Rep. Vince Fong (R–Bakersfield) is pushing a bipartisan bill that would protect California’s Giant Sequoias.
Fong and Rep. Scott Peters (D–La Jolla) have introduced the Save Our Sequoias Act to Congress.
The big picture: The Save Our Sequoias Act would boost interagency coordination and speed up forest restoration efforts.
- It would also provide more resources to land managers to guard the Giant Sequoias from further destruction. Fong’s office said nearly 20% of the Giant Sequoias have been lost in the last two years due to devastating wildfires.
Go deeper: The bill would establish a reforestation strategy to regenerate the Giant Sequoias that have been recently destroyed.
- It would also declare an emergency to codify existing emergency procedures, streamline environmental reviews and maintain scientific analysis to accelerate necessary forest treatments.
- Further, the bill would create the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, which would be a partnership between current Giant Sequoia managers and would strengthen collaboration between federal, state, tribal and local land managers.
- The bill would also establish a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment to prioritize forest management projects, track projects and ensure the ongoing study of the trees’ health and resiliency.
- It would also create a new grant program to support hazardous fuels reduction treatments in and around Giant Sequoia Groves.
What they’re saying: “California’s Giant Sequoias are a symbol of our state’s natural heritage,” Fong said. “We cannot afford to stand by as continued forest mismanagement destroys our natural resources. It is essential we enact legislation that enforces proactive forest management, and harnesses the power of science, collaboration, and expedited action to protect the remaining Giant Sequoias, return resilience to our forests, and ensure these trees endure for generations.”
- Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R–Richvale), who was an original co-sponsor of the act, said the bill would save the Giant Sequoias.
- “Catastrophic wildfires are threatening California’s historic giant sequoias,” LaMalfa said. “These trees are the largest in the world but saving them will not require a herculean effort – just increasing the pace and scale of common-sense forest management policies. Representative Fong’s bipartisan solution saves our sequoia groves by expediting hazardous fuels removal and creating stewardship agreements that bring land managers from every level of government into a partnership.”
