SEQUOIA CONTENTS Hume Hazard Tree Project Appeal Winter Celebrations Nature Explorations Fire What is it Good For FORESTKEEPER® Meet the SFK Staff History of the Sierra Nevada Habitats E-UPDATE Sequoia NF Special Areas Hot Links Adopt a Sequoia December 2013 SFK Facebook Page Donate

Hume Hazard Tree Project Appeal “No portion of the monument shall be considered to be suited for timber production, and no part of the monument shall be used in a calculation or provision of a sustained yield of timber from the . Removal of trees, except for personal use fuel wood, from within the monument area may take place only if clearly needed for ecological restoration and maintenance or public safety.” Page 3, paragraph 7. Giant Sequoia National Monument Presidential Proclamation Here we go again. Sequoia National Forest continues to operate as though the monument was never declared, so to keep them honest, Sequoia ForestKeeper®, the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute have been forced to bring suit against a project that appears to go way overboard in trying to justify more logging masked as a “Hazard Tree” project. While there are occasional trees that need to be removed to protect public safety, declaring 2,000 CCF of wood for the project seems like just more of the same. http://www.sequoiaForestKeeper®.org/SFK-SC-JMP_Hume_Hazard_Appeal_Final.pdf

May Nature Be a Part of Your Winter Celebrations The sun filters through the magnificent forest. Breathe deep the crisp air as it fills your nostrils with the scent of pine, reminding of holiday seasons gone by. Recently fallen leaves decorate the forest floor to decay and once again nourish the landscape. A slight breeze cools your cheek as you notice one last oak leaf escaping from its anchor to gently float toward the ground. Puffy white clouds begin to drop each unique snowflake, gifting the forest with much needed moisture. You notice tiny footprints imbedded in the fresh blanket of white. The chittering owner of those footprints, the Douglas squirrel, breaks the silence and soon a raucous chorus of flickers, jays, chickadees, and other forest denizens announce the presence of a biped among their midst. But their concern is soon alleviated as you settle to just quietly observe the majesty that is the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Alas, the scene is soon interrupted by snowmobiles churning up the unplowed logging roads and by chainsaws spreading their cacophonous rage for miles across the landscape. The almost 200-year old, 30-inch sugar pine crashes to the ground to satisfy the never ending greed of lumber mills that have already killed its 10-foot diameter, 700-year old ancestors. Giant Sequoias may no longer fall to the loggers’ blades, but the Giant Sequoia National Monument is a dynamic ecosystem filled with many species of plants and animals that are integral to the ecosystem. Yet, no creature or plant except sequoias is held sacred. That is until the USDA (Agriculture) Forest Service no longer controls the destiny of the monument and it is transferred into the USDI (Interior) Park Service. As we celebrate the holiday let us remember that nature is one of the spirit’s best places for renewal. And with that we want to remind you that Sequoia ForestKeeper® is working to protect nature in all of the southern Sierra Nevada from those who see nothing but today’s profit. Help us protect tomorrow’s legacy by renewing your membership today. Visit our website, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, view us on YouTube, and most importantly take a walk with us in your forest.

Nature Explorations If you would like a personal tour of the Sequoia National Forest or Giant Sequoia National Monument (weather permitting), please contact [email protected]. Alison Sheehey is an expert naturalist, who hopes to help people see the minutiae while interpreting the big picture. See the damage being done to your forest by Stewards of the Sequoia and complicit staff of Sequoia National Forest. Whatever your interest in natural history, Alison can deliver you information on the basics of the region’s rich natural history while pointing out the wildlife and plants that thrive on the ancient and young Sierra Nevada geology. Also, a Alison will be giving a free presentation on the Natural History of Kern County and the southern Sierra Nevada to the Tehachapi subchapter of Kern Audubon on Tues. January 28, 2014; 7:00 pm - Golden Hills School: 20215 Park Rd. Tehachapi.

Fire and the forest – What is it Good For? The sky is falling paradigm may have changed but the answer from the forest service is always the same… log the forest. Fires have always been part of the natural system. Habitat is based on seral stages and infrequent fire allows for development of stages of succession that create biodiversity. Algae covered rock leads to grassland leads to shrubland leads to woodland leads to climax forest. Fires have been huge prior to modern firefighting, in 1910; The Great Fire burned over 3 million acres in northern Idaho. Since the turn of this century, Sequoia National Forest has seen many large fires that have burned over 300,000 acres in Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument. Humans have altered every ecosystem they have ever encountered but that does not mean that nature forgot how to take care of itself where it still is allowed to exist. The all or nothing approach of government agencies is allowing a poorly designed approach to fire protection. Habitats need to be occasionally (depending on habitat type from decades to century long intervals) cleared for the health of the ecosystem. Catastrophic fires when naturally occurring in the face of lightning generally perform a service. Human caused fires generally create an ecosystem that only favors primary seral stages in grassland and weak shrub growth as their intensity and frequency are higher than nature can recover from. Wildland interface is problematic as so many human started fires are started during periods of extreme wind and aridity. We need to control people, not nature.

