fog gathered offshore (and coastal fog, when you think about it, really is the perfect blend of the …
In discussing fire, it is important to think about who managed the forests before us, and how that has influenced what the forests look like today. Many different Native American groups lived throughout the redwood region, each utilizing the natural …
Lately we have been thinking a lot about fire. It is fire season in California and sadly huge fires in the west are making headlines with their destructive activity. So, we’ve been discussing ways to decrease these devastating forest fires. …
We’ll do all the law’s allowin’/Tomorrow I’ll be right back plowin’/ settin’ the woods on fire —Hank Williams In a recent post, I discussed the role of natural disturbance in creating the forests we see today. This week, I’d like …
