Sequoia Emergency Act Skips Environmental Review for 7 Years to Fast-Track Wildfire Protection Projects

This new legislation, the Save Our Sequoias Act, is designed to be an emergency response to the catastrophic wildfires that have decimated giant sequoia groves in recent years. The core of the bill is simple: it cuts the red tape to allow federal agencies to start aggressive, active forest management immediately, aiming to protect these critical trees before the next fire season hits.

It establishes a Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition—a mandatory partnership between federal agencies (like the National Park Service and Forest Service), the State of California, and the Tule River Indian Tribe—to lead the effort. This Coalition is required to produce a comprehensive health assessment of all sequoia groves and, crucially, maintain a public, searchable dashboard tracking every proposed project, its estimated cost, and its timeline (Sec. 5).

The 7-Year Emergency Declaration: Fast-Tracking the Chainsaw

Here’s the part that will get people talking. The Act declares a 7-year emergency (Sec. 6) specifically to protect sequoias. This declaration is the mechanism that allows the government to bypass standard environmental reviews. Specifically, it grants a categorical exclusion from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements for “Protection Projects.”

What does that mean for you? If you’re a busy person who cares about environmental protection, this means that for the next seven years, a federal official can approve a hazardous fuel reduction project—like thinning, controlled burns, or removing dead trees—on up to 3,000 acres of federal land without having to complete a time-consuming environmental assessment or impact statement. This is a massive concentration of power in the hands of the “Responsible Official” and significantly speeds up the timeline for getting work done on the ground. The goal is to clear fire fuel in a minimum of three groves every year.

Specialized Teams and Dedicated Cash

To ensure the work actually gets done, the bill creates Giant Sequoia Strike Teams (Sec. 8). Think of them as specialized, rapid-deployment crews made up of federal employees, contractors, and even volunteers from universities or nonprofits. Their job is to handle everything from environmental compliance paperwork to the physical site preparation and execution of the thinning projects.

Funding is also addressed, with the bill authorizing appropriations starting at $10 million in 2026 and ramping up to $40 million annually by 2031 (Sec. 13). The bill mandates that at least 90% of this money must be spent on the emergency response projects (Sec. 6) and a new Collaborative Restoration Grant program (Sec. 9).

This grant program is designed to help rural businesses and Tribes. For example, a grant could be used to help a local business set up a facility to process the hazardous fuels removed from the forest—turning wood chips into biochar or other products—which helps lower the cost of the overall restoration work. Crucially, the bill requires that at least 15% of all money raised through the new Emergency Protection Fund must go toward supporting Tribal efforts in sequoia management (Sec. 12).

Parks Are Now Part of the Plan

Finally, the Act makes important technical changes to existing laws like the Good Neighbor Authority and Stewardship Contracting (Sec. 10, 11). These changes explicitly extend those authorities—which allow the Forest Service to partner with states and local governments for forest work—to include Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks. This means that local governments and Tribes can now work directly with the National Park Service on restoration projects, and if they sell timber from those projects, the revenue must be reinvested back into sequoia conservation within the parks.