Environmental Assessment (EA) - July 2023

Between July 7 and August 6, 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) sought public comment on an environmental assessment (EA) that evaluates alternatives to restore giant sequoia and other mixed conifer seedlings in up to six sequoia groves and in an endangered fisher mixed conifer habitat corridor severely impacted by recent wildfires. Although other groves and mixed conifer forests in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were impacted to some extent by recent wildfire, these seven areas burned at such high and unprecedented severity and resulted in such extensive sequoia and mixed conifer mortality that the natural species composition of these forest ecosystems is unlikely to recover— and is anticipated to instead remain vulnerable to fire initiated long-term conversion from forest to shrub-dominated communities—without intervention.

Giant sequoia (sequoia) is a fundamental resource for which the parks were established and a primary attribute of the natural quality of the wilderness character of the Sequoia-Kings Canyon and John Krebs wildernesses. In 2020 and 2021, the Castle and KNP Complex wildfires together burned through or into 27 NPS managed sequoia groves, six of which included contiguous areas of high severity fire effects where mortality of monarch sequoias occurred at a scope and scale unprecedented in sequoia groves prior to 2020 (Stephenson and Brigham 2021). Assessments by NPS and partner agencies have determined that low seedling regeneration and lack of adequate seed source near these contiguous high severity patches leave these areas vulnerable to fire initiated long-term conversion from forest to shrub-dominated communities.

See Stephenson et al. 2023, in review, which provides the mean seedling densities measured in years one, two, and five after several other (non-Castle or KNP Complex) mixed-severity fires in the Sierra Nevada and Soderberg et al. 2023, in review, which documents the density of seedlings present in some of the groves considered for replanting in the EA. Both of these US Geological Survey peer-reviewed papers are available for download below, and the supporting data for Soderberg et al. 2023 in review is publicly available at: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/63d40479d34e06fef150e7b4.

During this public review period, public comments were received via this website, mail, and several commenters emailed the NPS as well; between these methods, the NPS received around 1,900 pieces of correspondence from the public.

The NPS also hosted a virtual public meeting on the EA on July 25, 2023. A recording of this meeting is available through the "Links" tab on the left hand side of this page.

The NPS also hosted two site visits to the area in July 2023 and members of the public and press were, and continue to be, able to request authorization to access Redwood Mountain Grove any other time by emailing SEKI_Public_Affairs@nps.gov. All other areas of the project area have been open to the public.

Document Content:

Soderberg et al. 2023_Postfire SEGI Mortality Regeneration_PREPRINT IN REVIEW.pdf   (1.2 MB, PDF file) Re-Establish Tree Seedlings in Severely Burned Areas_EA_FINAL_508.pdf   (4.0 MB, PDF file) Stephenson et al. 2023_Sequoia Seedling Reference Densities 2023-05-31_PREPRINT IN REVIEW.pdf   (548.5 KB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.