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The Coalition treated 4,508 acres, planted 65,000+ trees and expanded cultural burning to protect ancient giants from extreme wildfire and climate threats

Prescribed burns help reduce fuels and make giant sequoia forests more resilient to severe wildfires. Photo by Luis Vidal, Save the Redwoods League staff.

ARNOLD, Calif. (April 3, 2026) — The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) today released its 2025 Progress Report, showcasing significant advances in protecting the world’s remaining giant sequoia groves from shifting climates, catastrophic wildfire and emerging threats such as bark beetles. A team of scientists commissioned by GSLC has also released a “State of the Giant Sequoias” report.

GSLC partners have conducted restoration activities in 44 of the world’s 94 sequoia groves since 2022, reducing the risk of extreme wildfires and improving overall forest health. In 2025, Coalition members conducted forest resilience treatments on 4,508 acres across 25 groves, advancing the momentum of this collaborative effort. Since its formation following the devastating 2020 and 2021 fire seasons—when the Castle Fire, KNP Complex Fire and Windy Fire killed thousands of ancient sequoias—the Coalition has treated a total of 23,251 acres across 44 groves (out of 94) and planted more than 682,000 native trees.

“The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition demonstrates the power of collaboration across jurisdictions and agencies,” said Coalition Co-Chair Kevin Conway, state forests program manager for CAL FIRE. “The Coalition’s work is strengthened when every partner brings scientific rigor to grove management. We’re proud to work alongside federal, Tribal and nonprofit partners to protect the giant sequoias, reduce wildfire fuels in overgrown groves and plant native trees in areas where regrowth isn’t happening naturally after recent megafires.”

Giant sequoia ecosystems provide essential habitat for wildlife, they can store vast amounts of carbon, protect waterways and water quality, support the cultural and spiritual practices of Tribal communities and anchor a thriving outdoor recreation economy. A recent GSLC report on the state of the giant sequoias confirms that since 2015, more than 17% of the world’s mature giant sequoias died from megafires, primarily during the catastrophic fires of 2020 and 2021. Years of fire exclusion policies, drought and increasing temperatures were the primary drivers of the extreme wildfires that killed so many of the large, old trees.

Highlights from the 2025 Report:

• Fuels Reduction and Forest Health: Coalition members treated 2,021 acres within sequoia groves and an additional 2,952 acres in surrounding buffer zones using prescribed fire, cultural burning and thinning. This critical work helps groves survive wildfire by moderating their intensity and severity.
• Reforestation: Members planted 65,345 locally sourced native trees in 2025, focusing on high-severity burn areas where seed trees have died and the number of new seedlings is exceptionally low.
• Cultural Burning Partnership: The Coalition expanded its collaboration with regional Tribes, including the Tule River Tribe, North Fork Mono Tribe and Tübatulabal Tribe, who are leading cultural burns at Alder Creek and other groves. These burns not only reduce wildfire risk but also restore Indigenous land management practices, promote culturally significant plants and reconnect Tribal youth with traditional ecological knowledge.
• Data-Driven Prioritization: The GSLC Grove Assessment Task Force, in partnership with Plumas Corp and Conservation Biology Institute, completed a data-driven prioritization analysis ranking all 94 giant sequoia groves by vulnerability to wildfire, drought and lack of regeneration. This will help the Coalition prioritize efforts for the most at-risk groves.
• Emergency Response: When the August 2025 Garnet Fire threatened McKinley Grove, GSLC identified the grove as one of the most vulnerable and the California Interagency Incident Management Team 10 deployed extraordinary measures—including sprinklers, aerial retardant and specialized tree climbers—to save the grove’s ancient monarchs. While some of the grove’s 200 giant sequoia trees sustained heat damage, most survived, underscoring both the value of preparedness and the urgent need to treat vulnerable groves before fire strikes.
• Groves Treated in 2025: Alder Creek, Atwell/East Fork, Belknap, Big Stump, Black Mountain, Board Camp, Cherry Gap, Cold Springs, Converse Basin, Evans Complex, Freeman Creek, Grant, Homers Nose, Landslide, Mariposa, McKinley, Middle Tule, Mountain Home, Nelder, New Oriole Lake, Packsaddle, Parker Peak, Red Hill, Redwood Mountain, Upper Dillonwood.

Four Years of Impact

Since 2022, the Coalition has:

• Treated 23,251 acres across 44 groves (of 94)
• Planted 682,476 native trees
• Conducted 4,643 acres of broadcast burning
• Completed 3,669 acres of pile burning
• Expanded treatments to include 11,454 acres of buffer zones around groves

“The threats to giant sequoias haven’t diminished, but our collective response has grown stronger,” said Ben Blom, co-chair of the GSLC restoration working group and director of stewardship and restoration for Save the Redwoods League. “When all of the sequoia land managers align around shared goals and pool resources, we can accomplish what no single entity could do alone.”

Emerging Threats and Urgent Needs

Approximately 18% of the world’s mature giant sequoias have been lost to extreme wildfire and research shows megafires have severely limited the trees’ ability to reproduce. The recent Garnet Fire’s threat to McKinley Grove demonstrates that there is still much work to be done to protect high-risk groves.

Ongoing forest monitoring has revealed the complex interplay between drought stress, bark beetles and sequoia mortality. While beetles typically attack trees already weakened by other stressors, monitoring efforts documented bark beetle activity across 6,619 acres in 2025, signaling the need for continued vigilance.

Planned 2026 activities include continued reforestation in severely burned groves, expanded cultural burning partnerships and ongoing monitoring of seedling survival and grove health.

“In just four years, we have built significant momentum as a coalition—and we’ve accomplished a lot together,” added Blom. “Still, the overall giant sequoia range is still facing a potential emergency in light of continued wildfire threats. Our ability to continue the necessary restoration and scientific research depend on consistent funding, adequate staffing and supportive public policies.”

PARTNERSHIP IN ACTION

Members of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), California State Parks, National Park Service, Tulare County, Tule River Indian Tribe of California, University of California, Berkeley, USDA Forest Service, DOI Bureau of Land Management.

GSLC Affiliate Members: American Forests, Ancient Forest Society, Giant Sequoia National Monument Association, Save the Redwoods League, Sequoia Parks Conservancy, Southern Sierra Conservancy, Stanislaus National Forest, US Geological Survey—Western Ecological Research Center, Yosemite Conservancy.

About Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition

The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) is a landscape-scale, multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of the remaining giant sequoia grove ecosystems. The Coalition is composed of federal, tribal, state, and local agencies and organizations that directly manage giant sequoia groves in public, tribal, or private nonprofit ownership, known as GSLC Members. In addition, GSLC’s Affiliate Members include select federal and state conservation agencies, nongovernmental organization conservation groups, and academic research partners with a shared commitment to protect giant sequoias and their ecosystems from emerging threats associated with climate change and the extended absence of natural, low-severity wildfire processes on the landscape. Learn more at giantsequoias.org.

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Only 26% of giant sequoia range shows high resistance to extreme wildfires Roughly 13% of the range at risk of local extinction

Prescribed burns help reduce fuels and make giant sequoia forests more resilient to severe wildfires. Photo by Luis Vidal, Save the Redwoods League staff.

ARNOLD, Calif. (April 3, 2026) — A new scientific study from the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) reveals the current state of California’s giant sequoia range and quantifies the alarming extent of damage caused by extreme wildfires over the last decade. More than 17% of all mature giant sequoias have been killed by wildfire since 2015, while less than 1% perished in the 30 prior years. Most of the losses since 2015 occurred during the megafires of 2020 and 2021.

“The State of the Giant Sequoias: Losses, Risks and Opportunities” study, published in the journal Fire Ecology on March 27, 2026, also highlights that most of the world’s remaining giant sequoia groves do not currently meet a high level of resilience to extreme wildfire. With shifting climates increasing wildfire risk and severity, more work is needed to protect these groves.

Due to a combination of forest treatments and natural-intensity wildfires that have occurred throughout the sequoia range since 1995, scientists determined that only 26% of existing sequoia grove area has high resistance to extreme wildfire. Other groves display moderate resistance (38%), low resistance (2%) or have no resistance at all (16%). The remaining 18% of grove area has been lost to high intensity fires that have also inhibited postfire regeneration in some locations; while this percentage tracks total grove area lost since 1984, 17% of this 18% has been lost in just over the past decade.

“While the results of our study are sobering, they position us to direct our attention toward the groves most in need of restoration,” said Kristen Shive, Ph.D., assistant professor of cooperative extension at UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, who led the study on behalf of GSLC. “Megafires have claimed so many mature sequoias in recent years, and because sequoias need fire to regenerate, we once thought this would be a silver lining. We now know that, in some cases, fires were so severe that even this fire-loving species isn’t regenerating. With about 13% of the range at some risk of local extinction, the Coalition’s work to make sequoia groves more resilient to extreme wildfires has never been more important. We will continue to use science to guide our efforts to protect these iconic trees from vanishing.”

Since 2022, GSLC partners have implemented ongoing restoration in 44 out of the remaining 94 sequoia groves through resilience treatments, prescribed burns and the planting of native seedlings. These restoration activities help shield these ancient groves from the impact of extreme wildfires and bolster the sequoia range’s total health. In 2025 alone, the Coalition treated 4,508 acres across 25 groves.

Giant sequoias are the world’s most massive trees and can live for thousands of years. These ancient trees store considerable amounts of carbon and provide essential habitat for wildlife across approximately 25,000 acres along the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Shive added, “We are also encouraged to confirm that while 82% of the range burned in the past decade—compared to only 24% between 1910-2014—most of the recent fires burned with lower severity effects. In low severity areas, we have surviving sequoias and reduced fuels, creating opportunities for the Coalition to amplify these areas of beneficial wildfire with active management to increase giant sequoia resilience in a time of rapid change.”

Other co-authors of the study include scientists from the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (Brianna Baker), US Geological Survey (David Soderberg, Ph.D., Adrian J. Das, Ph.D., Nathan L. Stephenson, Ph.D.), National Park Service/Yosemite National Park (Linnea J. Hardlund), USDA Forest Service/Pacific Southwest Region Ecology Program (Marc D. Meyer, Ph.D.) and University of Nevada/Reno (P. Bryant Nagelson, Sarah M. Bisbing, Ph.D.).

Protecting the Most Vulnerable Groves

In response to the exceptionally severe wildfire impacts in 2020 and 2021, federal, state, Tribal and nonprofit managers of giant sequoias formed the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition to coordinate restoration and recovery work across the range.

The Coalition is prioritizing restoration activities in the most vulnerable sequoia groves identified in the report. Restoration activities include the expansion of cultural and prescribed burns to boost wildfire resilience, continued active resilience treatments and ongoing monitoring of seedling growth in areas struggling with post-fire natural regeneration.

The 2025-26 winter was the warmest on record in the Sierra region, leaving the winter snowpack—which giant sequoias rely on for most of their water—far below average. With 2026 expected to be exceptionally warm, chances are high that dry conditions will amplify the severity of potential wildfires.

“Climate shifts are rapidly altering the severity of wildfires in the sequoia range. This study helps guide our forest management to reduce the impact extreme wildfires can have on these groves,” said Paul Ringgold, chief program officer at Save the Redwoods League, an affiliate member organization of GSLC. “It’s encouraging to see that most areas burned in recent years had lower degrees of impact thanks to the treatments performed by the Coalition. Increased active management with our partners will help promote giant sequoia resilience as megafires continue to be a growing concern.”

According to the newly released 2025 GSLC Progress Report (see press release here), since 2022, the Coalition has:

• Treated 23,251 acres across 44 groves
• Planted 682,476 native trees
• Conducted 4,643 acres of broadcast burning
• Completed 3,669 acres of pile burning
• Expanded treatments to include 11,454 acres of buffer zones around groves

About Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition

The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC) is a landscape-scale, multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of the remaining giant sequoia grove ecosystems. The Coalition is composed of federal, tribal, state, and local agencies and organizations that directly manage giant sequoia groves in public, tribal, or private nonprofit ownership, known as GSLC Members. In addition, GSLC’s Affiliate Members include select federal and state conservation agencies, nongovernmental organization conservation groups, and academic research partners with a shared commitment to protect giant sequoias and their ecosystems from emerging threats associated with climate change and the extended absence of natural, low-severity wildfire processes on the landscape. Learn more at giantsequoias.org.

