Project overview: Restore black oak groves in Yosemite Valley with prescribed cultural burning, providing opportunities for Tribal stewardship and maintenance of the groves. 

How your support helps: The black oak groves of Yosemite Valley require low-intensity fire to produce high-quality acorns and seedling growth. Traditionally, Native American Tribes would facilitate this process with semi-annual burns that encouraged the renewal of favorable understory species, decreased the number of competing conifers, reduced pests, and served cultural purposes. In the absence of these traditional practices and fire, the health of local groves declined. 

The black oak grove project allows for a renewal of Tribal stewardship, traditional ecological knowledge regeneration, and restoration of connection between the groves and Tribal people who depend on acorns for spiritual, ceremonial, and nutritional health and well-being.  

The first phases of the Conservancy-funded project, from 2021–2023, addressed fuel reduction and the restoration of Tribal stewardship in two main oak groves in Yosemite Valley. Through this process, park managers consulted with subject-matter experts and Tribal representatives to ensure the groves would be restored with the best practices and science available. 

Now, in the next project phase, one of the Valley groves is prepped for a prescribed cultural burn, while the other still requires ongoing fuel-reduction efforts. The continual caretaking of these groves offers the opportunity for the return of healthy groves and opportunities for associated Tribal members to teach and learn from others about these sacred sites and traditional gathering areas. 

This year: In summer 2025, funding will support a Tribal crew of five young adults to support fuel reduction in the Valley groves and other cultural projects requested by Tribes. The 12-week program not only benefits Yosemite’s oak groves, but also supports Tribal crewmembers by providing income, experience, and Tribal stewardship and community opportunities. 

Project partners: Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Fire, Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps, and Great Basin Institute