Letters to the Editor: Don’t cut down burned giant sequoias. Give the forests time to recover

To the editor: I oppose the falsely premised Save Our Sequoias Act logging bill, and I oppose the U.S. Forest Service’s circumvention of environmental laws and public participation in order for the agency to conduct a commercial logging project in the Nelder Grove of giant sequoias near Yosemite. (“We’ve got it all wrong about sequoias and wildfire,” Opinion, July 5)

I have surveyed post-fire recovery in giant sequoia groves since the late 1990s. My recent surveys in the Freeman Creek Grove after the September 2020 high-severity Castle fire discovered an average of 46 sequoia seedlings about 2 feet tall and fewer than a dozen of other pine and fir species in three plots.

If left alone, sequoias can recover after high-severity fires.

Ara Marderosian, Weldon, Calif.

The writer was the founding executive director of Sequoia ForestKeeper.

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To the editor: Thanks very much for the article and photograph published with it showing new growth in a burned forest.

Last week I documented thousands of giant sequoia seedlings and saplings while hiking through parts of Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Monument and Sierra National Forest that burned intensely during recent wildfires.

The juxtaposition of brilliant new greens and charcoal-blacks is at once stunning and surprising to the eye. I noticed them in the snow late last year; now they are in full swing.

Let’s give the natural world time, rather than rushing in for removal and replanting that will likely wreck what’s already present: the next generation of giants, readying themselves.

Maya Khosla, Rohnert Park, Calif.

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To the editor: One only needs to know that the Forest Service is within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to realize why they view trees as a crop to be sold to logging companies rather than a necessary part of nature.

Perhaps the Forest Service should be moved into the Department of the Interior, where the National Park Service is. Our forests might be better cared for then.

At least the science explained in this article should be paid attention to.

Chris Gilbert, Berkeley