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Annual Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition Progress Report Highlights Significant Advances in Emergency Wildfire Recovery, Research and Restoration

News provided by news direct2025-05-13

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By reducing fire fuels, cultural burning can positively change the behavior of future wildfires, slowing their spread, lowering their intensity, and reducing smoke. Photo: Save the Redwoods League

Officials from the State of California, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, Tule River Indian Tribe of California, Save the Redwoods League and other members of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) today announced significant progress in their work to protect the largest trees on Earth from extreme wildfires. In its 2024 progress report, the GSLC confirms coalition partners have conducted restoration activities in more than half of the world’s sequoia groves since 2022, reducing the risk of extreme wildfires and improving overall forest health.

“The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition has made remarkable progress in defending the largest trees in the world from the growing threat of extreme megafires,” said coalition Co-Chair Kevin Conway, state forests program manager for CAL FIRE. “With meticulous research we’re gaining critical insight into the changing dynamics of these fire-adapted ecosystems. Through strategic fuel reduction and other restoration efforts across thousands of acres we’re actively making forests healthier. What began as a shared commitment in the face of crisis has evolved into a deeply rooted collaboration, built on trust, expertise and a commitment to the survival of giant sequoias.”

Giant sequoia ecosystems provide essential habitat for wildlife, store vast amounts of carbon, protect headwaters and water quality, support the cultural and spiritual practices of Tribal Nations and anchor a thriving outdoor recreation economy. In the past decade, approximately 20% of the world’s mature giant sequoias died from megafires, primarily during the catastrophic fires of 2020 and 2021. Years of fire exclusion, drought and increasing temperatures were the primary drivers of the severe wildfires that killed these magnificent trees. The GSLC formed in 2022 in the face of this existential crisis.

2024 Highlights from the Report:

Scientific Advancements: Leading giant sequoia ecologists published new research on post-fire regeneration and the emerging threats of native bark beetles. The GSLC also launched monitoring efforts to understand the health and vulnerabilities of giant sequoias. Ongoing research and monitoring provide a scientific basis for restoration programs and inform best practices across the sequoia range.
- Two recent publications discuss the substantial risk of losing portions of giant sequoia groves due to high tree mortality rates and inadequate natural recovery if no intervention is taken.
Innovation: In May a health inspection of the world’s largest tree, General Sherman, was organized by GSLC members and led by the National Park Service and Ancient Forest Society. Three different technologies were used in the study, and the tree was found to be in good health.
Cultural Burning Returns: Members from the Tule River Indian, North Fork Mono, and Tübatulabal Tribes led two cultural burn demonstrations within a giant sequoia grove, sharing their deep knowledge and raising awareness for this important land stewardship practice. The cultural burns were held at the Alder Creek Grove in collaboration with Save the Redwoods League and other coalition members.
Rapid Wildfire Response: During the Coffee Pot Fire in Tulare County in August 2024, the GSLC members mobilized swiftly to protect vulnerable groves in Sequoia National Park and neighboring lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Approximately 12 large sequoias were killed by the wildfire, but overall large tree losses were kept to a minimum because of the swift actions of firefighters and the GSLC.

The GSLC’s restoration work in 2024 was managed by 1,652 personnel.

Since 2022, the GSLC has completed 18,743 acres of restoration treatments in 44 giant sequoia groves, and 8,500 acres of treatments in forests surrounding the groves. Fire exclusion, combined with drought and rising temperatures, has resulted in a hazardous and unnatural buildup of combustible plant materials (fuels) within and surrounding the groves. Restoration work increases the wildfire resilience of the groves by reducing the amount of fuels through manual and mechanical reductions, prescribed fires and cultural burning practices. Without these efforts, the groves are susceptible to wildfires that burn with an intensity that far exceeds the historical fires that giant sequoias evolved with, fires that they need to reproduce and regenerate.

More than 74,800 native trees were planted in 2024 within groves to aid in forest recovery, raising the total to more than 617,000 native trees in the last three years. Reforestation projects focus on areas that experienced uncharacteristically high wildfire intensity where seed trees have died, burned seeds were not able to develop and minimal regeneration was naturally occurring.

The full report is available here.

“The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition originated in a time of crisis. Today, it is a model for collaboration, restoration, and stewardship based in science and ecocultural knowledge,” said Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration for Save the Redwoods League and chair of the GSLC restoration working group. “We are poised to deepen our impact across the range in 2025. We’ve accomplished a lot as a coalition, but the work is far from done. We need to keep our momentum going to protect these irreplaceable American forests at the scale they need to thrive.”

“Despite significant progress, the restoration work is far from done. The threats to giant sequoias remain urgent, and restoration at the scale required demands long-term coordination, sustained funding and supportive policies,” continued Blom.

The members of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition include:

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), stewards of Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest
California State Parks, stewards of Calaveras Big Trees State Park
National Park Service, represented by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park
Tulare County, stewards of Balch Park
Tule River Indian Tribe of California, stewards of all or parts of five sequoia groves
University of California, Berkeley, stewards of Whitaker’s Forest
USDA Forest Service, represented by the Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest
U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, stewards of Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area

GSLC Affiliate Members:American Forests, Ancient Forest Society, Giant Sequoia National Monument Association, Save the Redwoods League (stewards of a section of the Alder Creek Grove), Sequoia Parks Conservancy, Southern Sierra Conservancy, Stanislaus National Forest, US Geological Survey—Western Ecological Research Center and Yosemite Conservancy.

Note to media: Images of GSLC projects and places are available for downloadhere.

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About Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition

The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) is a landscape-scale, multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of giant sequoia grove ecosystems. Our coalition is composed of all federal, tribal, state and local agencies and organizations that manage giant sequoia groves in public, tribal or private nonprofit ownership. Our affiliate partners include select federal and state conservation agencies, nongovernmental organization conservation groups, and academic research partners with a shared commitment to protect and steward giant sequoias and their ecosystems from emerging threats associated with climate change and the extended absence of natural, low-severity wildfire processes on the landscape. Learn more at giantsequoias.org.

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