National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 261 | Coming to the Aid of Giant Sequoias

By Jess Repanshek - February 11th, 2024

Stand before a giant sequoia tree in Sequoia or Kings Canyon national parks or nearby Yosemite National Park and you’re overwhelmed by their size, and assume they’re impervious to anything that might be thrown at them. But as we learned from wildfires in 2020 and 2021 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, that’s not the case.

The Castle Fire in 2020 and then the KNP Complex and Windy fires in 2021 that burned through the two parks destroyed thousands of giant sequoia trees. Estimates put the losses at more than 14,000 mature trees, or roughly 13-19 percent of the world’s giant sequoias.

At the Sequoia Parks Conservancy, just days after the KNP complex fires started in September of 2021 plans were being made to raise funds to help the National Park Service restore and recover areas in the two parks that were burned. Today we’re discussing the ongoing recovery work with Savannah Boiano, the executive director of the Sequoia Parks Conservancy.

0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
1:12 Sieur de Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
1:27 Interior Federal Credit Union
1:54 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
2:18 Episode 261 - Coming to the Aid of Giant Sequoias
26:51 Big Country - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of Yellowstone
27:12 NPT Promo
27:49 Great Smoky Mountains Association
28:14 Episode 261 - Coming to the Aid of Giant Sequoias Continues
50:08 Schoodic - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
50:38 Episode Closing
51:09 Orange Tree Productions
51:41 Splitbeard Productions
51:52 National Parks Traveler footer

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

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