APPENDIX A Resumes/Biographies of Giant Sequoia National Monument Scientific Advisory Board ------

Dr. Jeanne Clark, Professor Emerita, University of Arizona

Jeanne Nienaber Clarke is Professor Emerita of Political Science and Renewable Natural Resources at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has been a member of the faculty since 1974. Previously Professor Clarke worked in Washington, D.C. for the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Professor Clarke was educated at the University of , Berkeley. She received her B.A. degree in Political Science in 1965, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and With Honors. She received her M.A. degree in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Political Science in 1973.

Clarke is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an American Association of University Women dissertation fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. She has served on three National Research Council committees.

Professor Clarke specializes in American politics, environmental policy, and 20th century American history. She is the author or co-author of and many articles and book chapters. Among her most recent publications are: STAKING OUT THE TERRAIN: POWER AND PERFORMANCE AMONG NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGING AGENCIES (SUNY Press, 2nd ed., 1996), and THE STATE AND NATURE: VOICES HEARD, VOICES UNHEARD IN AMERICA'S ENVIRONMENTAL DIALOGUE (Prentice Hall, 2002).

Clarke is active in the American Political Science Association, the American Association of University Women, Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and several other professional organizations.

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Dr. David M. Graber, Senior Science Advisor, National Park Service

Dr. Graber currently works as Senior Science Advisor for the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. He received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980, and his doctoral thesis was on the ecology and management of black bears in Yosemite National Park. He received his Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 196, and his Bachelors degree in Political Science in 1970 from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

His professional experience is as follows:

• 1997-Present: Senior Science Advisor, National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks • 1993-1997: Research Biologist and Station Leader, National Biological Service, later USGS Biological Resources Division, Sequoia and Kings Canyon Field Station, • 1988-1993 Research Biologist, National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks • Research Associate in College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Ecology, University of California, Davis • Research Scientist, GS-401-12. National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, • Teaching Associate, University of California • Teaching Assistant, University of California • Research Collaborator, National Park Service, Yosemite National Park, California

Related Activities:

2001- NPS National Wilderness Steering Committee 2000- Bighorn Sheep Interagency Science Team 1997- Park Coordinator, Sequoia and Kings Canyon General Management Plan 1993-1996 Science Team and Coordinating Council, Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project 1992- NPS Pacific West Region Natural Resources Advisory Group 1990 Associate Editor, Ecological Applications. 1989 NPS ecologist on US-USSR bilateral field studies in Oka Biosphere Reserve, USSR, to develop and intercalibrate measurements of biological diversity. 1988 NPS Liaison to NPCA Commission on Research and Resource Mgmt. Policy 1986-1987 National Park Service Inventory and Management Committee (Co-author author of report to Director) 1986 National Park Service Blue-Ribbon Panel Organizing Committee 1983-1986 Associate Editor, Intl. Assoc. Bear Res. and Manage.

Other Employment:

1979-1992 Book Reviewer, Los Angeles Times 1973 Nurseryman, Lemuria Nursery 1972-1979 Book Editor, Human Behavior Magazine 1971-1972 Environmental Education Consultant, Open Space, Inc. 1971 Travel to Africa and Europe 1969 Production assistant and reporter, KCET-TV 1968-1969 Reporter, Newsweek Magazine

Honors and Awards:

2000 U.S. Department of the Interior, Meritorious Service Award

1998 NPS Pacific West Regional Natural Resources Research Award 1977 Charles Lathrop Pack Prize in Forestry University of California, Regents Scholar

Research Interests:

Conservation Biology Terrestrial Vertebrate Ecology Ecosystem and Community Ecology Biological Survey Wildland Reserve Management ------

Dr. Karen M. Nissen, Anthropologist/Archaeologist

Dr. Karen Nissen is the Caltrans Native American Liaison in the Central Region, which encompasses 20 counties from Kern County to San Joaquin and Amador counties and from the coast to the Nevada state line. She is serving on the Scientific Advisory Board as a representative for Tule River Reservation and is not representing Caltrans.