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Statement in response to the passing of the Save Our Sequoias Act, a bipartisan bill that protects giant sequoias from extreme wildfires, through the U.S. House of Representatives.

San Francisco, Calif. (March 16, 2026) — Save the Redwoods League applauds the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the bipartisan Save Our Sequoias Act (SOSA), which accelerates restoration throughout the giant sequoia range. The bill calls for a comprehensive restoration and reforestation strategy among federal, state, Tribal and nonprofit partners to reduce fire fuels, assess forest resiliency and safeguard giant sequoias from increasingly destructive wildfires. While this updated version of SOSA will benefit these iconic groves, additional work to secure necessary funding is needed to achieve the bill’s goals.

Giant sequoias are the world’s largest trees by volume, covering more than 25,000 acres in 94 groves along the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. They can live for thousands of years, yet nearly 20% of mature giant sequoias have perished over the past decade due to extreme wildfires. The increasing severity of these megafires has also adversely affected the trees’ ability to reproduce, burning at a scale and intensity far beyond the natural fires these trees evolved with. This disrupts regeneration and threatens the long-term survival of the species. Restoration and reforestation work is essential to prevent the remaining giant sequoias from vanishing.

SOSA addresses this crisis by making an emergency declaration to protect giant sequoias from further extreme wildfire risk. The bill complements and preserves bedrock environmental protections already put in place and enables faster restorative action in high-priority groves where science indicates urgent need. In addition, SOSA will codify the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition (GSLC), a landscape-scale, multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of giant sequoia grove ecosystems.

“The passage of SOSA through the House is an important step for giant sequoia conservation,” said Paul Ringgold, chief program officer at Save the Redwoods League. “Save the Redwoods and our GSLC partners are meeting the urgency of the moment through science-based stewardship to improve fire resilience and forest health among the most vulnerable groves. We now look to the Senate to continue the positive momentum for SOSA sparked by the House and provide the investment required to revitalize these irreplaceable forests.”

The GSLC is composed of federal, Tribal, state and local agencies and organizations that directly manage giant sequoia groves in public, Tribal or private nonprofit ownership. To date, Save the Redwoods and the GSLC have completed approximately 20,000 acres of fire resilience treatments and planted more than 600,000 native trees across the giant sequoia range. SOSA will help land managers move quickly to mitigate extreme wildfire risk while preserving the ecological, cultural and climate benefits that giant sequoias provide. Additionally, this legislation calls for a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment to ensure that accurate and science-based information drives actions in giant sequoia forests as the frequency of extreme wildfires continues to climb.

Save the Redwoods League is grateful for the leadership of Representatives Vince Fong (CA-20) and Scott Peters (CA-50), as well as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee Bruce Westerman and Jared Huffman, respectively, for their bipartisan work to revitalize giant sequoia groves.

Save the Redwoods looks forward to working with the Senate to secure funding for the restoration of these ancient forests and complete the passage of SOSA through Congress.

Save the Redwoods League revitalizes coast redwood and giant sequoia forests across California’s redwood range. In partnership with state and federal agencies, Tribes, and communities, we have conserved more than 220,000 acres in 76 parks and preserves and restored 37,000 acres. Our work bolsters carbon storage, strengthens wildfire resilience, benefits local economies, and safeguards iconic landscapes enjoyed by millions.

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Photo by Jessica Monroy/Drew Altizer Photography.

• What: Take Me to the Trees: A Redwoods Celebration
• Why: Benefitting Save the Redwoods League
• Where: National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park
• When: May 2, 2026
• GET TICKETS 

Each spring since 2018, Save the Redwoods League supporters have gathered to celebrate the past year’s triumphs and to reflect on the important work ahead. Take Me to the Trees has grown into a beloved tradition—one that’s raised more than $6 million to revitalize coast redwood and giant sequoia forests across California’s redwood range.

On May 2, 2026, we return to the towering canopy of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for an evening rooted in purpose, connection, and wonder. We are grateful to our generous presenting sponsor, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, for helping to make this joyous gathering possible.

Cocktails and community in the redwoods

Redwood fans connecting at last year’s celebration. Photo by Jessica Monroy/Drew Altizer Photography.

The night kicks off at golden hour with redwood‑inspired cocktails and the chance to connect with fellow redwood fans beneath the trees. Music from The Campfire Quartet—blending classical, Latin, and jazz influences—will fill the grove, setting a lively tone for the night.

Strolling beneath the redwood canopy, guests will find a wide array of silent auction offerings, with a few playful surprises along the way. Silent auction highlights include:

• VIP Cloud Club tickets for a San Francisco Giants game
• Forest bathing among the old‑growth redwoods at Peters Creek
• Cabernet tasting and food pairing at the historic Sequoia Grove Winery
• Private tour and guided whiskey tasting at Redwood Empire Distillery

Silent auction packages include a private tour and whiskey tasting at Redwood Empire Distillery. Photo by Jessica Monroy/Drew Altizer Photography.

VIP Cloud Club seating will elevate an SF Giants game for a lucky auction winner. Photo courtesy SF Giants.

Dinner under the stars

As the sun sets, the gathering moves into a striking open‑air tent for a dinner designed by McCalls Catering, perfectly paired with wines from Sequoia Grove Winery. The redwood forest is defined by its details—from beautifully textured tree bark to brilliant yellow banana slugs—and that same level of magic carries through the distinct flavors and colors of the evening’s menu.

Guiding the night is Raj Mathai, the 12‑time Emmy Award–winning journalist (and three‑time Olympic torchbearer) from NBC Bay Area. Mathai will welcome guest speaker Tiffany Shlain, an acclaimed artist, Emmy‑nominated filmmaker, national bestselling author, and founder of the Webby Awards. Shlain has been recognized by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century.”

A live auction rooted in adventure

Live auction packages include an all-inclusive backpacking trip and other adventures. Photo courtesy of Sierra Summit Expeditions.

This could be your view from a coastal retreat in Trinidad, California—up for grabs at this year’s live auction. Photo courtesy of Eric Fishman.

