SIGN PETITION TO THE GOVERNOR

Petition to California Governor Gavin Newsom:  

As advocates from all over the world for ancient Giant Sequoias, we are deeply concerned about the imminent threat of wildfire and risky -- but essential --  prescribed burns to the 1100 Giant Sequoias in Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Located next to the rural mountain community of Arnold, CA, half way between Yosemite and Tahoe — and a mere 66 miles as the crow flies from Sacramento, California's state capital — the massive fuels buildup of dry vegetation, dense understory, dead standing trees and ladder fuels poses an existential threat to both the Giant Sequoias and thousands of nearby people, homes & businesses.

Governor Newsom, we urge you to take immediate, emergency action and commit additional critical resources to remove the fire fuel loads to save our only Giant Sequoias on state park lands –  just like the “emergency plan” announced by the US Forest Service to trim their Giant Sequoia forests after 20% of the world’s sequoias were incinerated in 2020 and 2021 in California wildfires.

It is particularly urgent to properly prepare the 1000 Giant Sequoias in the astonishingly overgrown South Grove before the crucial prescribed burn of the entire 1300 acre grove this fall.

Our -- YOUR -- 6500-acre Park is ill, suffering from years of neglect. It is so overgrown and choked-out with fire fuel, the Park’s staff laments it is “a recipe for conflagration, for a megafire…” *  And Arnold could very well become the next Paradise, CA – where 85 people died and more than 11,000 homes burned down in a 2018 catastrophic fire. Or Lahaina, Hawaii where 2000 plus structures burned to the ground, 100+ people died and 4500+people and 3000 animals rendered homeless in August 2023. FEMA estimates it’ll cost $5.65 billion to rebuild. 

A Canadian ecologist recently said on CNN concerning forest management: “It’s ridiculous. We spend billions of dollars once the fire breaks out, but we don’t invest the money upfront to mitigate the fires from happening in the first place.” And as a US Forest Service ecologist and researcher says, with climate change creating drought-stricken forests in California, we cannot prescribe-burn our way out of this crisis without removing fuels first by thinning our forests by at least 50 percent.

Your five-year prescribed-burn-only plan is perilously inadequate, the pace too slow and the scale too small. Without considerable additional action, the prescribed burn this fall of the entire 1300-acre South Grove will put its 1000 Giant Sequoias in danger of suffering the same fate as “The Orphans”, 700-1200-year-old monarchs severely damaged – possibly killed – in last October’s uncontrolled prescribed burn conducted by Park staff.** 

You have said yourself that California’s unprecedented wildfire crisis is an existential threat and demands an unprecedented response.  

We urge you to declare a State of Emergency to Save Calaveras Big Trees.  Bring in an army of forest crews before a fire and employ the latest science and techniques to protect the only giant sequoia groves you oversee  –  thin the forest, remove ladder fuels, prune residual trees, masticate surface fuels into a layer of mulch to conserve surface moisture and retard brush regeneration – and take away tons of biomass as Yosemite does to protect its groves. Create a large, permanent forest crew for ongoing efforts and commit additional funding to restore surrounding forests to protect the Park from outside its boundaries. 

This prescription will create a healthy forest resilient to wildfire and prepare the Park for safe and effective burning operations.

Note: The donation request when you sign the petition is from Change.org and donations go to Change.org to support their petition infrastructure.

WEBSITE: www.savebigtrees.org

Los Angeles Time article July 12, 2023                                                                  https://savebigtrees.org/los-angeles-times-article/

* Union Democrat, 2.4.22 https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_93200084-860d-11ec-8a30-3f71f4d0ece4.html  

** Union Democrat, 6.12.23 https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_29057572-071b-11ee-8fc0-136a1f7a8454.html 

CBS TV Sacramento:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/video/giant-sequoias-badly-burned-in-calaveras-county/