Wilderness is not a tree farm, speak up to keep Wilderness and giant sequoias wild

Your help is needed to block an unnecessary bill in Congress that would weaken the 1964 Wilderness Act and allow for logging, burning, and roads through giant sequoia groves in designated Wildernesses in California. 

The deceptively-named "Save Our Sequoias Act" (H.R. 2709) has been introduced in the U.S. House by a bipartisan group of representatives. In reality, the bill would do immense and unnecessary damage to the wild groves of giant sequoias in designated Wilderness. 

Please contact your representative and urge them to oppose H.R. 2709.

H.R. 2709 directly amends and weakens the 1964 Wilderness Act to allow any activities related to reforestation (logging, planting, "vegetation competition control," possible road-building to support the reforestation work, etc.) in designated Wildernesses "to reestablish giant sequoias following a wildfire." This would be a dramatic departure from the untrammeled and unmanipulated areas called for by the Wilderness Act.

This bill is not only incredibly damaging to Wilderness, but also unnecessary because giant sequoias evolved with fire. Not only does their thick bark allow mature sequoias to survive most fires, but sequoia's cone-and-seed strategy also evolved with fire. Giant sequoia cones retain their seeds in closed cones for up to 20 years. When fire burns through sequoia groves, the hot air dries out older cones, which then open up and begin to rain down their seeds onto fire-swept, bare soil within weeks.

Wilderness Watch staff recently visited burned sequoia groves in Wilderness in California and found thick natural regeneration of giant Sequoia seedlings following recent wildfires, especially in high-intensity burn areas. Yes, some mature sequoia trees died from recent fires, but tens of thousands of seedlings have sprouted to take their place, just as sequoias have done for millennia.

At this point, no companion bill to H.R. 2709 has been introduced in the Senate, though there was a Senate companion bill in a previous session of Congress. H.R. 2709 has not yet had a hearing in either the House Natural Resources Committee or the House Agriculture Committee, so now is a good time to contact your representative to speak up for Wilderness.

Wilderness is not a tree farm and we must keep Wilderness and sequoias wild!