Project overview: Establish the groundwork for a stream restoration design that will protect sequoias in Merced Grove from destabilization due to erosion.

How your support helps: An eroding stream channel through the heart of Merced Grove is threatening mature giant sequoia by undermining their root systems and draining surrounding groundwater. Following the loss of several giant sequoias due to the widening and deepening of Moss Creek, a 2021 Conservancy-funded effort evaluated the drainage system and found that four giant sequoia are at direct risk of toppling due to bank erosion and stream-channel widening. Numerous other sequoia nearby are also at-risk.

A new feasibility study is needed to provide the basis for a stream restoration design to stabilize Moss Creek and restore the original stream dimensions. This will prevent additional giant sequoias from toppling over from stream erosion and increase the resilience of the grove under a warmer future by ensuring groundwater is available for the trees. 

This year: Data collected during this 2024 feasibility study and report will directly inform production of a science-based design to restore essential hydrologic conditions for giant sequoia survival.

Project partners: Yosemite National Park

Cat Fong

Physical Sciences and Landscape Ecology, Yosemite National Park

Project Notes

"Data collected during this study would directly inform production of a science-based design to restore essential hydrologic conditions for giant sequoia survival."