Posts Tagged: Sequoia
Berkeley joins Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition
Reposted from the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources News
As fire once again sweeps through the American West, an interagency report formally released today estimates that 7,500 to 10,600 large giant sequoias were killed in last year's Castle Fire. This represents 10-14% of large sequoias in the world. Today, the agencies united by stewardship of giant sequoias are officially coming together in partnership, under the new Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, to save the remaining 90%. As steward of Whitaker's Research Forest, UC Berkeley is a part of the coalition.
![a scientist looking at a grove of burned giant sequoia trees](https://nature.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/10ed688f-c109-4008-bfdd-0e3b1f7baa02MdResProxy.jpeg)
In 2020, the Castle Fire, part of the larger SQF Complex Fire, burned more than 170,000 acres across Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia National Park, Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest, and private lands. According to the “Preliminary estimates of sequoia mortality in the 2020 Castle Fire" report—released today and authored by the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, Save the Redwoods League, The Nature Conservancy, and a local conservationist—more than 10% of the entire existing population of large giant sequoias were killed by this fire alone. While giant sequoias require periodic low-to-moderate intensity fire to maintain healthy ecology, much of the Castle Fire burned too intensely for even these great survivors.
A history of fire suppression and hotter droughts driven by climate change has resulted in denser forests with extraordinary levels of fuel loading. These conditions have changed how wildfire burns in the southern Sierra Nevada, resulting in large areas of high severity fire effects and massive fire events.
“The unprecedented number of giant sequoias lost to fire last year serves as a call to action,” said Clay Jordan, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Superintendent. “We know that climate change is increasing the length and severity of fire seasons due to hotter temperatures and drought. To combat these emerging threats to our forests, we must come together across agencies. Actions that are good for protecting our forests are also good for protecting our communities.”
“Recent events have shown that sustaining the health and vitality of the remaining Sequoia groves and surrounding forests is becoming more challenging as they face new and unprecedented threats. Collaborating across the diverse land managers who have unique skills and capabilities will be necessary to ensure that the giant sequoias continue to flourish. Berkeley Forests welcomes the opportunity to share the wealth of giant sequoia research, not only from Whitaker's Forest, but from our entire network of researchers and research forests,” said Bill Stewart, Berkeley Forests Co-Director.
The Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition has been formed with an eye toward the future, to better enable land managers to protect the remaining giant sequoias. It is comprised of all public and Tribal land management agencies in stewardship of giant sequoias with the support of affiliate partners including the U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Save the Redwoods League, Sequoia Parks Conservancy, Stanislaus National Forest, and Giant Sequoia National Monument Association.
Coalition members will be hosting public and media events over the coming months to raise awareness and public knowledge about sequoia health and research, ongoing projects, the effects of recent fires, and more. Information about these events will be released as plans are finalized.
The members of the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition are:
- National Park Service, represented by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park
- United States Forest Service, represented by Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest
- Bureau of Land Management, represented by Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area
- Tule River Indian Tribe, stewards of Black Mountain Grove
- State of California, represented by Calaveras Big Trees State Park and Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest
- University of California, Berkeley, stewards of Whitaker's Research Forest
- Tulare County, stewards of Balch Park
The goals of the coalition are to increase wildfire resilience in our forests and communities; address long term planning for climate change through research and monitoring; increase pace and scale of treatments to reduce destructive forest fuels through prescribed burning and restorative thinning; and increase efficiency through partnerships aimed at policy changes that allow for more swift action.
“As Native People, we have a spiritual and cultural connection with the land. For thousands of years, these trees have provided healing, shelter, and warmth to our people,” William Garfield, Chairman of the Tule River Tribal Council, said. “It is our duty to do everything in our power to make sure that they are protected, so we can pass them on to our future generations as they were passed down to us.”
