H.R. 2709 — Save Our Sequoias Act

This section designates the Act as the “Save Our Sequoias Act” and sets forth the table of contents.

This section defines 16 terms used throughout the Act, including "covered National Forest System lands" (Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest); "covered public lands" (Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, and Yosemite National Park); "giant sequoia" (Sequoiadendron giganteum); "Secretary concerned" (Secretary of Agriculture for covered National Forest System lands and Secretary of the Interior for covered public lands); "Tribe" (Tule River Indian Tribe); and others such as "Assessment," "Coalition," "collaborative process" (as described in 16 U.S.C. 7303(b)(2)), "Protection Project," "reforestation," "rehabilitation," "Strategy," and "Strike Team."

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior, not later than 90 days after receiving a request from the Governor of California or the Tribe, to enter into or expand a shared stewardship agreement—or a similar agreement—with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Governor, and the Tribe to jointly carry out short-term and long-term management and conservation of giant sequoias. If no request is received within 90 days of enactment, the Secretary must enter into and implement the agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture and later add the Governor or Tribe as a party upon request.

This section codifies the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition—comprising the National Park Service (for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park), U.S. Forest Service (for Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest), Bureau of Land Management (for Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area), Tule River Tribe (for Tule River Indian Reservation), State of California (for Calaveras Big Trees State Park and Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest), University of California Berkeley (for Whitaker’s Research Forest), and Tulare County (for Balch Park)—as established under a charter (or successor) signed between June 2, 2022, and August 2, 2022. The section assigns the coalition additional duties to (1) produce the assessment required under section 5; (2) monitor implementation of, and provide policy recommendations on, Protection Projects under section 6 and the strategy under section 7; (3) facilitate collaboration and coordination on Protection Projects, especially those crossing jurisdictional boundaries; (4) share information, including best available science and mapping resources; and (5) support development and dissemination of public educational materials on threats to giant sequoia groves from high-severity wildfire, insects, and drought. The section further directs the Secretary of the Interior to provide Department of the Interior personnel for necessary administrative, technical, educational, and staff support to the coalition and requires the coalition to hold at least one public meeting annually, with limited exceptions for closed sessions involving sensitive law enforcement, security, or confidential commercial, property, or landowner information.

This section directs the Coalition to submit to the relevant congressional committees a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment, based on the best available science (including academic research, Tribal traditional ecological knowledge, and government/stakeholder data), not later than 6 months after enactment. The assessment (1) identifies giant sequoia groves that have experienced or are at risk of stand-replacing disturbances, adjacent at-risk lands or fuel break locations, and groves needing reforestation; (2) analyzes resiliency to threats such as high-severity wildfire, insects (including beetle kill), and drought; (3) examines impacts of historical, Tribal, or current wildland fire suppression and forest management across jurisdictions; and (4) provides recommendations to enhance cross-boundary coordination and address research gaps. This section requires annual updates to the assessment, beginning 1 year after the initial submission, that incorporate new data and (1) report on Protection Projects, including numbers initiated/planned, timelines, post-completion monitoring, and—if the Secretary concerned failed to reduce hazardous fuels in at least 3 groves the prior year—explanations of impediments and corrective actions; and (2) provide updates on reforestation and rehabilitation under section 7, including grove-level data and monitoring. This section further requires the Coalition to create and maintain a public website publishing the assessment, updates, and educational materials; providing searchable information on individual groves' resiliency, Protection Projects, and reforestation activities; and hosting a searchable database tracking federal environmental reviews/authorizations, projected costs, permitting timetables (with agency compliance status and modification explanations), and project-related public meetings/hearings (in English and affected communities' predominant languages).

This section declares a seven-year emergency, from the date of enactment through 2031, on covered public lands and covered National Forest System lands due to threats from wildfires, insects, and drought to giant sequoias and directs the Secretary concerned to carry out Protection Projects using specified emergency regulatory procedures (citing 36 C.F.R. § 220.4(b), 43 C.F.R. § 46.150, 50 C.F.R. § 402.05, and 36 C.F.R. § 800.12, as in effect on specified 2022 dates), certain Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act rules (16 U.S.C. 6592c(d), (e)), and Healthy Forests Restoration Act section 106 requirements (16 U.S.C. 6516). Protection Projects consist of (1) hazardous fuels management (including mechanical thinning, mastication, and prescribed burning), (2) removing hazard, dead, or dying trees, (3) thinning overcrowded stands to appropriate basal area based on best available science, (4) addressing insects, disease, invasive species, and vegetative encroachment in giant sequoia groves, or (5) combinations thereof. Protection Projects and related reforestation or rehabilitation activities covering no more than 2,000 acres within giant sequoia groves or 3,000 acres on lands identified under section 5(a)(1)(C)—on federal land or non-federal land with owner consent—are categorically excluded from National Environmental Policy Act environmental assessments or impact statements, subject to extraordinary circumstances review (7 C.F.R. § 1b.3(e)-(g)); the section directs use of this authority, to the maximum extent practicable, with good neighbor agreements (16 U.S.C. 2113a) and stewardship contracting (16 U.S.C. 6591c). To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary concerned must reduce hazardous fuels in at least three giant sequoia groves each year and provide public notice of each Protection Project on a departmental website.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Coalition, to develop and implement, not later than six months after enactment, the Giant Sequoia Reforestation and Rehabilitation Strategy to enhance reforestation and rehabilitation of giant sequoia groves. The strategy must (1) identify groves in need, giving highest priority to those under section 5(a)(1)(A)(i); (2) create a priority list of activities; (3) identify and address barriers (i.e., regulatory and funding barriers, seedling shortages, labor shortages, technology gaps, site preparation challenges), public-private partnership opportunities, a timeline to address the reforestation backlog within 10 years after the section 3 agreement, and strategies for genetic diversity; and (4) include program and policy recommendations. The Secretary may incorporate the strategy into the Renewable Resource Assessment required under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974. The section further amends that Act (16 U.S.C. 1601(e)(4)(C)(ii)(I)) to add reforestation and rehabilitation activities under this section to the list of priority reforestation projects.