She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Anthropology. She received The Chancellor’s Patent Fund for Graduate Student Research, the Graduate Dean’s Fellowship, and a scholarship from the Colonial Dames of America.

She is a member of the American Anthropological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society for Conservation Archaeology, the Australian Rock Art Research Association, and the California Committee for the Promotion of History, the California Historical Society, the California Indian Basketweavers Association, the Nevada Historical Society, and the Society for American Archaeology. In addition, she is a Research Associate for the Nevada State Museum and a Research Fellow with the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Nissen worked as a Research Assistant for the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California, Berkeley and as the C. Merriam Research Assistant under a Smithsonian Institution/Harriman grant to the Archaeological Research Facility assisting authors working on the Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 8, California. She also served as a Teaching Assistant in the departments of Anthropology and Native American Studies, and was Chief Laboratory Assistant for the Lovelock Cave Coprolite Project. She worked as an Instructor at DeAnza College for a course on the First Californians.

Dr. Nissen worked with the Calfornia Indian Legal Services to provide expert testimony, which assisted in reversing termination for Guidiville and Coyote Valley Rancherias. She is a member of the California Interagency Tribal Relations Committee and the Native American Program Committee of the Society for California Archaeology. She has done extensive archaeological research in California and the Great Basin. Dr. Nissen has

numerous publications in professional journals in the United States and abroad on archaeology, rock art, and ethnography. She co-authored publications on California Indian history with Professor E.D. Castillo and the late Dr. Robert F. Heizer. She also worked with the late A. Starker Leopold providing information on the California Indian use of quail in a publication that Leopold authored on the California quail. Dr. Nissen has also chaired sessions at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting on Government-to-Government relations with Tribes as well as sessions on rock art at the Great Basin Anthropological Conference. She also presented a paper at the First Congress of the Australian Rock Art Research Association in Darwin, Australia.

She has worked in private industry for cultural resource management firms as well as for the Interagency Archeological Services, Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and Caltrans. She assisted in developing a Native American Advisory Committee to the Caltrans Director’s office. Dr. Nissen has extensive knowledge of California Indian history, ethnohistory, archaeology, and present conditions and Tribal issues and concerns. She was presented an award from the American Indian State Employees of California for her dedication to Tribal issues and her expertise on Tribal transportation issues in Indian country. She has worked in archaeology, ethnography and environmental planning for 35 years. ------

Dr. Douglas D. Piirto, Professor and Registered Professional Forester, California Polytechnic University

Dr. Douglas D. Piirto is a Professor in the Natural Resources Management Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977 in Wood Science and Technology. He received his M.S. in Forest and Wood Science from Colorado State University in 1971 and his B.S. in Forestry from The University of Nevada in 1970.

He has been a member of the Society of American Foresters since 1970 and is a Registered Professional Forester in California (No. 2179). Dr. Piirto has spent a good part of his career working as a practicing forester for the Forest Service and more recently as a private consultant. While employed by the Forest Service, Dr. Piirto served as District Timber Management Officer. Dr. Piirto has received extensive on-the-job training in forest ecosystem management, landscape planning, timber sale planning/administration, reforestation, timber stand improvement, fire management, environmental impact analysis, and report writing.

As a researcher, Dr. Piirto is nationally recognized for his expertise on Giant sequoia and coast redwood. For example, Dr. Piirto was asked to assist with the planning and execution of the 1992 Giant Sequoia Symposium and the 1996 Coast Redwood Symposium. He has served as an expert witness before the California Board of Forestry, the United States House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and the Sebastopol City Council. To date, he has written 71 technical reports and presented 37 invited papers/posters. Dr. Piirto has served on the faculty at Cal Poly since 1985 and teaches courses on silviculture, forest harvesting, environmental impact analysis, forest

management, resource fire control, introduction to forestry, and other forestry/conservation courses. He has developed and published numerous study guides for the courses he regularly teaches.

