Kern-Kaweah Chapter

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Please help to learn more about the diversity of wildlife in Kern County, especially in urban Bakersfield! If you see a San Joaquin Kit Fox, or other endangered, rare, threatened, or interesting species, please report using the QR code below. Data is needed for the new Metropolitan Bakersfield Habitat Conservation Plan.

The biggest threat to every grove in our Southern Sierra is destructive, counterfeit 'restoration!' THE GROVES NEED OUR HELP!

By Carla Cloer, Sequoia Task Force, January 2024

Yes, fires raged through our Sierra forests and the Giant Sequoia National Monument and burned in a mosaic through many of our iconic sequoia groves; but unlike most conifers, giant sequoias are uniquely adapted to survive and reproduce especially after severe fire. As heat rises to the sequoias’ canopies, cones dry and release millions of seeds, the first to germinate on the burned soils. And seeds continue to fall even after several seasons. Giants surviving today were already growing in those same groves when Cleopatra was born; they and their progeny have made it through countless cycles of fire, drought and even nuclear winters caused by volcanic eruptions-- all with no human assistance.

IT’S A FOREST MIRACLE! There are now millions of sequoia seedlings in the groves - some in a continuous carpet, some in dense thickets and others in patches scattered across burned groves; in the Black Mountain Grove today, after the 2017 Pier Fire, seedlings leap from the ash-enriched soil and many are over 10 feet tall. Every huge sequoia we revere today began life in a similar post-fire seedling bloom and survived eons of fire and drought cycles with genetic superiority and luck. Other species including dogwood, wild roses, elderberries and bear clover are back. It’s the life cycle of forests, driven by millions of years of fire that created these forests we love today.

NOW WE ARE HORRIFIED! The Sierra Club fought for decades to stop industrial-commercial logging in grove ecosystems and in 2000 helped create the Giant Sequoia National Monument. BUT RIGHT NOW the Forest Service has approved more damage on more acres than were logged in the decades prior to the creation of the Monument! AND some of these projects are already happening because the Bush administration gave agencies so-called “emergency powers” so they could skip usual legal requirements.

BUT THERE WAS NO EMERGENCY: the fires were out! Trees in danger of falling on roads were removed right after the fires. Furthermore, burned forests are fire resistant; large dead trees are difficult to ignite as anyone knows who has tried to light campfire logs without kindling. Dead trees are not only habitat for post - fire dependent species but fallen trees stabilize soils and provide the nutrients for future forests. But tragically, projects going on right now have dragged thousands of logs out of the groves using 56,000 pound tracked machines ripping through forest soils, destroying thousands of young sequoias and creating hundreds of slash burn piles on top the seedlings: seedlings that were the last gift from burned sequoias.

WORSE IS COMING!! Two HUGE projects with even worse impacts have been approved for over 50,000 acres inside the Monument and will invade 15 giant sequoia groves. These projects will use commercial logging methods with “tracked equipment such as masticators, skidders, excavators, feller-bunchers, and chippers” within one-quarter mile (1320 feet) of roads: (there are 822 miles of Forest Service roads inside the Monument; most are LESS than a quarter mile apart.) There is no mention of protecting natural sequoia seedlings. They will ‘try’ not to cut sequoias over 12 inches in diameter; those fire survivors are many decades old! Much of the remaining vegetation, except for sequoias big enough to be called ‘giants,’ will be crushed, ripped or covered with chips and then replaced with planted seedlings in densities the USFS deems to meet ‘desired stocking standards.’ Planted seedlings will be “protected” from “competing vegetation” with glyphosate. This is industrial tree farming and has nothing to do with understanding or respecting natural ecosystems and their cycles of life! It is NOT restoration.

The Clinton Proclamation that created the Monument in 2000 protected not just the biggest giant sequoias, but a myriad of species and an entire ecosystem; it also mandated that the forest be restored FROM a century of fire suppression and logging. Now there has been fire – but the Forest Service’s plan is to use fire as an excuse for MORE LOGGING and create a perpetual cycle of tree ‘management.’

WE WILL TAKE THE FOREST SERVICE TO COURT! The Forest Service has approved these projects with a “Finding Of No Significant Impact! (FONSI)” We demand that projects be withdrawn or studied in a full-scale Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with scientific studies and full public input before any approval. These projects are within the area of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter, the smallest Sierra Club Chapter in California with no staff and a huge array of issues from oil drilling, air pollution, sprawl and southern Sierra issues. We are small but mighty. We fought the Mineral King Ski proposal, worked tirelessly to gain many Wildernesses including the Golden Trout and helped create the Giant Sequoia National Monument. We will not stop.