As dinner concludes, the energy builds for the live auction—a longtime highlight of Take Me to the Trees. The auction will feature curated experiences and redwood‑themed adventures that can only be found at this event. Highlights include:

• Two nights at Brush Creek Landing in Sonoma with a private chef
• A coastal retreat in Trinidad, California, including a guided redwoods hike
• An all‑inclusive backpacking trip with Sierra Summit Expeditions

Proceeds from the auction will support a wide range of projects focused on keeping redwood forests resilient, thriving, and accessible for generations to come. The bidding experience will be accompanied by a brand new video celebrating Save the Redwoods League’s bold and expansive vision for the future, as well as the small, often overlooked wonders that make redwood ecosystems extraordinary.

Bask in the afterglow

Getting into the groove at last year’s celebration. Photo by Jessica Monroy/Drew Altizer Photography.

Buoyed by the energy of the live auction, the celebration returns to the redwood grove for a final joyful gathering beneath the stars. By night’s end, our hope is that guests leave with a deeper sense of connection—to the forests, to one another, and to the shared work of shaping a hopeful future across the redwood landscape.

Take Me to the Trees happens just once each year. Come for the trees. Stay for the magic.

Get Your Tickets

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Ynés Mexía, friend to birds and plants alike, with a black-headed grosbeak, circa 1921. Photo courtesy of California Academy of Sciences.

In 1918, Ynés Mexía encountered her first old-growth redwoods at what is now Montgomery Woods in Mendocino County. She stepped into that primeval forest and felt the soft loam give way beneath her feet, saw walls of lush, dripping ferns, and gawked at muscular tree trunks as thick as boxcars rising impossibly high into the fog. She had never seen such wonders. As she marveled at the beauty surrounding her, Mexía wouldn’t have imagined that a grove in this incredible forest would later be named in her honor. She certainly couldn’t have imagined that she would become one of history’s most renowned botanists.

Mexía hadn’t taken a single botany class in her life. And she was 48 years old.

A life awakened in nature

Mexía occasionally traveled throughout California in an open-top Model T collecting specimens as she went. Photo courtesy of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

Mexía was born in 1870, the daughter of a Mexican diplomat then stationed in Washington DC. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler, and she endured a turbulent childhood. As a young woman Mexía settled in Mexico to manage her father’s ranch after his passing. She suffered through two difficult marriages and struggled with her mental health. At 39, she moved again, this time to San Francisco, to seek psychiatric treatment. What Mexía discovered there changed her life forever.

Once in California, her doctor encouraged her to seek solace and peace in nature. She accepted his advice, first with long walks in Golden Gate Park, and later as an enthusiastic participant in the early California conservation movement. Mexía joined the newly formed Save the Redwoods League in 1919, joining the ranks of the women who helped spark the organization’s early successes. She also signed on to the Sierra Club. With those groups, Mexía was introduced to the coast redwood forests of Northern California, and was awestruck by Yosemite’s grandeur.

It was as if a door to a new life had cracked open. Mexía was so stunned by the diversity of plants and wildlife she’d encountered, she decided, in her early 50s, to enroll at the University of California at Berkeley to study natural history. She immediately fell in love with botany and discovered she had a natural talent for spotting unusual species.

From Alaska to Tierra del Fuego

When Mexía recorded specimens in what is now Denali National Park and Preserve, there was virtually no infrastructure, few roads, and travel was tough. She left with a stack of plant pressings three-feet high. Photo courtesy of California Academy of Sciences.

Mexía was an outlier in her classes at Berkeley. She was a Latina in an institution then largely composed of white students. She was a woman in the male-dominated sciences. And she was about 30 years older than most of her classmates. None of that fazed her.

In 1925 Mexía joined a plant collecting trip to Sinaloa, Mexico, with Stanford University. It was her first serious expedition. At a time when women scientists were expected to work in libraries, not in the field, Mexía’s time spent as a hand on her family’s ranch and familiarity with sleeping outside meant she was more than comfortable with long stretches in the backcountry. Mexía returned from Mexico with 1,500 plant specimens she’d carefully pressed and recorded in the field. One of them is now named for her: Mimosa mexiae—a gorgeous lavender flower that looks like a tiny exploding star.

One of the thousands of specimens Mexía collected in the field. Her notes are visible at bottom right. Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

That kicked off a 13-year period of Mexía striking off deep into the bush from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, to collect as many plant species as she could find. Mexía, fluent in Spanish, particularly loved traveling in South America, where she stood out for being a woman traveling by herself, often arriving at far-flung destinations on horseback. She once tumbled off a cliff, breaking several ribs and was badly sickened by eating poisonous berries. But that was simply part of the adventure.

Mexía once wrote: “A well-known collector and explorer stated very positively that ‘it was impossible for a woman to travel alone in Latin America.’ I decided that if I wanted to become better acquainted with the South American Continent the best way would be to make my way right across it.”

Mexía spent months at a time in the field, ultimately collecting nearly 150,000 specimens. She was the first botanist to make plant pressings in what is now Denali National Park, and throughout her career she recorded at least 500 species unknown to science, 50 of which are now named for her. Much of her collection is permanently housed in archives at UC Berkeley and the California Academy of Sciences.

Preserving Montgomery Woods

An old-growth giant stands in Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve, which exists in part because of Mexía’s advocacy. Photo by Max Forster.

One of Mexía’s most lasting achievements is her impact on the redwood forest that helped kickstart her interest in botany. Shortly after joining Save the Redwoods, she learned industrial logging was encroaching on her beloved Montgomery Woods. Mexía wrote the organization and implored them to protect the groves. Save the Redwoods took notice and marshaled efforts to protect the trees. Some months later, she received a letter from Newton B. Drury, Save the Redwoods’ assistant secretary, who explained that through efforts of the organization and concerned local citizens, the grove was saved. “You will be glad to learn that the cutting in the heart of the Montgomery Grove has been stopped.”

Throughout her career, Mexía remained deeply connected to the redwoods. She was a favorite guest lecturer at Save the Redwoods events, where this slight, bespectacled woman fascinated audiences with adventure yarns, always waving the flag of conservation. When Mexía passed away at the age of 68, she left much of her estate to Save the Redwoods and the Sierra Club.

In 1968, officials with Save the Redwoods and California State Parks dedicated the Ynés Mexía Memorial Grove in Montgomery Woods State Reserve, in honor of her contributions to preserving that incredible landscape. Since 1947, Save the Redwoods has expanded the reserve to 2,743 acres, continuing Mexía’s legacy of protection.

