Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Scott Peters (52nd District of California)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA-50) and Vince Fong (R-CA-20) introduced the Save Our Sequoias (SOS) Act, a bipartisan initiative to give land managers the tools to save the iconic giant sequoia and reduce the severity of wildfires that contribute to climate change.
This bill would enhance interagency coordination, accelerate forest restoration efforts, and provide important resources to land managers to guard these ancient trees from further destruction. The SOS Act would reverse the damage caused by catastrophic wildfires and restore the resilience of Giant Sequoia groves, providing critical ecological, scientific, and cultural benefits.
“For generations, the majestic giant sequoia has provided innumerable cultural, environmental, and recreational benefits to humans,” said Rep. Peters. “Unfortunately, insufficient land management and climate change have led to increasingly severe fires that threaten the survival of giant sequoias and the stability of the climate. In just one year, the California wildfires that threaten the Sequoias contributed more to climate change than the state’s entire power sector. Our Save Our Sequoias Act charts a new path forward in federal forest and wildfire policy to combat climate change and ensure the giant sequoias stand safely in their natural habitat for years to come.”
“California’s Giant Sequoias are a symbol of our state’s natural heritage,” said Rep. Fong. “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.”
Representative Peters originally introduced the SOS Act in 2022 with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, and again in 2023.
Representative Peters and Chairman Westerman are also the authors of the Fix Our Forests Act, a comprehensive bill to reduce the procedural challenges that slow fire prevention work on high-risk areas. The bill also provides resources to improve community resiliency to megafires, like assistance with removing hazardous brush near homes and prepositioning firefighting resources during high fire risk times.
“Save the Redwoods League and our federal, state, and tribal partners led significant efforts to restore resilience to the giant sequoias in the past year, yet the existential threat across the range remains severe. It is critically urgent that the National Park Service and USDA-Forest Service have the tools and sustained/permanent funding necessary to implement near-term restoration actions and long-term stewardship of the Giant Sequoia ecosystem. Ensuring a robust future of this iconic species is among the League’s highest priorities,” said Kirsten Tobey, interim president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League. “We welcome the opportunity presented by the reintroduction of the Save Our Sequoias Act to work with Congress to secure the necessary resources and flexibility for our partners to do this critical work, comprehensively and sustainably. The League applauds the leadership of Congressman Fong, Congressman Peters and all the bill’s supporters for their commitment to giant sequoia conservation.”
“The “Save Our Sequoias Act” is a long overdue effort to empower resourceful experts and stewards to employ critical resiliency efforts to combat the very real threat of fire that plagues roughly 70 Sequoia groves as drought conditions increase,” said Shine Nieto, Chairman, Tule River Tribe. “We recognize that there are currently few long-term drought solutions in place in the area to protect our forest and lands – so we must work together to save our sequoias. The Tule River Tribe is proud to support the passage of the Save the Sequoias Act.
Over the last century, fire suppression practices and forest mismanagement have led to a dangerous build-up of fuels, which, in combination with increasingly intense wildfires, has caused the unparalleled destruction of Giant Sequoia groves. For 800 years, we lost no Sequoias due to fire, but in the last few years alone, there has been a nearly 20% loss of these trees.
The SOS Act will provide the following key measures to address this crisis:
- Reforestation Strategy: Establish a comprehensive reforestation strategy to regenerate Giant Sequoias in groves destroyed by recent wildfires, helping to ensure the long-term survival of these majestic trees.
- Expedited Emergency Procedures: Declare an emergency to codify existing emergency procedures, streamline environmental reviews, and maintain robust scientific analysis to accelerate necessary forest treatments.
- Enhanced Coordination: Strengthen collaboration between federal, state, tribal, and local land managers through shared stewardship agreements and the creation of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, a partnership between current Giant Sequoia managers.
- Health and Resiliency Assessment: Establish a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment to prioritize forest management projects, track progress, and ensure ongoing study of the trees’ health and resiliency over time.
- Hazardous Fuels Reduction Funding: Provide funding and create a new grant program to support hazardous fuels reduction treatments in and around Giant Sequoia groves, mitigating the risk of wildfires.
Speeding up science-based forest treatments will boost resilience, improve air and water quality, reduce carbon emissions, and protect vital habitats. Giant Sequoias, the world’s largest trees, are found in 70 groves across 37,000 acres in California, where nearly one-fifth have been destroyed since 2015. The time to protect these irreplaceable pieces of history for future generations is now.
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