He is a recent (2000) recipient of the Plant Science Outstanding Contribution to the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly State University and a 1995 recipient of the Cal Poly College of Agriculture Outstanding Teacher Award sponsored by Dole Food Company. Dr. Piirto’s fire experience includes: fire suppression work as a crew boss/strike team leader; prescribed burning/fuel reduction project planning and implementation; and research work on several major projects. Dr. Piirto has generated approximately $725,000 of research funding over the past 12 years at Cal Poly of which $395,000 is currently focused on forest health studies. Finally, Dr. Piirto serves on the State Forest Advisory Committee, FACA Science Advisory Committee for the Giant Sequoia National Monument, and Giant Sequoia Ecology Cooperative. Dr. Piirto was born on September 25, 1948 in Reno, Nevada. ------

Dr. Nate Stephenson, Research Ecologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center

Nate Stephenson’s roots in the Sierra Nevada extend back five generations, and he has spent much of his life hiking and fishing in the mountains. He received his B.S. (Biological Sciences) in 1979 from the University of California, Irvine, and his Ph.D. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) in 1988 from Cornell University. His dissertation research on the climatic controls of vegetation distribution was conducted in Sequoia National Park, where he is now stationed as a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center. Over the last 20 years, much of his research has focused on fire ecology, giant sequoia ecology, and restoration of forests that have been altered by prolonged fire exclusion. He has both ignited prescribed fires and fought wildfires in the Sierra Nevada. Additionally, his role as director of USGS's Sierra Nevada Global Change Research Program complements his research interests in the climatic controls of forest dynamics and vegetation distribution. He is author of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project chapter on the scientific basis for sequoia grove management. ------

Dr. Daniel Tormey, Principal Environmental Consultant, Entrix, Inc.

Daniel Tormey has a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and geology from Stanford University, and a doctorate in geology and geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Tormey is a principal environmental consultant at ENTRIX, Inc. in Ventura, California. He studies sediment transport, water quality, contaminant fate and transport, and air quality, and applies these skills to problems of development projects, restoration, and remediation. Dr. Tormey has conducted numerous projects in , including a NEPA analysis at Lake Kaweah, sediment transport analysis for three hydroelectric projects on the Kern

River and one on the Tule River, an arsenic transport study in the watershed of the Kern River, and a dissolved oxygen study on the Kern River. He has also assisted the Tule Tribe in addressing issues of non-point source pollution. He and his family vacation often in and around the Sequoia National Forest. ------

Dr. Paul Waggoner, Department of Forestry and Horticulture, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Dr. Paul Waggoner is Distinguished Scientist at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven. His research has encompassed meteorology, plant pathology and agronomy. Recently he has studied land use, especially the relation between farming and forestry. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was formerly director of The Connecticut Station.

Education: SB, Meteorology, University of Chicago 1946 PhD, Plant Pathology and Climatology, Iowa State University 1951

Station career: Assistant and Associate Plant Pathologist 1951-1956 Chief Scientist, Soils, Climatology, Ecology, 1951-1971 Director 1972-1987 Distinguished Scientist 1987-

Past research: Plant disease epidemiology; stomates or leaf pores and conservation of water; adaptation to climate change; how much land can ten billion people spare for Nature.

Current research: Land use by cities, crops and forests. Selected publications available from the author or as indicated below: [email protected] Waggoner, P.E. Lightening the Tread of Population on the Land: American examples. Population and Development Review 22:531-545 (1996). Available from author, or on line at http://phe.rockefeller.edu/tread/ Waggoner, P.E. How Much More Land Can American Farmers Spare? In B C English, R L White and Liu-Hsiung Chuang (ed). Crop and livestock technologies RCA III symposium. Iowa State Univ Press, Ames IA. P 23-44 (1997). Waggoner, P.E. How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature? In J H Ausubel. And DH. D Langford (ed) Technological trajectories and the human environment. National Acad Press p 56-73 (1996). Waggoner, P. E. How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature? Report 121. Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), Ames Iowa. 64 p. (1994). Available from CAST (515) 292-2125 or on line at http://www- formal.stanford.edu/jmc/nature/nature.html

