News Release
NPS / LParry
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Contact: Mike Theune, Fire Information Officer, 559-702-3400
KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Calif. June 23, 2025 – Following a successful test burn and with concurrence from fire management staff and parks’ leadership, the 2025 Big Stump East Prescribed Burn has started. Ignitions are planned to continue each day through June 24, 2025. The General Grant Tree remains available to visit as normal.This prescribed burn will treat approximately 126-acres from the entrance station for Kings Canyon National Park, past the Big Stump Picnic Area, to the intersection with Highway 180 and the Generals Highway. There are no fire related restrictions in the General Grant Tree Parking Lot.
While conducting prescribed burns, fire managers constantly take weather readings and monitor fire behavior to ensure operations are not only being safely done, but also meeting objectives. Crews are prepared to stop ignitions should conditions become unsuitable for burning, and resume when conditions return to an appropriate range.
Visitors should expect moderate smoke impacts in the Grant Grove area, as well as intermittent traffic delays. At night, smoke may be discernible in the parks’ lower elevations, the Hume Lake Ranger District of Sequoia National Forest, and the Highway 245 and 180 corridors. Visitors can learn more about real-time air quality and smoke by visiting https://fire.airnow.gov/ to learn about current conditions.
Access to the eastern portion of the Big Stump Trail will be temporarily closed during ignitions. Firefighters will attempt to limit the duration of these closures as much as possible. Visitors will still be able to access the General Grant Tree Trail during ignitions.
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About Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ Fire Management Program
For over fifty years, our mission has been to use the full range of options and strategies available to manage fire in the parks. This includes protecting park resources, employees, and the public from unwanted fire; building and maintaining fire resilient ecosystems; reducing the threat to local communities from wildfires emanating from the parks or adjacent lands; and recruiting, training, and retaining a professional fire management workforce.
About Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
These two parks, which lie-side-by-side in the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California, serve as a prime example of nature’s size, beauty, and diversity. In 2024, over 2 million visitors from across the U.S. and the world visited these parks for the world’s largest trees (by volume), grand mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns, the highest point in the lower 48 states, and more. Learn more at http://www.nps.gov/seki or 559-565-3341.
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Last updated: June 23, 2025