Yosemite Tuolumne Meadows restoration: 40,000 sedge seedlings bring slow progress on soil carbon

Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows are being restored with 40,000 native sedge seedlings planted since 2016. The work responds to more than a century of sheep grazing that replaced deep rooted sedges with shallow rooted plants, leaving the soil dry and exposed. Researchers from Colorado State University report that about three quarters of the seedlings survived their first three years, but the meadow is still releasing more carbon than it stores. Full recovery is expected to take 25 to 50 years. Warmer temperatures could speed up microbial breakdown of soil organic matter and add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which makes the timeline less certain. The project is a useful example of why habitat restoration and carbon goals need to be measured on separate clocks.