Last month the Garnet Fire swept through the historic McKinley Grove of giant sequoias. Saving the grove took more than a thousand firefighters digging fire breaks and setting up sprinklers while planes roared overhead, dousing the flames from above. Smokejumpers even climbed 200 feet up into massive sequoias to extinguish glowing embers.
In the end, the grit and heroism of the firefighters, a few dozen hissing sprinklers, and a lucky rainstorm kept the sequoias standing. But rallying a small army of firefighters to save sequoias every time a blaze erupts is exhausting, costly, and unsustainable. Especially now, as drought, warming temperatures, and decades of fire suppression fuel ever more destructive megafires.
That’s why the League is putting boots on the ground to advance a long-term, holistic, and scalable plan to restore natural fire resiliency across the Sierra.
In our latest story, “Why firefighters alone aren't enough to save every sequoia,” we explain how proactive resilience is the key to safeguarding these invaluable groves.