Wernick, I.K., Waggoner, P.E., and J.H. Ausubel. 1998.; Searching for leverage to conserve forests. Journal of Industril Ecology. 1:125-145 or on line at http://phe.rockefeller.edu/ Frink, C.R., P.E. Waggoner and J.H. Ausubel. 1999. Nitrogen fertilizer: retrospect and prospect. Proc. National Academy Sci. 96:1175-1180 or on line at http://phe.rockefeller.edu/ ------

Dr. George Masters Woodwell, Woods Hole Research Center

George M. Woodwell was the founder and remains as and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He is a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a graduate of the Boston Public Latin School, holds degrees from Dartmouth College (AB, 1950) and Duke University (AM, 1956; Ph.D., 1958), and is the recipient of various awards and honorary degrees. He held a commission in the U.S. Navy between 1950 and 1953 and has held appointments and lectured at various universities. Between 1957 and 1961, he was assistant and associate professor of botany at the University of Maine in Orono. He joined the staff of the Biology Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1961 and remained there until 1975 when he founded and became the Director of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, where he held various positions including Deputy Director of the MBL, Assistant Director for Education, and Distinguished Scientist. In April 1985 he founded the Woods Hole Research Center, an institute for global environmental research of which he is Director and President. He has held an adjunct appointment as Lecturer in Ecology at Yale University for many years.

Dr. Woodwell’s research has been on the structure and function of natural communities and their role as segments of the biosphere. He has worked extensively in forests and estuaries in North America and has made well-known studies of the ecological effects of ionizing radiation and the circulation and effects of pesticides and other toxins. He has, for many years, studied the biotic interactions associated with the warming of the earth.

He has published more than 200 papers in ecology and has contributed articles to Science, Scientific American, BioScience, Ecology and the Journal of Ecology, among many others. He has edited books on the effects of nuclear war, the global carbon cycle, biotic impoverishment, and satellite imagery used in measuring the area of forests globally.

Dr. Woodwell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the recipient of the 1996 Heinz Environmental Prize and of the John H. Chafee Excellence in Environmental Affairs Award of 2000.

Dr. Woodwell was President of the Ecological Society of America in 1977-78. He was a founding trustee and is vice-Chair of the Board of the Natural Resources Defense Council, was a founder and remains an honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the

Environmental Defense Fund, was a founding trustee of the World Resources Institute, and was a board member (1970-84) and Chair (1980-84) of the Board of Directors and is currently a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. He was Chair of the 1982 Conference on the Long-Term Worldwide Biological Consequences of Nuclear War and is former Chair of the Ruth Mott Fund. He is a member of the board of Trustees of the Center for Marine Conservation and currently serves on the advisory board of the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.

Appendix B

Information pages associated with stops on the fieldtrip, taken June 12, 2001.

WHITAKER PLANTATION Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument

By the 1970’s some foresters and scientist began to realize that successful fire suppression during the past 50 + years was allowing dangerous amounts of fuel to build up in the giant sequoia groves. The lack of canopy openings and bare soil in these groves that would have been created under natural fire regimes was also inhibiting reproduction of the giant sequoia. The National Park Service began some of the first major experiments with prescribed burning as a means to overcome the above problems associated with fire suppression. By the 1980’s fuel-reducing prescribed fires were being programmed routinely in the groves of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The Forest Service’s approach in the 1980’s was to begin to prescribe “seedtree” regeneration harvests within portions of giant sequoia groves. It was concluded by forest mangers at this time that the type of prescribed fire they were willing to apply to the groves was not sufficient enough (hot) to accomplish the fuels objectives and create openings in the canopy for regeneration.