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THE GROVES NEED YOUR HELP! The timber industry and the Forest Service lost no time to greatly exaggerate the number of sequoias killed and to promote the idea that only by logging dead trees and replanting nursery-grown seedlings can the groves be saved. Many are unaware of miraculous natural forest life cycles or of the drastic consequences of this scheme to get around Monument protections. We need public education, newsletters, interviews and special programs; furthermore we cannot fully pursue this essential lawsuit without assured funding. The National Club will approve the lawsuit but cannot fund it.

To help us or for additional information, please contact:

Stephen A. Montgomery, Chair of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter at chair@kernkaweah.sierraclub.org Carla Cloer, Sequoia Task Force at <cac@ocsnet.net>

Photo:  Black Mountain Grove, Giant Sequoia National Monument, December, 2023. One of many piles of logs dragged from the grove to be taken to the timber mill with no studies or public input and falsely claimed to be an ‘emergency.’

Photo: Black Mountain Grove December, 2023: pile of logging debris in a burn pile on top and adjacent to thriving sequoia seedlings. There is no mention of protection natural seedlings in the recently approved Windy and Castle projects that we intent to fight.

Photo: A mess of logs, logging debris and bulldozed forest soils in the Black Mountain Sequoia Grove, Giant Sequoia National Monument, December 2023. There are sequoia saplings extending hundreds of feet down slope from here, many covered by waterbars, crushed by tracked machines or pushed into slash piles.  This is a small sample of what the recently approved Castle and Windy Projects will create in 15 Monument groves.

The following are comments the chair delivered to the Bakersfield City Council before they went into closed session this past November 11. Since then the city has not challenged the favorable ruling by Judge Gregory Pulskamp to require a sustainable enough water be directed to the main riverbed.  Judge Pulskamp directed the stakeholders to work out the final allotments of water to determine the amounts of water to be directed to the riverbed to sustain fish and to various other water allotment holders.

 Comment November 11 re: Bakersfield City Council Closed session item one

Stephen Montgomery, Chair, Kern-Kaweah Chapter, Sierra Club

Part and parcel to our goals to make and Keep Bakersfield Beautiful as a desirable, inclusive and sustainable place to live includes having the Kern River in town look and act like a real river. There are reasons for diverting water from running down the Kern River’s natural riverbed, including this rather disingenuous line of reasoning from the so-called Sustainable Kern River’s own website: https://sustainablekernriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/July-Kern-River-Map.pdf [sustainablekernriver.org]

Along with a map showing the canals that get the water is this dialog box reading in part: “By responsibly [sic] choosing to divert water from the Kern River to send it through the mostly concrete lined canals that run parallel to the river, water users can conserve water that would seep into the ground if they let it continue through the dry riverbed.” 

Well, yea! Water running down a dry riverbed will  seep into the ground and, seeing this, it’s the first time I realized anyone thought this was a problem. While the riverbed is no longer dry, and there remain a lot of canals not lined in concrete, I think such seepage is also called ground water replenishment. That’s the fate of all the water now running through the riverbed as its destination are percolation ponds where it does, in fact, seep into the ground. In the meantime water running in the riverbed also sustains the adjacent riparian habitat and protect fish populations to say nothing about how much it improves the quality of life in the city.

With all the damage from subsidence to, among other things, our expensive canal system championed by the Sustainable Kern River folks I’m surprised they didn’t connect the dots. So in flowing where it belongs, that really makes it a win-win. In sustaining the adjacent riparian habitat and protecting fish populations, to say nothing about river related recreation, it enhances the quality of life in our community. In respect of the court ruling, we encourage the city to work positively for keeping a flowing Kern by collaborating with the water districts as the way to come to yes on a just settlement solution.

On November 26, the following letter, addressing the matter of keeping water in the Kern, to the editor by Chapter Chair Stephen Montgomery was published:

[bakersfield.com]Letter to the editor: Manage the water supply as ruled [bakersfield.com] bakersfield.com [bakersfield.com]

Beginning September 2024, the City of Bakersfield stopped the flow of the Kern River which resulted in the death of thousands of Fish. This was justified with the City having no water available anymore, and in preparation for repairs and reconstruction on 2 weirs, as well as channel maintenance for flood control. Here are some current news articles that you might want to read to be informed:

City of Bakersfield pins blame for dry Kern River on ag districts, tells citizens to go ask them for water:

https://sjvwater.org/city-of-bakersfield-pins-blame-for-dry-kern-river-on-ag-districts-tells-citizens-to-ask-them-for-water/

LOIS HENRY: Mass fish die-off in the suddenly dry Kern River prompts state investigation

https://www.bakersfield.com/columnists/lois-henry/lois-henry-mass-fish-die-off-in-the-suddenly-dry-kern-river-prompts-state-investigation/article_44ee0e7a-6d3b-11ef-a280-9f139218f793.html

Photos taken on September 7th, 2024. CSUB students counting the numbers of dead fish.