S. 4103 — Save Our Sequoias Act

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

This section defines 16 terms used in the Act, including "Assessment" (i.e., the Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment required by section 5), "Coalition" (i.e., the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition codified under section 4(a)), "collaborative process" (i.e., as described in section 4003(b)(2) of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (16 U.S.C. 7303(b)(2))), "covered National Forest System lands" (i.e., Sequoia National Forest, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and Tahoe National Forest), "covered public lands" (i.e., Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks managed by the National Park Service), "giant sequoia," "Protection Project" (i.e., a Giant Sequoia Protection Project carried out under section 6), "reforestation," "rehabilitation" (i.e., actions during the five-year period after a wildland fire to repair or improve fire-impacted lands), "Secretary" (i.e., Secretary of the Interior), "Secretary concerned" (i.e., Secretary of Agriculture for covered National Forest System lands and Secretary of the Interior for covered public lands), "Strategy" (i.e., the Giant Sequoia Reforestation and Rehabilitation Strategy established under section 7), "Strike Team" (i.e., a Giant Sequoia Strike Team established under section 8), and "Tribe" (i.e., Tule River Indian Tribe).

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 manage and conserve giant sequoias on federal lands. (Shared stewardship agreements facilitate collaborative forest management among federal agencies, states, and tribes.) If no such request is received within 90 days of enactment, the Secretary must enter into and implement the agreement with the Secretary of Agriculture alone and later add the Governor or Tribe upon request.

This section codifies the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition—established under a charter signed in 2022 by the National Park Service (for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park), 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 Indian 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)—and assigns it additional duties of (1) producing an assessment under section 5, (2) observing implementation of and providing policy recommendations on protection projects under section 6 and the strategy under section 7, (3) facilitating collaboration on cross-jurisdictional protection projects, (4) sharing information including best available science and mapping resources, and (5) supporting development and dissemination of public education materials on threats to giant sequoia groves from high-severity wildfire, insects, and drought. This section also directs the Secretary of the Interior to provide Department of the Interior personnel for necessary administrative, technical, and staff support to the coalition and requires the coalition to hold at least one public meeting annually, with closed sessions permitted only for discussions of sensitive law enforcement matters or confidential commercial, property, or landowner information.

This section directs the Giant Sequoia Coalition to submit to the relevant congressional committees, not later than 6 months after enactment, a Giant Sequoia Health and Resiliency Assessment based on the best available science that (1) identifies giant sequoia groves affected by or at risk of stand-replacing disturbances (i.e., high tree mortality events), adjacent lands vulnerable to high-severity wildfires, and groves needing reforestation; (2) analyzes grove resiliency to threats including high-severity wildfire, insects such as beetle kill, and drought; (3) examines impacts of historical, Tribal, and current wildland fire suppression and forest management across jurisdictions; and (4) provides recommendations to enhance cross-boundary coordination and address research gaps. The section further requires annual updates to the assessment, beginning 1 year after the initial submission, incorporating new data and (1) status reports on Protection Projects (i.e., hazardous fuels reduction efforts), including annual initiation and planning of projects in at least 3 groves with timelines, monitoring, and explanations for any shortfalls; and (2) updates on reforestation and rehabilitation under the strategy in section 7. Additionally, the section requires the Coalition to create and maintain a public website publishing the assessment and updates, with searchable information on individual groves' resiliency, Protection Projects, and reforestation activities; and a database tracking federal environmental reviews, project costs, permitting timetables, agency compliance, and public engagement in English and affected communities' predominant languages. Finally, the section specifies that the best available science for the assessment must incorporate peer-reviewed academic research, Tribal traditional ecological knowledge, and data from federal, state, Tribal, local governments, and stakeholders experienced in giant sequoia management.