“All who knew Ynés Mexía could not fail to be impressed by her friendly unassuming spirit,” William E. Colby, the secretary of the Sierra Club, wrote in a memorial. “And by that rare courage which enabled her to travel, much of the time alone, in lands where few would dare to follow.”

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When you first see a Ponsse harvester in action during a forest restoration project, it’s hard to believe a machine so powerful can work with such a light touch. Its massive, articulated arm carefully removes individual trees from dense stands, while specially designed tracks tread gently across the forest floor, minimizing impact. If you can picture a bulldozer wearing ballet slippers, you’re not far off. It’s a modern marvel and plays a vital role in healing young redwood forests recovering from decades of industrial logging.

The Ponsse harvester is just one of the many tools used by Redwoods Rising, a partnership between Save the Redwoods League, California State Parks, and the National Park Service. Together, the partners are restoring forests damaged by early industrial logging in what is now Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP), home to nearly half of the world’s protected old‑growth redwoods. While hundreds of ancient trees still stand, much of the surrounding forest is still badly scarred and unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future without help.  

Now in its eighth year, Redwoods Rising is well on its way toward achieving the ambitious goal of healing and restoring 70,000 acres of previously logged forest within RNSP over the next three decades. Since 2020, the partnership has carried out restorative thinning and forest treatment across more than 5,000 acres, has removed 39 miles of failing roads, and has rehabilitated nearly six miles of streams. 

Big ambitions, careful work 

Ponsse harvesters like this are specifically made to work in sensitive environments by spreading their weight evenly, creating low surface pressure. Photo by Amy Kumler.

Decades of commercial-scale industrial logging in RNSP have left behind unhealthy forests that are a far cry from the thriving old-growth ecosystem that evolved there, characterized by open forest floors, rich biodiversity, and pristine wildlife habitat.

Many logged areas were extensively replanted with dense stands of Douglas-fir and other non-redwood species, creating dark forests filled with tall, spindly trees competing for sunlight. The old-growth redwood groves that remain are islands of ancient trees in a sea of second-growth forests lacking in biodiversity and prone to wildfire. Carefully and responsibly thinning the overcrowded young trees is a crucial part of the healing process. 

Commercial logging also left scars beyond the trees themselves. Over the decades, a chaotic web of logging roads was carved through the terrain. As they eroded, the abandoned roads sent sediment sloughing into nearby streams, choking off waterways and blocking passage for native salmon and trout. Redwoods Rising is working to repair or remove more than 300 miles of old logging roads within RNSP—that’s enough road to take you from the heart of Humboldt County to San Francisco. 

An impactful year on the ground and in the water

Juvenile fish get a window seat as they’re moved to a new home during stream restoration work. Photo by Rize Martins de Oliveira.

In 2025, the partnership made significant progress on rehabilitation work across its two main project areas, Greater Mill Creek and Greater Prairie Creek.  

Last summer, forestry contractors worked alongside Redwoods Rising staff to carry out restoration thinning across hundreds of acres, setting the stage for today’s second-growth stands to become the old growth of the future. Other Redwoods Rising crews assisted road contractors in removing degraded asphalt, uncovering streams buried by logging road construction, and reshaping natural hillsides.   

Some of this work was carried out through a partnership between the National Park Service and the Department of Defense, with members of the Air Force Reserve Innovative Readiness Team collaborating with Redwoods Rising on a bridge removal project as a hands-on training opportunity.

Meanwhile, aquatic restoration teams worked in streams and wetlands critical to tiny juvenile salmon and steelhead trout. Restoring these fragile ecosystems often means painstaking and hands-on care. Vegetation specialists planted scores of native plants to stabilize streambanks. Other field technicians, including Redwoods Rising Apprentices, pulled on their waders, rolled up their sleeves, and dipped into waterways to carefully move fish and amphibians, one by one, to safe areas prior to rerouting stream channels. 

Restoring the forest, restoring the community

Since 2019, Redwoods Rising has raised $97.1 million to invest in restoration work that directly impacts North Coast economies. Photo by Amy Kumler.

This restoration work benefits more than just forests and wildlife. Redwoods Rising  supports North Coast communities by injecting dollars into local economies and providing well-paying restoration jobs in an area with high unemployment. Some of these restoration jobs are held by heavy equipment operators and foresters who originally learned their skills working for lumber companies. Now they’re working to heal those same forests.  

Each year of Redwoods Rising progress makes the next one possible. With the 2026 summer restoration season just ahead, Redwoods Rising crews will once again be at work across RNSP, advancing thoughtfully designed projects that continue to heal these extraordinary forests—balletic Ponsse harvesters and all. 

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Photo by Coldwater Collective.

Alanna Smith was 22 when she stumbled upon a National Parks Service internship near her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. “I applied on a whim,” she says. “The posting didn’t say ‘big deal internship that’s going to launch your whole career.’ But it ended up being just that.”

After a decade as a national park ranger, mostly working in the Virgin Islands, Alanna exchanged the beach for the forest. She’s now a member of the Parks & Community Engagement team at Save the Redwoods League, leading public hikes, organizing campouts for young people, and collaborating with local groups to help design welcoming redwood parks where everyone can experience awe and belonging.

Alanna spoke with us about the joys of working directly with the community, the importance of inclusive and impactful encounters with nature, and how she finds inner peace outside.

Q: What drew you to your role at Save the Redwoods?

A: My work had mostly focused on leading visitor programs, but I was also interested in crafting the visitor experience from the perspective of infrastructure. I wanted to figure out where trails go, what kind of signs get put up, what’s there to welcome people and help them have inspiring experiences outdoors. This job seemed like a perfect blend of community engagement and park planning.

Save the Redwoods’ Alanna Smith guides a group of hikers through the magnificent Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve. Photo by Jennifer Charney.

What have you learned about planning for a new park?

Get to know the local community and find out what people are looking for. It’s easy to make the mistake of prescribing what you think the park needs to be. So it’s really important to take a step back and let the people who are familiar with the area share how the park can best meet their needs.

For example, the conceptual plan for Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve had a lot of exciting, flashy components at first, but things changed after we started inviting the public to the property.

During hikes through the reserve, people would say, “Oh, this is great. Just leave it natural. We don’t want a lot of development.” They were seeking adventure and awe and a kind of wildness. They didn’t want a manicured experience. They were looking for a place they could kind of get lost in— not literally, but just escape from whatever stressors they’re experiencing. Now that we have this important feedback, we’re adjusting our plans.