This section establishes a Giant Sequoia Strike Team for each Secretary concerned (i.e., of the Interior or Agriculture) to assist primarily with Protection Projects under section 6 and secondarily with reforestation and rehabilitation activities under section 7. Each Strike Team shall assist with environmental reviews and consultations (i.e., under the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Endangered Species Act), perform necessary site preparation work, implement Protection Projects, and carry out reforestation or rehabilitation activities. Each Strike Team may include no more than 10 members comprising Department of the Interior employees, Forest Service employees, private contractors, and volunteers from nonprofit organizations, state, tribal, or local governments, academic institutions, or private organizations.

This section establishes a grant program, administered by the Secretary in consultation with parties to the agreement under section 3, to award grants to eligible entities—nonprofit organizations, Tribal governments, local governments, academic institutions, or private organizations—to advance giant sequoia health and resiliency. In awarding grants, the Secretary must prioritize entities likely to have the greatest impact on giant sequoia health and resiliency and, secondarily, small businesses or Tribal entities (particularly in rural areas) and those creating or supporting jobs (particularly in rural areas). Grant funds must be used to (1) create, expand, or develop markets for hazardous fuels removed under section 6, including biomass and biochar; (2) facilitate hazardous fuel removal under section 6, including by reducing transportation costs for Protection Projects; (3) expand, enhance, develop, or create facilities or land to store or process hazardous fuels removed under section 6; (4) establish, develop, expand, enhance, or improve nursery capacity or infrastructure for the Strategy under section 7; or (5) support Tribal management and conservation of giant sequoias, including funding for Tribal historic preservation officers.

This section directs the Secretary concerned, not later than one year after enactment, to (1) develop and implement a strategy for monitoring insects in giant sequoia groves with high-risk or previous history of infestations, and (2) seek public-private partnerships to deploy technology for short- and long-term monitoring of groves with current or potential infestations. Not later than two years after enactment, the Secretary must submit a report to the relevant congressional committees containing the strategy, an update on the monitoring program's effectiveness in preventing or addressing infestations, and recommendations to address research gaps and improve giant sequoia resiliency to insects.

This section expands stewardship contracting authority—which allows the Forest Service chief and relevant directors to enter into agreements or contracts with private or public entities for land management services (e.g., road maintenance, prescribed fire, vegetation removal, watershed restoration), offsetting costs with the value of removed timber or forest products—to lands within Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, and Yosemite National Park by (1) revising the definition of "Director" to include the National Park Service director for those lands (in addition to the Bureau of Land Management director for BLM lands), (2) adding those park lands to the scope of eligible projects, and (3) adding promotion of the health and resiliency of giant sequoias as a land management goal. It further requires stewardship contracting projects in those parks to comply with National Park Service laws (including 54 U.S.C. 100753 on commercial services contracts).

This section establishes the Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Program and Fund (new 54 U.S.C. §101123), to be designed and implemented by the National Park Foundation in coordination with the National Forest Foundation and the Foundation for America’s Public Lands. The program promotes philanthropic support primarily for management and conservation of giant sequoias—iconic trees threatened by wildfires, insects, and drought—on covered public lands and covered National Forest System lands (as defined in the Save Our Sequoias Act) to enhance resiliency, and secondarily for reforestation of wildfire-impacted giant sequoias on those lands. The Fund, a joint special account, receives gifts, devises, and bequests and makes funds available without further appropriation for agency-approved projects matching the program's priorities, with at least 15% supporting Tribal management and conservation (including Tribal historic preservation officers). Beginning one year after enactment, the foundations must include annual reports summarizing Fund deposits, balances, and funded projects. Authority terminates seven years after enactment of the Save Our Sequoias Act.