Where Fire Heals and Mismanagement Hurts: Notes from Sequoia Country

The John Muir Project just returned from our annual retreat, a time to reconnect with each other—and with the landscapes we are fighting to protect. This year, our time in Sequoia country aligned with the summer solstice, the longest day of the year when light stretches across the landscape and the rhythms of the natural world feel most alive.

It is also a moment to reflect on the summers to come. As the climate warms and extremes deepen, fire will continue to shape these forests, and so too will our choices about how, and whether, to intervene.

Joined by colleagues from Western Watersheds Project, Wilderness Watch, and others, we visited three of the most ecologically important giant sequoia groves in the southern Sierra Nevada: Redwood Mountain Grove, Packsaddle Grove, and Freeman Creek Grove.

Redwood Mountain Grove, located within a national park and designated wilderness, burned during the 2021 KNP Complex Fire. It stands as a powerful example of natural recovery. The most robust sequoia regeneration we observed occurred in the higher-intensity burn areas, where sunlight and nutrient-rich soil created ideal conditions for young trees. This is the type of fire sequoias evolved with, and this is where they flourish.

Unfortunately, not all interventions support this recovery. In areas where the Park Service had planted seedlings, many were already dying. Random, struggling saplings stood in stark contrast to the vibrant, naturally regenerating portions of the grove where tens of thousands of seedlings and saplings per acre carpeted the ground. It turns out sequoias are much better at growing themselves when we do not micromanage the process. Imagine that?!

Packsaddle Grove, within the Giant Sequoia National Monument, burned in the 2020 Castle Fire. Here, the Forest Service has begun logging in the middle of the grove. Trees, including living ones, are being cut and hauled out. Heavy equipment has scraped away regenerating sequoia seedlings and other plants, damaged soils, and left behind scars that reveal a process labeled as “restoration” on paper but something entirely different in practice.

Grazing was a common thread in all three groves. We found signs of cattle everywhere we visited—some authorized, some trespass, a pungent reminder that livestock are hampering post-fire forest recovery and regeneration. The freshest evidence was at Freeman Creek Grove, where we observed new cow pies and soil turned to dust. These fragile ecosystems, still in early stages of natural renewal after fire, are now hosting trampling hooves and digestive aftermath in the name of “multiple use.” Apparently, “restoration” now includes compacted soil, crushed seedlings, and a fresh layer of manure.

We have seen this language before, terms such as “thinning,” “grazing to mitigate fire risk,” and “forest health.” They sound helpful, but these terms are attached to projects that remove trees, disrupt soil, destroy natural regeneration, and replace living systems with logging operations. Destructive practices by our land management agencies are now being visited upon our cherished sequoia groves, national parks, and wilderness areas.

Is nothing sacred?

First, they claim the forest is too dense and must be thinned to reduce wildfire risk. Then fire comes, and despite everything, the forest begins to heal, as seedlings push through ash, wildlife returns, and regeneration takes hold. Yet recovery is rarely allowed to stand on its own. Next, they insist the forest must be managed again to “restore” it. Whether before or after fire, management results in scraped soil, crushed seedlings, and ecological processes interrupted, all while being marketed as forest health.

We are told these groves need thinning to reduce the risk of future fires. But the science tells a different story. Logging unnaturally increases fire severity, grazing diminishes regrowth, and artificial planting often fails to match the natural pace and patterns of post-fire renewal. Still, these activities continue to be marketed as solutions to problems that they actively worsen.

Fire is not the threat. It is quite the opposite.

Fire is the source of new life and regeneration. It is not something to be feared. It is something to celebrate.

The real damage comes before and afterward, disguised as care, in the form of logging operations, grazing leases, and well-funded planting schemes that undercut natural processes.

And this is not happening in one or two groves alone. Public lands of all stripes are vulnerable. National forests, national parks, and even national monuments and Wilderness areas are increasingly managed under shifting policies that put ecological integrity second to industry access, agency optics, or political pressure. Labels do not offer real protection; they only make it easier to assume that protection exists.

What we need are enforceable, science-based protections that recognize fire as essential and prevent agencies from using “restoration” as a cover for extractive and destructive management. The forests are recovering on their own. They do not need more management—they need to be respected. If we cannot give the sequoia forests space to live, adapt, and survive on their own, then surely we have lost ourselves. The question should be; what can we learn from these forests, not what can we do to ‘help’ them.

Over the next few weeks, we will share more from our time in Sequoia country, including field photos, deeper policy insights, and a closer look at the growing push to expand logging across all categories of public lands—including national forests, monuments, and parks.

But for now, the lesson is simple.

The forests showing the strongest recovery were those shaped by fire, not by management. The most damaged were the ones where we intervened to “fix” what was never broken.

Let us stop undermining natural recovery. Let us stop pretending that logging and grazing amount to stewardship. Let us choose real protection, rooted in humility and guided by science.

In awe and solidarity,
Public Land Defenders

Resources and additional insight into our Sequoia country trip:

• “Sequoia Gate,” newest episode of Our Public Lands Podcast, hosted by Western Watersheds Project’s Adam Bronstein, where JMP’s Director & Principal Ecologist, Dr. Chad Hanson, was mic’d up as we explored the sequoia groves of Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Listen here.
• “The Great Big Giant Sequoia Scam w/ Dr. Chad Hanson” – Our Public Lands Podcast episode from May 3, 2025. Listen here.
• Giant sequoia groves are under attack — even in national parks and Wilderness areas. Complete this action alert to stop the trojan horse “Save Our Sequoias Act” (H.R. 2709).