The objective behind the Whitaker Plantation was to harvest the commercial overstory conifers while protecting the mature and second growth giant sequoias in order to promote and improve giant sequoia regeneration. This unit is 12 acres in size and was harvested using a skyline yarding system in July of 1983 as part of the Eshom Timber Sale. The unit was broadcast burned in October of 1985 and planted in April of 1986. Approximately 345 trees per acre, all giant sequoia, were initially planted.

As part of reforestation, this unit was scheduled to be treated with herbicides to control the competing vegetation. A moratorium on the use of herbicides was in effect during this time period. A combination of manual release along with designing a plan to allow cattle to graze within this unit was used to help release these newly planted trees.

In October of 1990, the unit was certified as being successfully reforested. There were 125 giant sequoia trees per acre, along with another 185 other conifer trees per acre recorded, for a total of 310 trees per acre. This successful reforestation (both through planting and natural seeding) has resulted in a stand that is currently overstocked. In 1995 a small pocket of dying giant sequoia saplings was discovered. A Forest Service plant pathologist visited and investigated the site. A root disease, Heterobasidion annosum (annosus root disease) was the suspected agent. However it was discovered that the trees had died from Armillaria mella, another type of root disease.

An Overview of The Topic of Regeneration of Giant Sequoia on the Giant Sequoia National Monument

The Presidential Proclamation noted, “…a century of fire protection has led to an unprecedented failure in sequoia regeneration in otherwise-undisturbed groves…”

Disturbance Processes and History

Prior to the Euro-American influence on the ecosystem (logging, road-building, fire suppression), wildfire was the primary environmental disturbance that led to the establishment of young vegetation in and adjacent to giant sequoia groves. Other agents of disturbance included wind, insects and diseases, drought, and fires started by American Indians. The fires were generally of low intensities, with infrequent hotter spots from heavy slash accumulations or where other conditions lead to more intense fire behavior. These “hot spots” created holes in the forest canopy and exposed mineral soil so that seedlings could become established. Studies have indicated that fire frequencies of 7 to 15 years were common in the Southern Sierra. This fire regime led to a stand structure that was highly variable in terms of species composition and patches of vegetation, and also led to fairly regular “pulses” of new seral stage vegetation. Studies have shown that gaps or openings of one-quarter acre and larger tended to have successful regeneration. Openings of two and a half acres or larger were rare.

Starting in the late 1800s, the dominant disturbances that led to new “pulses” of vegetation changed. Extensive logging led to regenerated portions of giant sequoia groves that were much larger and more homogenous than those created by the frequent and generally low intensity wildfires. For instance, is 3,700 acres of generally continuous 100+-year-old mixed conifer species, including giant sequoias. Other groves include Redwood Mountain, Big Stump, and others. This period extended generally from 1870 to 1930.

From approximately 1930 until 1960, only minor “events” leading to establishment of young vegetation occurred, as intensive harvesting was minimal, and fire control kept wildfires suppressed.

The Forest Service, in 1975, conducted a small prescribed burning project in the Bearskin Grove1, and in the 1980s, created openings in groves through timber sales to reduce the risk of fire and to regenerate young giant sequoias and other mixed conifer species. One of these areas is a stop on the field trip (Whitaker’s Forest Plantation). These areas ranged in size from 5 to 25 acres, with an average of about 12 acres. A total of

approximately 750 acres were successfully reforested with a vigorous mixture of mixed conifer species, including giant sequoias.

FUEL LOADING Redwood Mountain Grove & McGee Overlook Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument

The fuel loading in Redwood Mountain is characteristic of a giant sequoia grove that has had little management, outside the logging of mixed conifers in the mid 1980’s at Whittaker’s Forest and part of the grove that was logged in the 1870’s by the Hyde mill. Most of the grove on National Forest land gives an impression of vegetation that is overgrown, thick and difficult to walk through.

Dead surface fuels: There are approximately 48 tons per acre of dead vegetative material on the ground surface (ranging from litter to down logs up to 10 inches in diameter). Surface fuels averaging 10-12 tons per acre would reduce the potential for catastrophic fire.

