FIRE COMPLEX - REPLANTING COLLABORATIONS
Jessy and Caryssa replanting at Sequoia Crest
In the western United States, wildfires now drive the majority of reforestation need — including 80% of the need in national forests. Large, high-severity fires burn so hot and over such a large area that they destroy mature, seed-producing trees and incinerate natural seed banks in the soil.
A large part of Fire Complex are the replanting efforts in the communities and Giant Sequoia National Monument lands impacted by the Castle Fire. Large sections of the Castle Fire burned at temperatures in excess of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit wiping out all trees and killing off the healthy mycelium in the ground. This intensity of the recent Calfornia wildfires is unprecedented and there are concerns that most seriously affected forest areas will not recover without assistance. This is the driving force behind the replanting efforts we initiated as part of Fire Complex.
In early 2021 we began reaching out to various organisations to find ways to source trees for a replanting effort. Our first point of call was USDA Forest Services who manage the federal forest lands adjacent to our community of Sequoia Crest. We asked if they might be interested in supporting a replanting effort in our area. Forest Services suggested a series of charities and organizations we could reach out to. Amongst those was Cal Fire. Cal Fire has a programme that supports the post fire recovery efforts of private landowners. They generously committed to donate 1500 saplings to us for the spring of 2022. Forest Services continued to be involved by providing technical and logistical support and by establishing the vital connection to the Rotary Club. As part of Fire Complex we brought the local communities on board and liaised between the different parties.
In January 2022 Cal Fire reached out to us to let us know that beyond the 1500 saplings they would be able to donate 5000 saplings, a mix of sequoia and ponderosa pine, if we had the land and enough volunteers to plant them. The Forest Service committed to providing 1000 sugar pine saplings and to making some of the land they manage near our community available for planting as well. Forest Services also introduced us to the nearby Rotary Clubs who were organizing a replanting project, on the occasion of Arbor Day. These parties, Cal Fire, Rotary Club, USDA Forest Services, and the local communities of Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village, Ponderosa, and Cedar Slope all agreed to join forces to plant the 6000 trees across private land in Sequoia Crest, Alpine Village and Cedar Slope and Forest Services land.
In a separate effort, upon hearing about our replanting efforts, a member of our community put the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive in touch with us. Six years before the Castle Fire the AATA had visited our community to take cuttings from the local 3000-year-old Stagg and Waterfall trees. The Stagg tree, which is the 5th largest Giant Sequoia tree in the world is within the Alder Creek Grove where Sequoia Crest is located, survived the Castle Fire. The Waterfall tree did not. The AATA donated 150 seven-year-old trees grown descended from these two trees. In an October 2021 replanting event in collaboration with the community of Sequoia Crest and a team from AATA we replanted these trees on those sections of our community that had been lost to the fire. These trees were donated with the proviso that we would be able to look after them. For this purpose, with funding from our community members, we installed a watering system that would make regular watering of the trees through the dry months viable to give them a head start in their first five years in their new home.
PRESS
CBS Interview about collaborative replanting project with Sequoia Crest Community and AATA
Article about collaborative replanting project Fire complex, Sequoia Crest Community and AATA, The Guardian and LA Times amongst others
Article about replanting in Sequoia National forest including collaborative replanting project, Fire Complex, Sequoia Crest Community, USDA Forest Services, Cal Fire and Rotary Club
Replanting workshop with Gretchen Fitzgerald from Forest Services
Visiting planting sites with Jessy and Caryssa from Archangel Ancient Tree Archive
The seven year old saplings of the Waterfall and the Stagg tree in Michigan before they were re-homed to Sequoia Crest
Baby-giants in transit.
Jessy and the our new arrivals
Replanting at Sequoia Crest.
Reconnecting the communities water supplies so we can set up a system to help the new trees in the first five years.
Replanting at Sequoia Crest
Past and future
Interview with AATA
Sixth formers listening to tree performance
The day we were starting to plant the giants
Saplings
Sequoia Crest resident replanting
Community replanting effort
The core team
AATA photographer and Bob Yeager
Community effort
Installing the watering system
Installing the watering system
First repatriated aspiring giant Sequoia to get water
Installing the watering system
Giant Sequoia Sapling
For this group photograph of the volunteers for our replanting effort I invited each contributor to stand on a trunk of a tree that cut down in the clear up effort after the fire, in memory of the life lost to the fire and the in celebration of the new trees planted. This first image is the location where our hone once stood. A very big thank you from me and on behalf of our community to all the amazing people that made this replanting effort possible and to those that travelled up the mountain to come and help us breathe some life back into the mountain to helped us to plant the seeds for a future
Replanting with the Rotary Club
A group photo from the next day replanting at Cedar Slope. A much smaller but no less motivated crowd. We placed an approximate 800 saplings at Cedar Slope... For this photo each of us is standing on a trunk of a tree that cut down in the clear up effort after the fire, in memory of the life lost to the fire and the in celebration of the new trees planted.
