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View toward Kings Canyon from Highway 180. The glacially carved Kings Canyon on the South Fork of the Kings River, with its 2,500-5,000 foot-high granite walls, is one of North America's deepest canyons. © NPS photo by Jim Warner. |
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks occupy a
portion of the western slope of the southern Sierra
Nevada, the 400-mile-long mountain range along the
eastern edge of California. The parks have a
tremendous elevation range, from about 1,360 feet
(412 m) at park headquarters in Ash Mountain to
14,491 feet (4,417 m) at the summit of Mount Whitney,
the highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states. The
parks' diverse topography includes rich assemblages
of terrestrial, aquatic and subterranean ecosystems.
The composition and structure of the Sierra Nevada
provide some significant geological formations in the
Parks. Geological resources include river-cut canyons
more than a mile deep and extensive and spectacular
examples of glacial erosion, including hundreds of
alpine lakes and several glacially eroded canyons.
Marble rocks in the parks contain more than 200
caves. The caves contain Pleistocene era fossils,
rare minerals and unique animals.
Although some parts of the parks are so dry in the
summer months that they favor drought-adapted plants
and animals, some 3200 lakes and ponds dot the
landscape and approximately 2600 miles of rivers and
perennial streams flow through park lands. Three
major rivers originate in these parks --Kings,
Kaweah, and Kern. These rivers provide valuable
irrigation water to the rich agricultural lands in
Fresno, Kern, and Tulare counties.
The glacially-gouged Kern Canyon in Sequoia National Park contrasts sharply with its surrounding jumbled terrain. Although the Kern River is 155 miles long, 80 percent of its water originates as melting snow within its first 15 miles. © Photo by Dan Duriscoe. |
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks contain a
wealth of biological resources. The parks were
established more than a century ago to protect the
giant sequoias. The park lands include almost 40 named giant sequoia
groves, which contain about one-third of all the naturally occurring
sequoias. Extensive bands of
mixed-conifer forests surround the giant sequoia
groves. The forested areas of these parks have
recreational and scientific values as the largest
remaining old growth forest in the southern Sierra
Nevada. Below the forests in Sequoia National Park
are chaparral, grasslands, and blue oak savanna
grading into oak woodland, which are among the few
foothill lands in the southern Sierra Nevada
designated for long-term preservation.
The remainder of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National
Parks, mostly above 9,000 feet (2,743 m) in
elevation, is best described as "High
Sierra". This is a spectacular environment of
rugged, ice-sculptured alpine ridges, wet meadows,
and sparsely wooded lake-jeweled basins.
Mountain
yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa)
are still widely distributed in the southern |
The preservation of native animals within the two
parks results naturally from the habitat protection
that the parks provide. The animals found within the
parks do not differ significantly from those living
on surrounding lands, yet these unprotected lands are
mostly undergoing profound change. As a result, the
wildlife protection function of the parks is becoming
increasingly important.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are at the
heart of the largest contiguous wilderness area in
California, and 85 percent of park land is designated
as wilderness. The parks are also a designated unit
of the International Biosphere Preserve Program.
Despite the protected status of resources within park
boundaries, many threats to park resources exist.
These include air pollutants, invasion by alien
species, loss of natural fire regimes, habitat
fragmentation, and rapid human-caused climatic
change.
The Science and Natural Resources Management program
strives to:
You may learn more about the Science and Natural
Resources Management program by looking at the
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks' Resources
Management Plan and by visiting web page links to
individual program areas posted at the top of this
page. At the bottom of each page will be the same
three arrowhead "button links" to
resource-related National Park Service web sites.
Last updated March 15, 2005
Email Contact: peter_rowlands@nps.gov
http://www.nps.gov/seki/snrm/snrm_index.htm