Abstract

Excerpted From: Bradly DeMoll, Who Will Speak for the Trees? How the Save Our Sequoias Act Underscores the Urgent Need to Protect Giant Sequoias and the Tule River Indian Reservation from Wildfire Destruction, 30 UC Law Environmental Journal 127 (May, 2024) (209 Footnotes) (Full Document)

One of the many consequences of climate change is longer and more intense fire seasons. In California, wildfires have had a devastating impact on communities and biodiversity alike. From an ecological standpoint, perhaps the most devastating impact of all is the threatened annihilation of giant sequoia trees by high-severity wildfires. Endemic to California, giant sequoias are the oldest and largest living beings on the planet. These ancient and magnificently large trees are not only ecologically unique, but culturally significant to the Indigenous people of the area. Moreover, their groves provide sanctuary to dozens of plant and animal species, as well as a home to the Tule River Indian Tribe.

Giant Sequoia National Monument is a nationally protected area of land that contains many of the giant sequoia groves, and is divided into two areas: the Northern and Southern portions. The Southern portion shares a border with Sequoia National Forest on its eastern side, while its western side envelops most of the Tule River Indian Reservation. Twenty giant sequoia groves make up the Southern portion, including Black Mountain Grove, which lies on the Tule River Indian Reservation. These groves are of major cultural importance to the Tribe, and have been home to them and their ancestors for thousands of years. Recent and future fires not only threaten the existence of the giant sequoias, but they pose an existential threat to the ancestral homelands of the Tribe. One fire season alone saw the incineration of nearly a third of the Tribe's land--leaving behind a barren wasteland. If the forests continue to burn, so too will the Tribe's home.

In recent years, there has been a push to restore native land rights to Indigenous peoples of the U.S. in order to right historical wrongs and to promote conservation efforts through Indigenous land stewardship. Currently, the Tule River Tribe stewards all or portions of five giant sequoia groves near or on their reservation. Indigenous techniques of land management, which include cultural burning and manual thinning, have been proven in many cases to be the most effective methods for reducing the impact of high-severity wildfires and promoting biodiversity. Unfortunately, these methods were largely stamped out and replaced by less effective methods of land management--such as fire suppression and clear-cutting--by European and American colonization of the Western U.S. However, one example of a push to restore land rights to Indigenous North Americans recently took place in New York. Earlier this year, the state returned over 1,000 acres of ancestral land to the Onondaga Nation to create a wildlife sanctuary--a major win for both Indigenous folks and conservationists.

In 2000, former President Bill Clinton designated over 300,000 acres of land consisting of giant sequoia groves a national monument to be managed by the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), which barred all timber production in the area in order to protect these trees. The President's proclamation established Giant Sequoia National Monument (the Monument) and required the Agriculture Secretary to develop a land management plan within two years. After many legal challenges, the Department of Agriculture finally released the Giant Sequoia Management Plan in 2012--over a decade after its original due date. Despite these efforts, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed giant sequoias as an endangered species the year before, with the most salient threat being wildfires.

However, recently renewed attempts to provide legislative protections to giant sequoias have found their way to each chamber of Congress. Each bill is titled the “Save Our Sequoias Act,” and both bills provide for aggressive strategies aimed at advancing the health and resiliency of giant sequoia groves. This Article will mainly focus on the House version of these bills.

Above all, this Article is meant to highlight the imminent and existential threat that increasing high-severity wildfires pose to both giant sequoias and the Tribe. To that end, this Article will analyze how passage of the Save Our Sequoias Act (H.R.2989) would impact (1) the legal and operational aspects of giant sequoia land management, and (2) the participation of Indigenous Tribes in that decision-making process. Part I will provide background on the ecological and cultural significance of giant sequoias and will discuss how the increase in high-severity wildfires threatens the existence of both the giant sequoias and the Tule River Tribe. Part II will outline the existing legal framework for governing the protection of giant sequoia groves. Part III will provide an overview of the Save Our Sequoias Act, detail its most pertinent sections, and discuss the controversy surrounding the bill. Part IV of this Article will provide a critical analysis of the bill, considering its strengths and weaknesses. This fourth Part will explain how, although language in H.R. 2989 could allow agency officials to severely undercut major environmental statutes, doing so would (1) allow for quicker implementation of fire prevention measures; (2) would increase Tribal presence and influence in decision-making processes; and (3) promote more effective Indigenous land management techniques such as Indigenous fire stewardship (IFS). This Article will briefly discuss the practical political feasibility of passing such legislation, ultimately concluding that this is an environmental and human rights issue requiring urgent attention.

[. . .]

Regardless of whether this bill passes, the reality is that increasingly hotter and longer wildfire seasons are the new normal, and we must act accordingly. But how we should act is the big question. While the Save Our Sequoias Act allows for an urgent and larger-scale response, it also tramples over seminal environmental laws that have protected public lands for decades. At what point do circumstances become so dire that we must consider all possible options? Is it when 50% of the sequoias have burned? Or is it when the Tribe is forced to abandon the reservation?

In truth, the writing is on the wall. Unless we respond to the increasing frequency of high-severity wildfires with drastic and urgent measures, many of us will bear witness to two major catastrophes: the annihilation of giant sequoias, and the destruction of a Native American reservation--home to the Tule River Tribe. While this bill is far from perfect, it underscores the pressing need for us to do something. Moreover, the fact that the Tribe has vocalized their support for the bill should be of the utmost importance. When the people who are most affected by an issue tell us what they want, we should listen.

These ancient trees are not easily replaceable. They must be protected by all means possible. We continue to assess and recover from the Windy Fire and have learned much from it. We have been reminded that we need to collaborate to reduce fires. We need to share our knowledge and our resources. We need to respect and employ Traditional Ecological Knowledge. We need to do this together as co-stewards - and we need to do this now.

Shine Nieto, Vice-Chairman of the Tule River Tribe of the Tule River

Reservation, California.