“We regret the loss of our old-growth giant sequoia trees that were killed in the Castle Fire,” said Jim Kral, Mountain Home State Forest Manager, and forester from CAL FIRE's Tulare County Unit. “However, we were triumphant in protecting the majority of the Mountain Home Grove through our long-term planning and commitment to actively managing the forest. CAL FIRE looks forward to working with our partners in applying the lessons learned from the Castle Fire to improve the future management of these majestic groves in the face of a changing climate and more intense wildfires.”
For the full report, more information, and resources about emerging threats to giant sequoias visit www.nps.gov/seki/learn/gslc.htm.
Forest management can help giant sequoias and coastal redwoods survive
Reposted from the UCANR News
In 2020, 9,000 fires scorched more than 4 million acres of California, a record-breaking year, reported Alejandra Borunda in National Geographic. Fires burned through homes and oak forests, grasslands and pines — and also through patches of giant sequoias and coast redwoods, respectively the most massive and the tallest trees on earth.
Giant sequoias are not the oldest living trees, but some have been growing in Sierra Nevada forests for more than 3,200 years. They are found in 68 groves on the Sierra's western flank. The state's redwood forests grow in a narrow strip along the coast of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
The 2020 fires burned through about 16,000 acres of sequoia groves, about a third of their total area. In redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 40,000 acres burned.
But because redwoods are well-adapted to fire, they'll likely recover pretty quickly, said Scott Stephens, a UC Berkeley fire scientist. “In some ways, this fire could make redwoods more dominant in the landscape," he said, because other trees — like the hardwoods or Douglas firs that crowded the local forests — died outright in the burns.
However, scientists are concerned one cause of the fires, climate change, could have additional impacts on these natural treasures.
Since the mid-1800s, temperatures in the western U.S. have increased by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Fog banks are fading in coast redwood territory, and snows are less consistent in the Sierras. The changes leave redwoods and sequoias without their preferred climate conditions.
The most responsible thing to do now, Stephens said, is to “take the opportunity that has been handed to us,” and make a plan to go back in and burn again—soon, within the next few years.
UC Cooperative Extension forestry advisor Lenya Quinn-Davidson agrees that California must manage fire to help the trees survive. Tree-ring records show that humans have influenced the fire regime for better and worse as long as they've been in these forests.
“The empowering message there is, human management can actually override the effects of climate in a fire contest,” Quinn-Davidson said. “It's not just a climate story. We can't just throw in the towel, feel overwhelmed, and tell ourselves these trees are done for. That's not true!”
Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia Mega-Genomes Sequenced: Sequencing Brings Modern Tools to Redwood Conservation Efforts
Reposted from UC Davis news
Scientists have successfully sequenced the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes, completing the first major milestone of a five-year project to develop the tools necessary to study these forests' genomic diversity. The research partners, composed of the University of California, Davis, Johns Hopkins University and the Save the Redwoods League, are making the data publicly available today.
The coast redwood genome is now the second-largest ever sequenced at nearly nine times the size of the human genome. The genome of the giant sequoia is roughly three times that of the human genome.
‘23 and Tree?'
Much like sequencing the human genome opened the door to finding cures for things like sickle cell anemia, sequencing the redwood and sequoia genome could help conserve and restore those species.
“Our patient is the redwood forest,” said David Neale, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. “It's not healthy. We seek to make it healthy again, and we need that same foundational resource as a human physician or medical professional needs for their patients.”
Over the past 150 years, 95 percent of the ancient coast redwood range and about one-third of the giant sequoia range have been logged. With this unprecedented loss of old trees and the addition of redwood clones often planted in their place, conservationists have grown concerned that the forests' genomic diversity has fundamentally changed. If diversity has declined, it could leave the redwoods vulnerable to drought, fire and other stressors related to climate change.
By sequencing these trees' genomes, the scientists are providing a tool that resource managers can use to help discern a redwood forest's genetic potential for adapting to its current or future environment.
“We're trying to build a 23andMe for trees, where a manager sends in their samples and gets a risk evaluation of their forest populations, if not individual trees,” Neale said. “Completing the sequences of the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes is the first step.”