This section establishes a congressional emergency determination authorizing Protection Projects to protect giant sequoias from wildfires, insects, and drought on covered public lands and covered National Forest System lands, expiring 7 years after enactment. Protection Projects, which include hazardous fuels management (e.g., mechanical thinning, mastication, prescribed burning), removal of hazard, dead, or dying trees, thinning to address overstocking, and activities against insects, disease, invasive species, or vegetative encroachment, must comply with applicable land management plans, specified emergency regulations (36 C.F.R. § 220.4(b), 43 C.F.R. § 46.150, 50 C.F.R. § 402.05, 36 C.F.R. § 800.12), Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act emergency rules (16 U.S.C. 6592c(d), (e)), and Healthy Forests Restoration Act objection procedures (16 U.S.C. 6516). 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 documentation (42 U.S.C. 4332), subject to extraordinary circumstances procedures (7 C.F.R. § 1b.3(e)-(g)); such projects are to be used with other authorities, including good neighbor agreements (16 U.S.C. 2113a, i.e., cooperative agreements allowing federal agencies to contract with states or counties for authorized restoration services on federal lands) and stewardship contracting (16 U.S.C. 6591c). To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary concerned must reduce hazardous fuels in at least 3 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 reforestation and rehabilitation activities; (3) identify and address barriers (i.e., regulatory and funding barriers, seedling or nursery shortages, labor shortages, technology or science gaps, and site preparation challenges), public-private partnership opportunities, a timeline to address the reforestation backlog within 10 years after the section 3 agreement, and strategies to ensure genetic diversity; and (4) include program and policy recommendations to improve efficiency and effectiveness. (The Secretary may incorporate the strategy into the Renewable Resource Assessment required under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (i.e., a decennial Forest Service analysis of present and anticipated renewable forest and rangeland resources, supply, demand, and programs.)) This section further amends the Planning Act (16 U.S.C. 1601(e)(4)(C)(ii)(I)) to designate reforestation and rehabilitation activities under this section as priority reforestation projects.

This section establishes a Giant Sequoia Strike Team for each Secretary concerned (i.e., Secretary of the Interior for national parks and Secretary of Agriculture for national forests) to assist primarily with implementation of section 6 (Protection Projects, such as fuel reduction and forest restoration to protect giant sequoias from wildfire) and secondarily with section 7 (reforestation and rehabilitation activities). Each team, comprised of no more than 10 members who may include 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, shall (1) assist with environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Endangered Species Act; (2) implement site preparation work; (3) carry out Protection Projects; and (4) conduct reforestation or rehabilitation activities.

This section establishes a grant program, or expands an existing program, to award funds to eligible entities—nonprofit organizations, Tribal governments, local governments, academic institutions, or private organizations—to advance giant sequoia health and resiliency. The Secretary must consult parties to the section 3 agreement and prioritize applicants (1) primarily likely to have the greatest impact and (2) secondarily small businesses or Tribal entities in rural areas or those creating or supporting rural jobs. 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 such fuel removal, including by reducing transport costs for Protection Projects; (3) expand, enhance, develop, or create facilities or land to store or process those fuels; (4) establish, develop, expand, enhance, or improve nursery capacity or infrastructure for the section 7 Strategy; 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 a high-risk or previous history of insect infestations and (2) seek public-private partnerships to deploy technology for short-term and long-term monitoring of groves with current or potential insect infestations. Not later than two years after enactment, the Secretary must submit to the relevant congressional committees a report containing the strategy, an update on the monitoring program's effectiveness in preventing or addressing infestations, and program and policy recommendations to address research gaps and opportunities to improve giant sequoia resiliency to insects.

This section expands stewardship contracting authority—under which the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) enter contracts allowing timber or forest product value to offset costs of land management services (e.g., fire hazard reduction, watershed restoration)—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 (NPS) Director for those lands (in addition to the BLM Director for BLM lands), (2) adding those park lands to covered areas, and (3) adding promotion of giant sequoia health and resiliency as a land management goal. This section further requires stewardship contracting projects in those parks to comply with applicable NPS laws and regulations, including 54 U.S.C. 100753.

This section establishes the Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Program, 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) to promote philanthropic support primarily for management and conservation of giant sequoias on covered public lands and covered National Forest System lands (as defined in the Save Our Sequoias Act) to enhance resiliency to wildfires, insects, and drought, and secondarily for reforestation of wildfire-impacted giant sequoias on such lands. The section further establishes the Giant Sequoia Emergency Protection Fund as a joint special account consisting of gifts, devises, or bequests to the foundations; makes fund amounts available without further appropriation for projects approved by the Director of the National Park Service, Chief of the Forest Service, or Director of the Bureau of Land Management (with not less than 15% for Tribal management and conservation, including Tribal historic preservation officers); requires the foundations to include an annual summary of the program and fund (covering deposits, balances, and projects) in their reports beginning one year after enactment; and terminates the authority seven years after enactment of the Save Our Sequoias Act.