Tell us about working with young people at Harold Richardson.

I help organize campouts for community groups like Girl Ventures and Real Options for City Kids. I usually greet the group at the reserve and then lead them on a hike to the biggest tree on the property. It’s over 1,640 years old, and I love seeing the awe and wonder on the kids’ faces as they gaze up at this beautiful, ancient giant. I wish I could stay for the entire campout, so I could see how they react to the stars coming out, too. Usually several kids have never camped before.

What has kept some of these kids from camping?

For some, it’s a lack of opportunity, lack of resources, lack of transportation. Getting all the gear together—tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad—can be intimidating.

Camping reservations can be very competitive, too. Not everybody grows up in a household where their parents can be on the registration website at 7 o’clock in the morning, six months in advance.

And there are definitely some worries about the unknown, especially for groups that have historically been excluded from outdoor spaces. It can be a lot. We’re always trying to find ways to lower these barriers.

Inspiring future park rangers at the Children’s Career Fair at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Photo by Deborah Zierten.

You also helped facilitate outings with young adults of color for the health study Reclaiming Nature?

Yes, we supported a study exploring stress reduction in nature. These students from San Francisco State University would come out and kind of bask in the redwood forest at one of our properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was really cool to see them become totally immersed in the forest, not stressing about school or work or anything.

Some of them had never been in a redwood forest before, so it was also energizing for them. In the morning, a lot of banana slugs would be out, and it was fun to see the students’ reactions. I also witnessed them really relaxing. One person brought an inflatable lounger. I don’t think she actually took a nap, but she got super comfy.

A programming workshop at Save the Redwoods’ Alder Creek property adds community insights to future park plans. Photo by Alanna Smith.

What’s it like to work alongside these old giant trees?

When we’re out there bushwhacking, trying to decide where the trail is going to go, I’m always gleefully thinking, “I can’t believe this is my job!” I feel so lucky to spend time with these ancient, towering beings. They have seen and lived through so much, and their resilience is so inspiring.

Your first permanent assignment as a park ranger was in a pretty dreamy location, Virgin Islands National Park. What was that like?

I loved the slowness of life on a small island, where watching the sunset was the evening’s main event. You don’t have shopping malls, movie theaters, and all these fancy things, but you have super clear night skies for stargazing and clear water for swimming. When I got off work, I would go to the beach and dive in and feel enveloped by the cool water. I remember thinking it doesn’t matter what is going on, I’m always going to be okay, because I can find this restorative experience in nature.

Has the redwood forest helped you get through any challenging times?

Oh, yeah. I started solo backpacking right before the pandemic. It can be challenging to find people to go with, so I just started going by myself. And I found that I really love it. I can bring my books and my journal and have all this time alone to think through anything that is bothering me.

The wilderness has always been that place I run to when I’m seeking something, especially when it’s something within. It feels like a timeout to reconnect with my senses. I want to provide these kinds of experiences for other people, because I know how transformative they can be.

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With their straight trunks and reddish bark, incense cedars bear more than a passing resemblance to redwoods. Photo by David Prasad/Flickr.

Redwoods set the bar high—literally. In California, it’s easy to spot a towering tree and assume it’s one of the state’s famous giants. But with 95 native tree species, the Golden State’s forests boast extraordinary diversity—and hold plenty of surprises. Simply telling the difference between coast redwoods and giant sequoias can be a challenge.

Here are seven trees most often mistaken for redwoods, with clues about bark, needles, cones, and habitat that can help you reveal their true identity. Slow down, look closer, and soon the remarkable story of each tree will come into focus.

1. Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Douglas-fir cones have distinct, three-pointed bracts said to resemble mice tails. Its bark is corky and furrowed. Photo by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Douglas-fir trees grow shoulder-to-shoulder with redwoods across much of the range and often reach comparable heights. From a distance, a straight, massive trunk rising into the fog feels redwood-enough to pass the test.

How to tell the difference:
Douglas-fir bark is corky and deeply furrowed, not fibrous. Its cones hang downward and carry distinctive three-pointed bracts—often likened to the tiny tails of mice. By contrast, coast redwood cones are small, rounded, and unadorned.

2. Western redcedar (Thuja plicata)

Western redcedar is rare in California. Its cones stand upright and its leaves form flattened scale-like sprays, while its bark is arranged in reddish strips. Photos by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
The name does half the work, and the reddish, fibrous bark does the rest. Western redcedar grows in moist valleys and shaded creek bottoms where moss, filtered light, and redwood-like tree trunks closely echo the vibe of a redwood forest—especially at a glance.

How to tell the difference:
Western redcedar is a Pacific Northwest specialist, its range barely overlapping redwood forests in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Its leaves form flattened, scale-like sprays, while redwood needles are individual and arranged in v-shaped ranks on shaded twigs. Redcedar bark peels in thin strips and smells sharply aromatic when scratched; redwood bark is thicker, deeper, and softly spongy.

3. Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)

Incense-cedar frequently grows alongside giant sequoias in the mountains but has duck-billed, drooping cones and hour-glass shaped leaves. The bark is quite similar between the two species though. Photos by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Incense-cedar is a California forest native of the Sierra Nevada and interior Coast Ranges. While its territory doesn’t meaningfully overlap with coast redwoods, its tall, straight trunk and warm, cinnamon-colored bark often lead people to mistake it for a giant sequoia.

How to tell the difference:
Crush the foliage and the clue arrives immediately: Incense-cedar smells like a pencil box. Its leaves are scale-like and tightly pressed to the twig. The cones are long and slender like a duck’s, whereas sequoia cones are egg-shaped and coast redwood cones are round. The incense-cedar’s bark forms deep, interlacing furrows—similar to a giant sequoia’s, but lacking the thick, fibrous texture of a true redwood.

4. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)

Ponderosa needles grow in bundles of three and bear woody pine cones. The tree’s bark separates into large segments—making the alliterative “ponderosa puzzle pieces” a handy way to identify this tree. Photo by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Pines belong to an entirely different plant family than redwoods, yet size alone can blur that distinction. Ponderosa pine develops massive, reddish-brown trunks and an imposing presence that feels positively redwoods-esque. The ponderosa pine’s range rarely overlaps with coast redwoods, except marginally in places like Santa Cruz County. It is far more likely to grow alongside giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada.