Meet the SFK Staff Our current Board of Directors and staff are full of amazing talent and drive. We want to give you little bit of history about each person. We are working on a series of expanded profiles on our website. Please visit the biography of Sequoia ForestKeeper® Executive Director at the link below. Ara Marderosian – Executive Director Piercing blue eyes trained to the sky and a can do attitude define our Executive Director. As a trained engineer, Ara understands when the numbers don’t add up. It was his experience in the steel industry that had him questioning the anything for a profit ideal of American capitalism. The fragility of nature cannot sustain the short sighted and Ara sees the connection between all life. Learn about Ara here: http://www.sequoiaForestKeeper.org/ara_marderosian.aspx

History of the Sierra Nevada Did you know the same geological process built both the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains? While it may seem the Sierra Nevada is really old, geologically they are pretty new with some rocks as old as 500-million years but many less than 30-million years. The older rocks are sedimentary that were lain down on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, then uplifted by the crashing together of two tectonic plates. West of the present day San Joaquin valley there was a chain of volcanic islands that ran up the coast. There are a few places in the Sierra Nevada where volcanic basalts can be found but the most common type of igneous (melted then cooled) rock is granite. The granite is the result of the melting of the Farallon tectonic plate that was sandwiched between the North American plate and the Pacific Plate. The Pacific plate pushed the Farallon plate eastward while the North American plate was pushing westward, this caused the Farallon plate to dive under the North American plate and lift up ocean sediments to create mountains. These ocean sediments under great heat and pressure metamorphosed into the sharp, reddish tombstone-looking rocks you encounter on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Sometimes called roof pendant, they are the oldest rocks in the Sierra and have been highly eroded so that the granite that cooled for millions of years beneath the surface has been uncovered. Other ocean sediments are called limestone that metamorphosed into marble. This highly simplified explanation of the geology helps to explain how the Sierra Nevada can be so diverse in the life that lives above the surface. Each rock type has a different mineral content and water carrying capacity. The Valley in the southern Sierra Nevada has many roadcuts where these rocks are adjacent to the others and can be closely examined.

Habitats of the Sierra Nevada The southern Sierra Nevada contains five biota types that contain unique assemblages of plants and animals generally based on elevation. The geology that underlies the habitats also can define what types of plants will grow on the land. There are many factors that make the area rich in diversity including which slope the land faces, whether it is steep or flat, what animals are predominant, what the microclimate is, and so on. The five biota types based on elevation are found in the southern Sierra Nevada. Arid climate: pinyon pine/juniper woodland – found between 5,000–7,000 ft. in elevation. Mixed climates: lower montane forest – found between 3,000–8,500 ft. in elevation. upper montane forest - found between 7,000–10,500 ft. in elevation. subalpine - found between 9,000–11,500 ft. in elevation. alpine – found above 10,500 ft. in elevation. The eastern Sierra Nevada is arid as it gets less rain and snow than most of the range. This is because the winds generally come from the northwest where moisture off of the ocean is uplifted over the mountains in the form of clouds (orographic lift). As the winds push the air to the southeast, the mountains block the flow and the air pushes along the surface up to the peaks. As it is lifted, the air is cooled and the moisture condenses and gets too heavy for the clouds to continue to hold. Precipitation in the form of rain and snow then falls and as the cloud lightens the air moves faster but with no mountain to impede it, the winds barrel down the eastern slope getting hotter and drier as they dive to the desert floor below. So, the eastern slopes support very different vegetation than the mountain tops. The eastern Sierra ends where the western Mojave and Great Basin deserts begin. The flora at the transition is a mix of desert and mountain habitats. Gradually as you head west, you will find the Joshua trees and sagebrush intermixing with pinyon pine and the shrubby juniper. As you climb higher the pinyon gives way to other species of pines; Jeffrey, lodgepole, foxtail, limber, and whitebark are a few eastern Sierra species. There are several places to see these habitats accessible by car off of Hwy 395 or Hwy 14. One of the most interesting but disturbing scars on the landscape is the road south of Whitney Portal that climbs to the 10,000 foot Horseshoe Meadow in Inyo National Forest. Year round access to the Sequoia National Forest eastern slopes is via Nine-mile Canyon Road (Kennedy Meadows) off Hwy 395 or Hwy 178 (Walker Pass) off of Hwy 14.

Sequoia National Forest special areas The Forest Service has dedicated or proposed twelve areas in the Sequoia National Forest that have unique geological and biological features and cover many of these biotas. There are four research natural areas, seven Botanical Areas, and one Geological Area which show how the geological diversity of the region supports an amazing number of unique plants. Three of the seven botanical areas have some of the eastern type biota vegetation: Bald Mountain, Ernest Twisselmann, and Inspiration Point have some pinyon/juniper vegetation. TULARE COUNTY Baker Point Botanical Area, Bald Mountain Botanical Area, Church Dome Research Natural Area, Ernest C. Twisselmann Botanical Area, Freeman Creek Grove Botanical Area, Moses Mountain Research Natural Area, Packsaddle Cave Geological Area, Slate Mountain Botanical Area, and South Mountaineer Creek Research Natural Area. KERN COUNTY Long Canyon Research Natural Area, Bodfish Piute Cypress Botanical Area, and Inspiration Point Botanical Area.

Hot Links Watch our Video: Watch this video on Martin Litton's plea to transfer Giant Sequoia National Monument into the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVkfiY3AL6o Watch our Video: Destruction for Profit. This captioned video about protecting Giant Sequoia habitat. Performed by Valerie Cassity, Scott Costa, and Michael Callison. Original music and lyrics by Ben Parsons and Valerie Cassity © 2003. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrcQ02hoPyU

Adopt a Sequoia For only $100 for a single tree and $2,500 for a stand of sequoias* you can give yourself or those you cherish a gift that will last for generations! All proceeds will be used to continue our work to protect and preserve the giant sequoias and their ecosystem. *Adoption of sequoia does not indicate legal ownership Sequoia Adoption includes: A beautiful certificate of adoption GPS coordinates of your adopted sequoia A map so you can visit your tree or stand of trees A lovely 8x10 color photo of your tree or stand

CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A SEQUOIA

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