global briefs

Save the Sequoias

The U.S. Forest Service is speeding efforts to protect giant sequoias from wildfires; almost 20 percent of the ancient trees have been destroyed by wildfire in the last two years. They will thin the forest in and around sequoia groves by removing brush and smaller trees from 13,000 acres of national forest to protect 12 giant sequoia groves this summer and conduct prescribed burns using the agency’s emergency authority under the National Environmental Policy Act. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore says, “Without urgent action, wildfires could eliminate countless more iconic giant sequoias.”

Giant sequoias can live for more than 3,000 years and are found only on the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The trees are adapted to fire with thick, spongy bark, and the heat releases seeds from their cones, allowing young trees to take root in areas cleared by fire. A policy to put out wildfires as quickly as possible has created unnaturally dense forests and allowed brush and dead wood to accumulate. Climate change has led to hotter temperatures, severe drought, a year-round fire season and the proliferation of bark beetles that have killed the drought-weakened trees. Bigger, hotter fires are more likely to reach giant sequoias’ crowns, killing them.

Monarch Butterfly Now Officially Endangered

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red

List of Threatened Species numbers 147,517 species, including 41,459 that are threatened with extinction. The latest update adds the migratory monarch butterfly, a subspecies of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). In the past decade, the native population has shrunk by between 22 percent and 72 percent during winter migrations from Mexico and California to summer breeding grounds throughout the U.S. and Canada due to logging and deforestation for agriculture and urban development. Pesticides and herbicides kill butterflies and milkweed, the host plant that the larvae of the monarch butterfly feed on. Drought related to climate change limits the growth of milkweed and increases the frequency of catastrophic wildfires, and temperature extremes trigger earlier migrations before milkweed is available, while severe weather has killed millions of butterflies.

Possible remedies are planting native milkweed, reducing pesticide and protecting the overwintering sites. IUCN Director General Dr. Bruno Oberle says, “To preserve the rich diversity of nature, we need effective, fairly governed, protected and conserved areas alongside decisive action to tackle climate change and restore ecosystems. In turn, conserving biodiversity supports communities by providing essential services such as food, water and sustainable jobs.”