SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – As fire season looms once again in California, with searing temperatures and drought already creating a sense of foreboding in the state's fire agencies, some of the most vulnerable members of California are at risk.
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The sequoia trees that California is best known for have been ravaged in the last couple of years by the state's wildfires, to the point where nearly a fifth have died, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the face of yet another likely blaze in the coming months, plans to save the trees are underway.
One such effort has made it to Congress this week, with a proposal from Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of San Diego and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, according to the paper.
The legislation, the Save our Sequoias Act, would ensure funding to protect and preserve the trees from fires.
And the plan couldn't come a moment sooner. Just last year, the KNP Complex Fire burned through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, ripping through thousands of acres and leading to hundreds of trees being lost, as previously reported by KCBS Radio.
Fortunately, fire officials were able to save some of the parks’ most iconic trees, such as the General Sherman Tree, with protective foil.
But the Save our Sequoias Act aims to create a multi-pronged effort to protect the sequoias from this growing risk.
Using the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, "a collection of nonprofit, tribal, local, state and federal land managers who oversee many of the burned areas," according to the Chronicle, the process for fire protection and preservation projects in the forests would become streamlined.
In addition, the bill would designate a whopping $325 million over the next ten years to allocated for these types of projects.
The bill also includes a federal emergency declaration for the trees, as reported by the paper.
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