“Give us a good burn.” Those were the words spoken by Chairman Gomez of the Tübatulabal Tribe as we gathered beneath the ancient sequoias at Alder Creek last year.
For the first time in more than a century, cultural fire returned to these ancestral lands in 2024, with multiple cultural burns at Alder Creek since then. Leaders of the Tule River Indian Tribe, North Fork Mono Tribe, and Tübatulabal Tribe lit small, intentional flames. Part ceremony, part restoration.
Each spark honored generations of ecological knowledge and a shared purpose: restoring balance to a forest that evolved to thrive with fire.
Help restore balance to the forest: Make your matched gift to the Redwood Resilience Fund
When you give to the Redwood Resilience Fund, you’re helping strengthen the bond between cultural wisdom and conservation science to protect forests that have sheltered life for millennia.
The Redwood Resilience Fund is a gift to the future
At Alder Creek Grove, home to hundreds of ancient sequoias—including the Stagg Tree, the fifth-largest tree on Earth—cultural burns are helping to protect a living legacy. These low-intensity fires help to clear overgrowth and nurture young sequoias, ensuring these giants endure in an era of climate change. It’s a practice that restores both forest and culture.
The banning of these burning practices was a significant factor in losing nearly 20% of the world’s oldest giant sequoias in the high-severity megafires of the last decade. Let’s work to make sure that never happens again.
Through the Redwood Resilience Fund, Save the Redwoods is deepening these partnerships, supporting ongoing stewardship at Alder Creek, and safeguarding habitat for species such as the Pacific fisher and the California spotted owl. Will you join us in this urgent work?
Make your matched gift to the Redwood Resilience Fund by midnight 12/31 and help keep the sequoias’ story of renewal burning bright.
