YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Yosemite National Park’s towering trees have been a part of the American psyche for many years. These trees include the majestic and ancient sequoias, Ponderosa pines with snake-patterned bark, and the acorn-laden oaks that are the lifeblood of many Native American cultures.
Two top Yosemite park officials walked through a collection of tree stumps last week and explained to a visitor, “Why did they order chain-saw-wielding teams to fall hundreds of trees?”
Cicely Muldoon was the park superintendent
Cicely Muldoon was the park superintendent and she acknowledged as she trudged past a remnant of an incense cedar that it could be difficult to explain the idea of cutting trees in Yosemite. She said, “It hurts people’s hearts.” “But, we must use every tool available to save the forests and the park, to restore a healthy environment and keep people safe,” she said.
California’s forests are described as extremely vulnerable
California’s forests are described as extremely vulnerable and wounded by forestry experts, with more than a 140million trees having been killed in drought-related beetle attacks and more than 2.4 million being destroyed in Yosemite. Yosemite is now under constant threat from fire and smoke as California suffers another severe drought.
Within the last month, the Oak fire, and the Washburn fire, have raged in and around the park. This has caused evacuations and closed entrances. It also threatens the largest stands, including the Mariposa Grove.
Ms Muldoon believes that Yosemite’s forests
Ms Muldoon believes that Yosemite’s forests need to be made more resilient. However, she and the park management must first prevail in court.
This month, a judge temporarily stopped the park’s biomass-removal efforts. The decision was made in response to a lawsuit brought by an environmental group from Berkeley, Calif. They claim that the park didn’t properly assess the impacts. The Yosemite forests are less than 1% of the thinning area.
The lawsuit, regardless of its success, is reaching far beyond the park’s borders and raising more questions about forest management in the age of climate change.
Leading forestry experts
Leading forestry experts are presenting a dissonant view to a public used to the idea that the country should preserve its wild lands. Sometimes, you need to cut down trees in order to save them. They also suggest that forests can be burned to preserve them.
For now, the Trump administration has ended the polarization between climate scientists and a president who stressed the importance of greater forest management or “raking”, as former President Donald J. Trump used to call it. Many experts believe it has been replaced by a consensus between scientists and politicians on the need for more proactive forest management.
John Battles, a professor of Forest Ecology at the University of California Berkeley
John Battles, a professor of Forest Ecology at the University of California Berkeley and a science advisor to the California Wildfire & Forest Recovery Task Force, stated that “most of us are absolutely convinced this is not just a good thing, but it is absolutely necessary.”
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Congress allocated $6 billion to wild land fire management programs this year
Congress allocated $6 billion to wild land fire management programs this year, in addition to $5 billion for hazardous fuels reduction, as part of the infrastructure law passed last year. The Save Our Sequoias Act was introduced by lawmakers last month. It would speed up environmental reviews that are required for projects involving thinning. Although the bill is bipartisan it has been opposed by a coalition of environmental groups.
The National Park Service
The National Park Service, which oversees Yosemite National Park, made an implicit promise to Americans that it would maintain valued places “more or less the same as they ever did” over a century ago. Nate Stephenson is a scientist emeritus in forest ecology at the United States Geological Survey. In 1916, Congress established the National Park Service. It required parks to be “unimpaired for future generations.”
Dr Stephenson said, however, that this promise is being retracted in an era of rapid, intense environmental changes.
Research showing that America’s wild lands were for millennials affected by humans is central to scientists’ thinking about ways to conserve forests.
Research over decades has shown that wilderness
Research over decades has shown that wilderness, which was valued by European settlers and 19th-century naturalists such as John Muir, was often managed well.
Core samples taken from below a Yosemite pond, which were retrieved using the same method scientists would use to drill into a glacier, revealed centuries-old layers of pollen, ash, and other pollutants. These findings supported the oral histories of Native American tribes that have used fire as a tool for centuries.
Studies have also shown that moderately hot fires can increase biodiversity, allowing meadows to burst into life with many species of flowers. Fire can decrease plant competition, increase water flow, and kill harmful insects. The heat of a fire can dry out some species, like the giant sequoia, and open their cones to release the seeds to the forest floor. Experts make the distinction between fires that benefit the landscape and those that decimate it.
Britta Dyer, who is a specialist in forest regeneration at American Forests
Britta Dyer, who is a specialist in forest regeneration at American Forests (a non-profit organization that encourages the use of forests to slow climate change), stated, “Not all trees and fire are good.”
Garrett Dickman is a forest ecologist in Yosemite Valley. He has been leading efforts to restore the area to its original state, which was created by native burning practices more than 100 years ago.