Fuel Arrangement: White fir and incense cedar have grown to significant size and density, which has resulted in interlocking crowns. Many of the trees have not yet self- pruned (lost their lower limbs) which contributes to the vertical fuel ladder. Brush species in the lower canopy, or in openings, is not a predominant part of the grove fuel arrangement. Other groves do have significant components of brush that contribute to the overall fuel load.

Continuity: Horizontal fuels are made up of the dead surface fuels that range from litter to down logs. The surface fuels form a nearly continuous bead of flammable material in the grove. The overstory tree canopy is continuous (dense) with some openings due to fallen trees. In this grove the combination of surface fuels, arrangement, and continuity contribute to the potential for catastrophic fire.

McGee Overlook

The McGee Fire of 1955 started out in low elevation, approximately 3,000 feet at the McGee Ranch, and burned through several different topographical features before it stopped at approximately 6400 feet. It started out at the bottom of a canyon and burned up through it, crossed Highway 180, crossed Mckenzie ridge and burned down it’s backside. It burned out through parts of Mill and Abbott Creek drainages and finally burned up to Hoist ridge and down into Converse Basin.

This fire is a good example of how a fire that starts at low elevation, where brush and grass is the predominant vegetation type, can quickly moves upslope during hot, dry, windy conditions. Before the fire, Mckenzie ridge supported a stand of mixed conifer forest, however it is thought to have been heavily logged around the turn of the century. The open stand and heavy surface fuels, including old logging slash, contributed to the high fire intensity and large fire event.

Conclusion: Many landscapes within the monument have conditions that would support similar fire activity that could threaten giant sequoia groves.

CONVERSE BASIN Sequoia National Forest Giant Sequoia National Monument

At approximately 4,700 acres (Administrative Grove Boundary), Converse Basin is the largest of all groves on National Forest Land. Nearly all of the trees of commercial value were cut and milled there between 1890 and 1905. Only a dozen or so surviving large giant sequoias were spared and remain today within the basin. However, young giant sequoias (70 to 100+ year olds) that were established because of the logging disturbance within the basin probably number in the tens of thousands.

Converse Basin is the very epitome of man’s relationship to the big trees. In 1875, extolled the spiritual values of the grove; less than twenty years later it was being ruthlessly exploited for its commercial value. Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the Forest Service, later remarked that he had observed the gigantic and gigantically wasteful lumbering of the great sequoia at the turn of century and resented the practice of making vine stakes hardly bigger than walking sticks out of these greatest of living things. During these early logging days people came from all over the world to marvel at the engineering feats that were performed on such a grand scale to cut and remove these giant trees. By some accounts, over 8,000 giant sequoia trees were cut in Converse Basin before it came under USDA-Forest Service administration in the early 1930’s.

Points of interest to visit within Converse Basin include the Tree, which at 269 feet tall and having a diameter of approximately 35 feet is the largest tree on National Forest Land. Spared the axe, this tree was named after Frank Boole, the general logging superintendent for the Lumber Company. Stump Meadow contains an impressive array of giant sequoia stumps that would have suggested that this area was almost a pure stand of giant sequoia prior to the logging that began in 1890. Over 70 large stumps have been counted in this area. The Chicago Stump is what is left of the General Noble Tree that was cut and hollowed out for an exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. People viewing this exhibit in Chicago in 1893 believe the size of the tree to be a “hoax”. Much of the basin is full of remnants of old log chutes, railroads, and mill sites. Of particular interest is the Upper and Lower Mill Site Meadows, site of the old Converse Mill; Hoist Ridge, site of a huge steam hoist that pulled lumber out of the basin for transport to Millwood and the lumber flume to Sanger, CA; and the Rob Roy Chute that ran from Indian Basin and through Stump Meadow to bring logs to the Converse Mill.

The natural process of recovery that has been taking place over the last century provides an unprecedented living laboratory for the study and application of ecological restoration. Today, not only is Converse Basin one of the largest groves but it is perhaps one of the most complex groves in terms of its historic, scientific, and biological contents.