How to tell the difference:
Ponderosa bark separates into large, puzzle-piece plates that often smell faintly of vanilla in warm sun. Its long, pointy needles grow in bundles of three, and it bears familiar woody pine cones. Redwoods and sequoias produce much smaller, rounded cones and carry softer needles that grow directly from twigs.

5. Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana)

Sugar pines love the mid-elevations of California’s mountains, where they dangle the world’s longest pine cones from the ends of their branches. Photos by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Those cones. Sugar pine produces the longest cones of any conifer—often over a foot long—leading many visitors to assume that anything with giant cones must be a redwood. Like Ponderosa pines, however, these trees belongs to a whole different plant family than redwoods.

How to tell the difference:
Redwood cones are modest in size—only a little large than an olive. Sugar pine needles grow in bundles of five, and its branches spread in graceful horizontal tiers. Sugar pine favors higher, drier forests, far from the coast redwood’s fog-nourished realm.

6. Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia)

Pacific yews have leaves similar to redwoods but unique, fleshy-red seed coverings called arils. Bark is usually covered by mosses in the shaded understory. Photos by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Pacific yew belongs to the yew family (Taxaceae), not the redwood family, but its habitat and foliage invite confusion. It grows in the shaded understory of Coast Range forests, sharing cool, moist conditions with redwoods. Its flat, dark needles can look surprisingly similar in deep shade. 

How to tell the difference:
Yew needles are shorter, darker, and more irregularly arranged along the twig. If you’re lucky, the reproductive structures settle the question immediately: Yew produces a single seed partly enclosed in a bright-red, berry-like covering called an aril—not a cone. The Pacific yew’s range can overlap with redwoods, and a great place to see this is in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Yew also overlaps in one place with giant sequoias, at the northern edge of their range in Calaveras County.

7. California nutmeg (Torreya californica)

California nutmegs have sharp-tipped leaves, distinct fleshy seeds, and bark that forms rectangular platelets with age. Photos by Michael Kauffmann.

Why it fools us:
Like the Pacific yew, California nutmeg is a member of the Taxaceae family and it occupies similar coastal forests and Sierra foothill habitats. When young or growing in shade, its flat, narrow needles can suggest redwood foliage to the untrained eye.

How to tell the difference:
Look for plum-sized seeds that are unmistakable if present. (Though handle the foliage carefully—nutmeg needles are stiff and sharply pointed, unlike redwood’s soft needles). Nutmeg remains a mid-sized tree, never approaching a redwood’s towering scale. In the Sierra Nevada, nutmeg grows at lower elevations than giant sequoias. Along with coast redwoods, they are among the most fascinating flora of the Sonoma Coast.

A final note from the forest

Mistaking a redwood or giant sequoia for another giant is not a failure of observation—it is often the beginning of a relationship. California’s forests are full of trees that share stature, bark color, or habitat, especially to eyes still learning the language of the woods.

Learning names—quietly, patiently—changes the encounter. A name opens the door to curiosity about family, deep time, fog, fire, and place. Redwoods remain singular, but they do not stand alone. They rise within a diverse community, each species offering its own clues. When we begin to notice those differences—needle by needle, cone by cone—we move from simply seeing trees to knowing them. And from knowing, connection and care for these living landscapes follows naturally.

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Professor Harold Biswell leads a demonstration of prescribed burning techniques in Yosemite National Park in 1976. Photo by Mike Yost.

On a crisp fall day in 2025, nearly 90 people gathered in a meeting hall beneath the giant sequoias of Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Scientists, authors, and forestry experts took to the podium. They explored topics such as “pyro-silviculture” and enthused about the benefits of “putting fire on the ground.” Audience members leaned forward in their seats, eagerly taking in slides showing tall trees surrounded by low flames.  

What may have looked, at times, like a Fire Addicts Anonymous meeting, was in fact a celebration of one man’s legacy: Harold Biswell, the pioneering ecologist who helped restore beneficial fire to California. At the dawn of the Smokey Bear era, Biswell dared to suggest that fire could be a force of both destruction and renewal. He argued that the policy of complete fire exclusion was only making the woods more flammable—and that careful, controlled burning could return overgrown forests to a healthier, more natural state.  

This “renegade” stance earned Biswell public snubs and professional setbacks. But ultimately, his iconoclastic ideas prevailed. Though he clearly didn’t invent beneficial fire—Indigenous Tribes had practiced cultural burning in California for millennia—his pioneering use of prescribed fire indelibly shaped the health and safety of our forests and communities.

Opening his eyes to the power of fire 

Biswell calmly examines a sapling at the edge of the fire line. Photo courtesy of California State Parks Photo Archive.

Born in 1905, Harold Biswell was a Missouri farm boy with a keen interest in science. After earning his Ph.D. in ecology, he headed to Georgia to conduct research for the U.S. Forest Service. The year was in 1942, and Biswell still held conventional beliefs about fire, writing that “At the time, I was new to burning and looked upon fire as the arch enemy of forests and forestry.”

This perspective didn’t last long. In the Southeast’s pine forests, Biswell was introduced to the regional practice of understory burning. He observed firsthand how small, low-intensity fires could clear the forest of dead and overgrown vegetation, encourage native plant species, and improve wildlife habitat and the ecosystem’s overall health. Ever the scientist, he revised his theories: Unchecked wildfire remained the enemy, but controlled fire was now a valuable ally.    

A not-so-warm welcome in California

Harold Biswell in 1953 at a field day in Northern California. Photo by Woodbridge Metcalf, courtesy of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

In 1947, Biswell joined the faculty at UC Berkeley’s School of Forestry. At the time, California was a tough place to be a fire evangelist. Indigenous cultural burning, which had helped create open, park-like sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada, had been banned outright in the state for nearly a century—part of a larger campaign of displacement and violence against Tribes. In 1924, California adopted a policy of complete fire exclusion.

Biswell’s initial research at Berkeley, which focused on grassland burning, was largely uncontroversial. But in 1951, he began testing understory burning in the ponderosa pine forests. Many faculty members saw the use of fire in forests as reckless or even dangerous—especially given the high value of timber to California’s growing economy. Although Biswell proved to be a cautious and methodical researcher, the faculty banned him from conducting any fire research at the university’s Blodgett Forest.