To determine whether trees should be felled, Mr. Dickman relies on some of the oldest photographs and paintings of the valley.
Abraham Lincoln viewed photos
Abraham Lincoln viewed photos taken by Carleton Watkins during the 1860s. These helped him convince Yosemite to be declared a protected trust. This was a precursor to its becoming a national park. The same photos are used by Mr Dickman today.
Mr Dickman stated, “I will literally take the picture and look at the view and mark the trees that need to be removed in order to restore the vista.”
Mr Dickman stated that live trees greater than 20 inches in height are not allowed to be felled. He calculated that trees larger than 20 inches are too big to cut if they can’t be wrapped around his arms.
Crews have removed 9,156 tons of trees, brush and shrubbery along the road connecting Wawona with the southern entrance to the park. According to Mr Dickman, of the 350 truckloads carrying the logs and brush about half were sent to a sawmill. The remainder went to power plants that use wood to generate electricity.
“We get $60 for 25 tons,” Mr Dickman stated. “But each load cost us $1,200-$1,400 in trucking.”
The suit against the park aims to stop most of the tree cutting and/or thinning. The Earth Island Institute, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, brought the lawsuit. They have also sued other tree-cutting projects. The suit claims that the management of the park did not comply with the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act’s review procedures.
Chad Hanson is the director and principal ecologist for the John Muir Project. This Earth Island Institute subsidiary said that the National Park Service is lying about tree removal. He also stated that he was one of more than 200 experts who signed a letter to President Biden expressing concern that “commercial logging” could be conducted under the guise that it would be “thinning.”
Experts involved in this debate agree that it is not about whether or not forest thinning should continue. They are merely asking how much.
Dr Hanson
Dr Hanson is well-known among conservationists as well as loggers for his frequent lawsuits. He takes a more conservative approach.
He argues that a thickly trimmed forest is less susceptible to fire than a densely populated one. This is because the cooling shade and windbreak are reduced. Experts also agree that although cutting down trees may create dryer and windier conditions, in theory, the West’s forests are already extremely dry for most of the fire season. According to them, even though wind speeds can increase, they are rarely sufficient to offset the benefits of reducing the amount of vegetation that can be burned.
Dr Hanson agrees with the idea that within 100 feet of homes, it is important to selectively thin seedlings or saplings and remove lower limbs from mature trees. But, instead of removing large trees, forest managers need to allow for more wildfires to occur naturally.
Dr Hanson stated that natural processes should be the primary approach. “Not bulldozers, chainsaws, and clear cuts.”
However, there are a number of environmental organizations that counter the claim that they support forest thinning. These include Save the Redwoods League which advocates for the preservation of redwood and giant sequoia trees, as well as the Nature Conservancy, which is an environmental nonprofit.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist from the University of California Los Angele
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist from the University of California Los Angeles and the Nature Conservancy said that it was exhausting to have to deal with Dr Hanson’s endless stream of arguments and litigation. He said, “It’s a waste of money.” Other experts have also published criticisms of Dr Hanson’s method.
Dr Hanson’s new lawsuit has angered some local political leaders including Tom Wheeler (a supervisor in Madera County who is Yosemite County representative) who unleashed a torrent of expletives at Dr. Hanson during a recent town hall meeting.
Former logger and racecar driver, Mr Wheeler spoke with urgency. He pointed out multiple forests in the Sierra Nevada that are resilient to wildfires due to the fact that timber was carefully removed and brush cleared. Although Mr Wheeler opposes the cutting of forests, he says that some trees have grown so densely that they are ready to catch fire.
Mr Wheeler stated, standing beside a thick stand of conifers
“Look at this and tell me how it’s going to burn,” Mr Wheeler stated, standing beside a thick stand of conifers, many of which had been stripped of their needles. “That’s going be so hot that you wouldn’t even be able to stand right there.”
In recent years, large wildfires have been so frequent around Yosemite that all four entrances are filled with the charred remains of burned forests. According to Ms Muldoon (Yosemite Superintendent), the fires can often be so intense that firefighters liken it to fighting a hellish storm.
She said, “We don’t send people out for hurricane fighting and that’s what it’s starting to feel like to firefighters.”
She said that the thickening forest caused by generations of fire suppression now necessitates the removal and hauling in of thousands of trees.
What about preserving the park for future generations?
She said, “It’s a tricky word.” Ms Muldoon stated that unimpaired in the early years of the park services meant “leave everything exactly how it is out there, don’t touch anything.”
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