In an article published by the Daily Journal, Special Counsel Christopher Rheinheimer and Associate Tessa Opalach dive into the broadly popular Save our Sequoias Act, which is ostensibly aimed at protecting the ancient sequoia trees but opposed by environmental groups.

Excerpt: “...The newest proposed legislation is the Save Our Sequoias Act (H.R. 2989). The act contains a number of broadly popular and widely supported provisions...

...However, the broad popularity is tested by the emergency response provision in Section 6..."

As Rheinheimer and Opalach write, this legislation is generally supported by both parties, but Section 6 of the act caused a group of more than 80 entities, including several environmental activist groups, to urge Congress to oppose the proposed legislation. This provision would allow officials to implement giant sequoia protection projects on all public and covered National Forest System lands without initiating analysis or consultation as required by previously enacted legislation. Rheinheimer and Opalach discuss the differing perspectives around this provision and pose the question of whether this solution would save the trees by enabling further harm to the forest, as the environmental groups suggest.