The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is the consolidated management structure for

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing ...

and

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed to Kings ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The two parks have been jointly administered since 1943. They have a combined size of . It was designated the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Sequoia-Kings Canyon

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

in 1976. It is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The Parks feature a wide variety of animals that include over 200 species of birds, gregarious slender salamander,

western toad The western toad (''Anaxyrus boreas'') is a large toad species, between long, native to western North America. ''A. boreas'' is frequently encountered during the wet season on roads, or near water at other times. It can jump a considerable distan ...

, western spadefoot toad,

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

Mexican free-tailed bat The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been ...

rubber boa The rubber boa (''Charina bottae'') is a species of snake in the family Boidae and is native to North America. It is sometimes known as the coastal rubber boa or the northern rubber boa and is not to be confused with the southern rubber boa (''C ...

common kingsnake ''Lampropeltis getula'', commonly known as the eastern kingsnake,Roger Conant (herpetologist), Conant R (1975). ''A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition''. (First published in 1958). Boston: ...

, and many more.

History

The area now occupied by the parks was originally inhabited by Native Americans. The

Monache The Mono ( ) are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra (generally south of Bridgeport), the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin. The Eastern mono is often grouped under th ...

tribes, for example, would use the mountain passes as trade routes. As European settlers explored and settled in California, the indigenous population decreased rapidly due to the spread of foreign diseases such as

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. Preserving the area was not a priority for the settlers, who saw the area as a place for plentiful resources, particularly the sequoia trees ''(

Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

)'', as they were extremely plentiful and easily accessible. The Native Americans living there found themselves losing their only means of survival, and as a result of their desperation, they turned toward theft and crimes against the Spanish settlers in order to survive. The Parks were separately founded by two different acts of Congress before being joined in 1943. Sequoia National Park was first preserved as land set aside for recreation through a bill, ''Sept. 25, 1890, ch. 926, §1, 26 Stat. 478'', passed by Congress and signed by

President Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pre ...

on September 5, 1890, largely due to the efforts of Colonel George W. Stewart, who is known as the "Father of Sequoia National Park". The land was set aside to protect the sequoia trees from logging companies in order to keep the pristine beauty of the land for years to come. It wasn't until a few months after the bill had passed that the park was given the National Park name by the Secretary of the Interior,

John Willock Noble John Willock Noble (October 26, 1831 – March 22, 1912) was a U.S. lawyer and brevet brigadier general in the Civil War. He served as the Secretary of the Interior between 1889 and 1893. Early life and education He was born in Lancaster, Ohio ...

. Stewart also collaborated with

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

, who was known for his efforts to preserve

, in order to achieve the formation of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. Sequoia was expanded in 1926. After establishing Sequoia National Park, General Grant National Park was also established. General Grant National Park was later was abolished by President Roosevelt and created into Kings Canyon National Park, on the same land. Due to their proximity and similarities, the administration of each park was combined in 1943. Before

visited the area now known as

, the area did not receive much attention, despite some settlers having moved there. Harold Ickes, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior was the one fighting for the formation of the

. Before the area became an official park there were threats to the area. In 1920, the major threat was to create a reservoir in a part of the park known as the Cedar Grove Area. It was not until 1940 when the park was officially formed that the threats were dismissed.

Superintendent history

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park (prior to joint administration)

Reference:

Geology

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park house various natural spectacles. The parks are a large part of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Its entirety, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park has been regionally affiliated with the Western region of National Park Service units. The two adjacent parks extend from the foothills of the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

to the crest of the Sierra Nevada and contain the highest parts of that range.

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

glaciers left an abrupt topography of granite carved canyons and domes and hundreds of glacial lakes. Among the peaks is

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: Tumanguya; ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'') is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of . It is in East–Central California, on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tu ...

which, at 14,491 feet, is one of the tallest mountains in the United States. Other mountains range from elevation of 12,000 feet to 14,000 feet. Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park house about 200 marble caves combined. The National Park Service is committed to keeping its units operational and while preserving the beauty of the park. Although, the NPS needs to provide necessary accommodations to growing visitors to the park. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park needs to undergo approximately $160 million in renovations to current facilities.

Ecosystems

The most notable vegetation is forests of giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum''). Oak woodland (

blue oak ''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to (and found only in) California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominan ...

interior live oak ''Quercus wislizeni'', known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in many areas of California in the United States continuing south into northern Baja California in Mexico. It general ...

) and

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

with

chamise ''Adenostoma fasciculatum'', commonly known as chamise or greasewood, is a flowering plant native to California and Baja California. This shrub is one of the most widespread plants of the California chaparral ecoregion. Chamise produces a specia ...

and

manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...

characterize the lower elevations.

Mixed conifer forest Mixed is the past tense of ''mix''. Mixed may refer to: * Mixed (United Kingdom ethnicity category), an ethnicity category that has been used by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics since the 1991 Census * ''Mixed'' (album), a co ...

with Colorado white fir,

red fir ''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rare ...

, western yellow pine (ponderosa pine),

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name ''lambertiana'' was given by the Scottish botanist David Douglas, ...

and

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, ...

forests and

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

meadows occupy the middle elevations. Subalpine forests with

foxtail pine ''Pinus balfouriana'', the foxtail pine, is a rare high-elevation pine that is endemic to California, United States. It is closely related to the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines, in the subsection '' Balfourianae''. Descriptio ...

whitebark pine ''Pinus albicaulis'', known by the common names whitebark pine, white bark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine ...

and meadows,

krummholz ''Krummholz'' (german: krumm, "crooked, bent, twisted" and ''Holz'', "wood") — also called ''knieholz'' ("knee timber") — is a type of stunted, deformed vegetation encountered in the subarctic and subalpine Montane ecosystems are fou ...

, and alpine

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s typify the higher elevations.

Cultural impacts

In addition to their natural diversity, the parks also host a unique cultural and historical record. Archaeological sites date back at least five thousand years, indicating the presence of Native American peoples throughout the Sierra Nevada. Past herding of sheep (1850-1900) and cattle (1850-1940) has resulted in significant changes in the species composition and extent of upland and foothill vegetation.

Wildfire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...

during the 20th century has interrupted successional patterns. Air pollution from outside the biosphere reserve affects several prominent tree species. Recreational impact is locally acute. The two parks have been jointly managed by the

as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks since 1943, and Sequoia National Park contains a number of visitor centers, campsites and supply facilities. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, recent times have brought new public safety issues to its park. A big threat to its environment is forest fires. Park administration conducts a number of controlled burns each year to prevent and reduce future forest fires. In addition, illegal marijuana grow sites have been found throughout the park. The drug trafficking organizations have had adverse affects on the environment. The growers clear-cut vegetation, reroute waterways, utilize illegal fertilizer and pesticides, and alter the natural landscape.

References

{{Coord, 36.634, -118.491, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Kings Canyon National Park Sequoia National Park History of the Sierra Nevada (United States) 1943 establishments in California Biosphere reserves of the United States Protected areas of California