![David Neale](https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1736/files/inline-images/0250.5d%201000px%20horizontal%2C%20for%20web%20header%20photo.png)
Sequencing conifer ‘mega-genomes'
These conifers have giant genomes, and full sequencing of them has only been possible in the last decade.
![Man looking at redwood tree](https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1736/files/inline-images/0250.6a%20grove_of_titans_el_viejo_del_norte_tree_brett_silver-1.jpg)
The coast redwood has six sets of chromosomes (hexaploid) and 27 billion base pairs of DNA. The giant sequoia has two sets of chromosomes (diploid) and over 8 billion base pairs. For comparison, the largest genome sequenced to date belongs to the axolotl, a North American salamander whose genome was completed in 2018 and has more than 28 billion base pairs.
“We pushed the boundaries of genome-sequencing technology to take on the redwood and sequoia mega-genomes,” said Steven Salzberg, professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. “After using our specially developed algorithms to assemble these enormous and complex genome sequences, we have gained a new appreciation for how difficult it is to put together a hexaploid genome, especially one as large as the coast redwood's.”
What's next?
The redwood genome project was launched in late 2017, with a projected five-year timeline. By the end of the project, the genome sequences and screening tools developed will allow field crews to quickly assess adaptive genomic diversity in redwood forests to inform management plans that restore the health and resilience of these forests throughout their natural ranges.
With the genomes sequenced, the League will work to inventory diversity across the landscapes and identify "hot spots" of genomic diversity for enhanced protection and areas of low diversity for restoration.
![cone from giant sequoia](https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1736/files/inline-images/0250.7a%20giant-sequoia-cones2-srl-495x371.jpg)
“Every time we plant a seedling or thin a redwood stand to reduce fuel loads or accelerate growth, we potentially affect the genomic diversity of the forest,” said Emily Burns, director of science for Save the Redwoods League. “With the new genome tools we're developing now, we will soon be able to see the hidden genomic diversity in the forest for the first time and design local conservation strategies that promote natural genomic diversity. This is a gift of resilience we can give our iconic redwood forests for the future.”
The coast redwood and giant sequoia sequence data are available to the scientific community at large through the UC Davis website.
During the next stage of the project, researchers will create a database capturing range-wide genomic variation within each species; develop tools that will allow resource managers to identify coast redwood and giant sequoia genetic variation while in the field; compile forest genetic inventories; and launch pilot restoration projects based on the accrued data.
“When we celebrated the League's 100th anniversary last year, we reaffirmed our commitment to restore entire landscapes of young, recovering redwood forests,” said Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League. “Sequencing the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes for the first time opens a new scientific frontier for our restoration projects. This work will reveal the forests' genetic identity so that we can protect the diversity that's left, and in some areas, restore what was lost.”
![Redwood tree](https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1736/files/inline-images/0250.8c%20500px%20horizontal.png)
Major funding for the research came from Save the Redwoods League. A significant lead gift to the league to fund the initial sequencing of the genomes was provided by Ralph Eschenbach and Carol Joy Provan.
Drones help monitor health of giant sequoias
Reposted from UC Berkeley News
Todd Dawson's field equipment always includes ropes and ascenders, which he and his team use to climb hundreds of feet into the canopies of the world's largest trees, California's redwoods.
It's laborious work, but he'll soon be getting a little help. From drones.
The need is urgent, Dawson said. Since 2010, more than 102 million trees, mostly pines and firs, have died in California because of drought, 62 million in 2016 alone. Why are pines and firs succumbing, but the thousand-year-old sequoias surviving, and will that continue into the future?
In August, he and Gregory Crutsinger, a plant ecologist and head of scientific programs at Parrot, performed the first test of a drone, a quadcopter, equipped with a state-of-the-art multispectral camera that takes photos in red, green and two infrared bands. Called the Sequoia, the camera works like more expensive satellite and airborne sensors, measuring the sunlight reflected by vegetation in order to assess physiological activity or plant health.