Biswell’s reception beyond campus was harsher still. Members of the park and fire-fighting communities mocked him with nicknames like “Harry the Torch” and “Burn ‘Em Up Biswell.” When he got up to speak at an event in Yosemite National Park, the park rangers reportedly stood en masse and walked out of the room.  

National influence and the Leopold Report

Biswell (left) with former student Jan van Wagtendonk, taking a break during a burn in Yosemite. Photo by George Briggs / National Park Service.

But Harold Biswell never gave up. He found landowners willing to let him burn safely on their property and built a compelling body of evidence on the positive effects of controlled fire in forests. This work included early fire research in the giant sequoias at Whitaker’s Forest, a privately held property near Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

Just as important, Biswell shared his research and taught his techniques. Throughout his career, he regularly held field days that focused on prescribed fire demonstrations. A dapper figure in his porkpie hat, he would enthusiastically describe his methods to a circle of listeners that included students, members of the public, land managers, and fellow academics.  

One of these early converts was A. Starker Leopold, a prominent wildlife ecologist and fellow Berkeley professor. Biswell’s ideas directly influenced the 1963 “Leopold Report,” a wildlife policy paper that urged national parks to bring fire back into their ecosystems. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sequoia & Kings Canyon and Yosemite national parks launched their own prescribed burning programs. Biswell wasn’t credited at the time—his name remained controversial—but his ideas on fire had accelerated an important shift in national policy.

From Berkeley to the parks 

Harold Biswell, third from left, with a burn crew of state park rangers and foresters. Photo courtesy California State Parks Photo Archive.

Retiring from UC Berkeley in 1973, Biswell found a receptive burning partner in California State Parks. In 1975, he led the first prescribed burn at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, helping to catalyze an ongoing effort to restore beneficial fire across the park’s giant sequoia and mixed conifer forest. He also developed the agency’s first prescribed fire curricula and conducted controlled burns in parks around the state, including Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  

Harold Biswell Day, in September 2025, celebrated the ecologist’s legacy and 50 years of burning in Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Photo courtesy of Lisa Andreano, California State Parks.

Biswell passed away in 1992, but his legacy continues to grow. Many of the students, scientists, and land managers who attended his demonstration burns went on to become leaders in modern fire and forest management. Several were among those who gathered last fall for Harold Biswell Day at Calaveras Big Trees. Some spoke emotionally of Biswell’s courage and persistence. Others addressed the urgent need to expand prescribed fire programs in the face of increasingly destructive megafires. Decades after Biswell sounded the alarm, the state is still contending with the legacy of 100-plus years of fire exclusion.  

Answering Biswell’s call  

Save the Redwoods League crews conduct a controlled burn at Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve. Photo by Sashwa Burrous.

A month after Harold Biswell Day, Governor Newsom signed an executive order calling for the rapid deployment of beneficial fire to reduce wildfire risk across California. “We’ve made tangible progress but much more is needed,” said Newsom in a statement. “I’m tasking state agencies to pull all the levers and gear up for using ‘good fire’ this year to help protect communities and restore healthy landscapes.” 

The order underscores the degree to which Biswell’s pioneering techniques are now widely accepted practice—and the remaining challenge of applying them at scale. For Save the Redwoods League and our partners, answering that challenge means building landscape-scale alliances, training a skilled workforce, and using scientific studies and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to inform and improve forest stewardship. When timing and conditions are right, it means conducting burns across the redwood range, from the giant sequoia groves of Alder Creek to the coast redwood forests of Harold Richardson Redwood Reserve. 

It means that in a warming, more wildfire-prone West, “good fire” isn’t just a concept to celebrate beneath the big trees. It’s a powerful tool, to be wielded with purpose. 

The post Harold Biswell’s fight for prescribed fire in California by Kristina Malsberger appeared first on Save the Redwoods League - Protecting ancient redwood forests since 1918. -- read more at Save the Redwoods League.

San Francisco, Calif. (February 13, 2026) — Save the Redwoods League today objects to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to repeal its own landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are hastening climate change and thus pose a threat to public health. Known as the “endangerment finding,” it has served as the legal framework for the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases and to set emission standards for motor vehicles and fossil fuel companies.  

As a science-based organization that emphasizes the importance of climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation, Save the Redwoods League opposes this policy shift that disregards science and will greatly set back efforts to reduce the continued warming of our planet.

There is clear science proving that climate change is a global threat and that greenhouse gas emissions created by the burning of fossil fuels are the primary driver of its acceleration. Revoking the endangerment finding upends more than a decade of U.S. policies focused on reducing air pollution, prioritizing public health and combating climate change. More dangerously, repealing the finding will enable the largest emitters of these gases to operate without any meaningful regulations.

“Greenhouse gas emissions are the fundamental cause of modern climate change and the science underpinning this finding is unequivocal. Ignoring this science won’t make it go away,” said Dr. Chris Swanston, director of science at Save the Redwoods League. “Throwing out the EPA’s endangerment finding opens the floodgates for unchecked emissions. We know the consequences—we’re experiencing them now in the form of extreme wildfires, heatwaves, storms and floods. This shift in policy will only make these extreme weather events worse.”

Redwood forests are threatened by climate change, yet also act as a potent nature-based climate solution—old-growth redwoods store more carbon per acre than any other forest type on the planet. If allowed to stand without legal challenge, this policy change will have catastrophic consequences in the long term. Extreme weather events, such as wildfires, floods and droughts, are fueled by climate change. Unregulated greenhouse gas emissions will put our communities and our natural spaces, including redwood forests, at higher risk of these disasters.

Policies designed to reduce emissions, like the endangerment finding, have enabled significant progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this century. From 2005-2023, U.S. net emissions dropped by 17.4% due to a shift from coal to natural gas use, increased use of renewable energy and a leveling of electricity demand.

The EPA must place public and environmental health above politics and continue adhering to the science that led to the endangerment finding more than a decade ago.

Save the Redwoods League revitalizes coast redwood and giant sequoia forests across California’s redwood range. In partnership with state and federal agencies, Tribes, and communities, we have conserved more than 220,000 acres in 76 parks and preserves and restored 37,000 acres. Our work bolsters carbon storage, strengthens wildfire resilience, benefits local economies, and safeguards iconic landscapes enjoyed by millions.

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