The US launches an emergency plan to protect the giant sequoias

The US Forest Service has announced an emergency plan to speed up projects to protect giant sequoias in the face of increasing fire risk.

The emergency approval will allow us to circumvent years of efforts to begin as soon as possible with the elimination of shrubs and other smaller trees that could feed the fires that in the last two years have killed 20 percent of the giant sequoias of the United States. It also plans to use controlled fires to reduce the forest mass.

“Without an urgent response, the fires could wipe out countless giant sequoias,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said Friday. “This emergency action reduces fuel before there is a fire and will protect the giant sequoias from serious fires,” he added, according to US public radio NPR.

Most of the 70 giant sequoia forests are concentrated in Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, and Yosemite National Park.

“The move announced by the Forest Service is an important step forward for giant sequoias, but failure to address other barriers necessary to protect these forests will not end the emergency,” the bipartisan sequoia advocacy group said. of the US Congress, in which the Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, participates.

However, environmental groups such as Sequoia ForestKeeper believe that it is “a well-orchestrated public relations campaign” to benefit the logging industry.

Source: Europa Press