“Before, a team of five to seven people would climb and spend a week or more in one tree mapping it all around,” Dawson said. “With a drone, we could do that with a two-minute flight. We can map the leaf area by circling the tree, then do some camera work inside the canopy, and we have the whole tree in a day.”
A camera-equipped drone can scan the same tree multiple times a day to produce digital maps of the leaves and branches (inset) as they change their respiration and photosynthesis throughout the day.
After the data and photos were stitched together by a software program called Pix4D, Dawson and Crutsinger ended up with a three-dimensional representation of the foliage that his team had never seen before – information that will be used to determine how much carbon the tree takes up each day and how much water it uses, the basis for assessing what might happen with higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and less water on and in the ground.
“With repeat flights you can watch a forest grow without ever actually measuring any trees in the forest,” Dawson said. “I think drone technology holds a lot of promise to do some very innovative science over time and in three-dimensional space with a relatively cheap tool. It is really pretty amazing.”
Monitoring the health of the state's iconic sequoias is just one instance of how drones, combined with state-of-the-art sensors, can benefit science, Crutsinger said.
“Drone technology is getting much cheaper, but stitching and photogrammetry are innovating at the same time,” he said, referring to the science of making measurements from photos. “That is the backbone of the whole new commercial drone industry: not just the ability to capture the data, but also to process very high-resolution photos into millions of points that generate a three-dimensional model. This is going to help science but also environmental monitoring, agriculture and even construction sites.”
Crutsinger, a former Miller postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, is asking other scientists to propose research collaborations with Parrot in exchange for free drones, cameras and analysis software. These Climate Innovation Grants are open to any student or researcher around the world.
Monitoring a changing environment
Dawson is now assessing how best to use the initial data and the drone and camera to answer questions in plant ecology. For the giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum), which he studies in the University of California's 320-acre Whitaker Forest just outside Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, he anticipates learning a lot more about their physiology than can be achieved by roping onto the canopy. Knowing the leaf area alone is a key advance, since he and his team have been able to model only the trees' branches and twigs, from which they estimate leaf surface.
“If we know how much area is there, I can tell you how many tons of carbon per meter squared per day was fixed by that forest, and how much water was used by that leaf area per day. You can start to get at rates of carbon exchanged between the tree and the atmosphere and then at rates of carbon sequestration,” he said. “These are important numbers for our forecasting models, so we can say, ‘If the climate goes up by 2 degrees, or it gets drier by 10 percent, what the hell is going to happen to that productivity?' All of a sudden you have power to really measure the pulse of the Earth, which is a really hard thing to do at large scales.”
Dawson is keen to see how drones and specialized sensors can aid his other research, which involves not only giant sequoias but also coastal redwoods, California's oaks and the canopy epiphytes in the clouds forest of Costa Rica. But he also sees a wealth of other possibilities.
![scaling a sequoia](https://news.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Climb-Sequoia750-410x273.jpg)
UC Berkeley graduate student Cameron Williams and researcher Rikke Naesborg scaling a giant sequoia in the Whitaker forest outside Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.
“I think this is one of the tools for ‘change detection' that we are going to find is a game changer,” he said. “We can do this quickly and accurately over natural lands and agricultural lands and forest that burned and places that were hit by hurricanes or droughts, and look at the changes taking place and why they are taking place much more easily than we did before.”
Dawson doesn't plan to give up climbing trees, though. Some data will still need to be captured in the tree tops, if only to connect drone observations with tree physiology and ecology.
“The low-hanging fruit right now is really, what basic-level things that take up a lot of time can we replace with the drone, and what do we still need to do with boots on the ground in the field,” Crutsinger said. “If we can just save time and person power, that is most of the cost of doing scientific research, particularly in ecology. We are looking to augment what already happens on the ground — or in this case the crown — and then think about what new questions we can ask as well.”
December 6, 4-H News
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