This is the best summary I could come up with:

After songs, prayers and pronouncements, several dozen members of the Tule River, North Fork Mono and Tübatulabal Tribes and others kindled branches into crackling fires.

The carefully monitored fire at the Alder Creek Grove in California was aimed at clearing the forest of growth in the understory and, among other things, at helping to prevent out-of-control wildfires.

Until recently, sequoias were considered virtually impervious to fire, with their spongy, reddish bark about a foot and a half thick and their broccoli-like crowns high above the ground.

But the practice of intentional fire suppression by the state and the U.S. government over the last 100 years generated a dense tangle of smaller sequoia trees and other vegetation that flourished beneath the monarchs.

Such hot fires kill seeds in the soil, and experts are planting a new generation of sequoias, studying genes that may be able to survive a drier, warmer future.

“There’s a lot of cultural burning practice and projects happening now,” said Beth Rose Middleton Manning, a professor of Native American studies at the University of California, Davis.

The original article contains 1,828 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 90%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!