The U.S. Forest Service has moved forward a massive burning project for the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests in California that covers 2.4 million acres—including all 866,741 acres of designated Wilderness on both national forests! The draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the so-called "Sequoia and Sierra National Forests Prescribed Fire Project" is out for public comment now.

Your help is needed by November 8 to tell the Forest Service to spare the designated Wilderness areas from this extensive burning and habitat manipulation project.

Some of America’s most loved Wilderness areas are at stake, including the Ansel Adams, Dinkey Lakes, John Muir, Kaiser, Kiavah, Monarch, South Sierra, Dome Land, Jennie Lakes, and Golden Trout Wildernesses.

The Forest Service did hear from you and many others during the initial “scoping” phase of this project last year. Thanks in large part to comments from thousands of Wilderness Watch’s members and supporters, the agency has included Alternative C in the draft EA—the Wilderness Exclusion Alternative.

Under Alternative C, the Forest Service would exclude all designated Wilderness from the burning project plus the recommended Monarch Wilderness-South addition—a total of 871,472 acres.

Unfortunately, Alternative C is not the Forest Service’s Proposed Action, so your help is needed once again to protect these wilderness gems from the tree cutting, burning, and manipulation that the agency wants to do.

While we recognize that fire has played, and continues to play, an important ecological role in these Wildernesses, the Forest Service proposal represents a huge human-driven manipulation of Wilderness that is inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the 1964 Wilderness Act. In fact, the Forest Service is even proposing to ignite some fires in Wilderness using helicopters and drones!

From a wilderness perspective, it is far better to allow natural, lightning-caused fire to play its role, rather than to invade Wilderness to cut down "undesirable" trees and burn forests based on human wishes and desires.

Please take a couple of minutes and submit your comments to the Forest Service by Friday, November 8 at this link: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=65081

Urge the agency to spare these crown jewels of the National Wilderness Preservation System from its misguided cutting and burning plans.