Sen. Dianne Feinstein has made an urgent call to shift more funding toward fighting California’s tree mortality crisis.
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| Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D)- CA |
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sept. 7, she asked for $38 million to go toward removing dead trees in areas hit particularly hard by the drought.
The 19 tree-removal projects selected by the California Governor’s Tree Mortality Task Force have already been approved and just need funding, according to Feinstein. The areas seeing the worst of the tree die-off are Stanislaus, Sierra and Sequoia national forests. The tree removal projects would take place across 38,000 acres of the three national forests.
Eric Murphy, who works in Sale Preparation at the Feather River District of the Plumas National Forest, said while there are areas of tree mortality in the north state, it’s nowhere near the scale being seen further south.
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| The areas seeing the most dying trees are Sierra, Stanislaus, and Sequoia national forests. |
“We have small patches, not nearly as bad as down south,” Murphy said, adding that most of the trees dying in the Northern Sierra are in lower elevations. Ponderosa pines are dying the most, and some sugar pines are also being affected, he said.
When it comes to clearing the dead trees, areas around communities and roads get priority. Murphy says that it’s a challenge to keep up with the logging.
“I have been working six days a week the past few months, trying to get out timber sales on these small, isolated patches that keep growing,” Murphy said. “The trouble is there is too much of this dead ponderosa pine wood with no real market for it right now, and I want to get it out of the woods and not have it stacking up everywhere.”
He added that he hopes for a cold, wet winter to help the trees. The problem now is that the drought combined with bark beetles deals a one-two punch to the trees.
“With a crippling drought, the beetles are present most of the time, but when a tree is strong and not drought-stressed, they can usually fight off the beetles and be fine.”
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| Dead trees at the Field's Ridge area which is above Feather Falls. |
“It is devastating,” Murphy said. “It will change the landscape for sure. The tree line will start at higher elevations. Areas that were once forest will be more shrubland for a while, and it will take a long time to get it back to an established older forest again.”