Climate Change Threatens Famous Giant Sequoias

Reader Contribution by Smithsonian
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Back in 1852, a hunter named Augustus T. Dowd running through the forest after a grizzly bear first discovered the famous giant sequoia trees of California. From there, the “Big Tree Mania” began, causing Americans to flood into California from every part of the new country to see the giant trees for themselves.

During this period, sequoia wood souvenirs were sold by the dozens, allowing tourists to purchase wooden candlesticks, wooden canes, hotel postcards, and other memorabilia during their visit. Visitors could also take carriage rides through passages cut out of the trunks of the giants. Americans became so obsessed with these trees that they put the species in danger.

One by one, timberman came to cash in on the sequoias, cutting them down for the colossal amounts of wood available for profit. By the end of the 1800s, the American frontier was closed to visitors in an attempt to protect the remaining trees from the greed of timbermen and tourism. The first national parks were established to safeguard the remaining sequoias, and to bring back the wild buffalo and pigeon populations that used to reside in surrounding areas of the trees.

However, many efforts to protect these trees actually destroyed the populations even more, particularly the efforts to prevent any small wildfires near the trees out of fear that the fires would damage the remaining trees. At this point in history, conservationists did not know that sequoias required small wildfires in order to clear the ground for more sequoia seedlings, and to clear out competing species.

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