wildfire

Three people look at exhibits

Beacon of renewal: A new welcome center opens

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It’s a spectacular drive heading south from San Francisco on Highway 1, where under an azure sky, the furrowed Santa Cruz Mountains meet the sparkling, blue arc of the Pacific and its craggy sea stacks. In about 60 miles, the …

alder seedling

Video: How to restore a giant sequoia grove

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For several hours on a sunny day in late May, crews worked their way up the south-facing hillsides on the heavily burned section of the League’s Alder Creek property. With various tools in their hands, and backpacks full of seedlings, …

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Video: Burning to save giant sequoia forests

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Save the Redwoods League recently worked with Inside Climate News to tell the story of the dangers faced by California’s giant sequoia forests in a time of high-severity wildfire. League Forest Ecologist Linnea Hardlund features prominently in the video talking …

big basin redwood loop trail

Day One of Big Basin’s new era

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Visiting Big Basin Redwoods State Park on its reopening day. While the newly opened area might seem spare to some, it actually represents a ton of work in a short amount of time. 

A woman stands next to a giant sequoia tree among burned giant sequoia, with the sun shining.

Giant sequoias’ declining wildfire resilience

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For millennia, one of the defining characteristics of giant sequoias has been their innate resilience to wildfire. But in the last several years, severe fires in the Sierra Nevada have revealed an unprecedented vulnerability in the groves. League staffers’ publication in a scientific journal is the first to document this new phenomenon.

firefighter in sequoia grove

Preliminary Toll from Sierra Wildfires Confirm That Treasured Giant Sequoia Face an Existential Threat

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According to data compiled by the Giant Sequoia Coalition, 28 giant sequoia groves experienced fire from the 2021 KNP Complex and Windy fires, and these fires killed up to 5% of world’s giant sequoia that are at least four feet in diameter. When combined with estimates that as much as 14% of the world’s monarchs were killed in the 2020 Castle Fire, the numbers paint a grim future for these natural treasures unless immediate action is taken.