LAKE COUNTY— Wildfires, drought and Bark Beetles have ravaged local forests during the last few years, bringing climate risks to communities more quickly and frequently than it had been projected. County officials note that taking action in response to tree mortality has become an urgent and critical priority all over Lake County. In response to the issue, the Lake County Community Risk Reduction Authority (LCCRRA), a collaboration among county and city governments, tribal nations, fire protection districts, water purveyors and other partners, was formed.
Residents were encouraged to attend a virtual town hall on Thursday evening on the matter. Tree mortality and community fire prevention event. The town hall featured various participants including the University of California Cooperative Extension, PG&E, CAL FIRE, USDA, the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance and North Coast Opportunities.
“We are incredibly fortunate here in Lake County to have so many dedicated professionals and volunteers who are committed to work toward a more fire safe community. We are bringing many of the resources and programs that have been developed to do just that,” said District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, who is also LCCRRA vice chair.
The University of California Cooperative Extension’s Forest Advisor, Michael I. Jones, discussed the science behind what is happening locally: “Forests are dynamic systems. Disturbances are incredibly important in forest. Fire is crucial in the health of our forest. Insects are a natural disturbance. The ones that we are observing and detecting in this current infestation are all native. They’re serving a really important ecological process that helps maintain that dynamic heterogeneity and forest structure. They serve as food for wildlife. They help to call out or remove dead trees from these ecosystems for nutrient cycling to maintain healthy systems.”
Jones said woodpeckers are common predators and feed on the bark beetles, doing a great job on fighting against them during bark beetle outbreaks and added that predacious insects and other small mammals can also help.
“We’re tracking this kind of landscape global mortality event outbreak from Northern Mendocino County, through Lake County and Napa and Sonoma (Counties). It’s a pretty significant outbreak that we’re experiencing, a very crude one. We had significant years of wildfire. Each time an infested tree is successfully colonized, it produces an exponential number of more beetles,” said the entomologist by training and expert in forest pest disease and integrated pest management.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) Local Government Affairs representative, Melinda Rivera, reported updates on the program and current PG&E projects. The company is conducting a mid-cycle patrol in the Cobb area this year. “Our mid-cycle patrol is a mid-year patrol that we do just to check and make sure that the trees are looking good near our utility lines. This year, when we did our mid-cycle patrol, we found an exponential number of trees that were dead or dying as a result of drought or of beetle kill. We are making plans now to mobilize additional tree crews,” she said. “Because of the amount of trees that we are planning to fill due to the safety hazard they present to our lines this year in the Cobb area, as part of our routine work, we do not normally engage in hauling of wood that does belong to the property owner. Because of the significant and unprecedented impacts for this specific event this year in the Cobb area, we will be offering the parcel owners the option to have the wood removed.”
PG&E Vegetation Program manager Dan Kida talked about 750 dead and dying trees which were identified, significantly more than it was forecasted. “The works have been identified and likely in the next week or two we will start the tree work. Since we’re going to be offering wood hauling, we’re going to have some folks go back out to some of the customers with the identified work and, hopefully, talk to them directly about the option of having the wood hauled. Also, we did start some enhanced vegetation management patrols in another part of Cobb. We have our routine inspections going on currently, to be looking at dying disease defective trees,” he added.
CAL FIRE North Division Operations Chief, Paul Duncan, responsible for community wildfire resilience projects, gave an early fire season update: “we have not had significant rain since December. That’s really causing our environment to dry out here. The fuels are not what they need for their moisture levels and we’re getting some pretty high energy release components as things are burning. March 10 is really acting like June 10 for burning intensity. On the CAL FIRE hiring side, we are working to get our firefighters hired in the first part of April.”
The phone number to check for air quality is 707-994-4444 and “that will give you the burn status for the day”, said Duncan. “South Lake County Fire obtained an excavator and masticator to be used on our local escape corridors to increase the roadway clearances. We’re still waiting for delivery of that equipment. Once it is here, we’ll be working in around communities and those escape corridors to improve safety of the roadways. We’ve been also working over the winter on communications hardening. Just be a good neighbor. If you have a lot that’s covered with tree debris and high weeds, work to get those hazards removed and the community safer. Community safety is really about everybody in the community. It’s not just one person and it does take a whole group. If you have a neighbor who has a hazardous lot and you can’t have a dialogue with him, (and) if they don’t want to clear it up and reduce that hazard, you can make a report to the County Code Enforcement Department. They have a link to that on the Lake County Fire Safe page,” he concluded.
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist, Korinn Woodard, talked about resources for large property owners: “We provide farmers and ranchers with financial and technical assistance to voluntarily put conservation on the ground. Our work is intended to help both agricultural operations and the environment.”
Woodard said the USDA considers forestry agriculture. “If you have trees or a property that is capable of growing trees, you are considered a farmer. We offer financial assistance to help landowners address forest health issues. This could be removing dead and dying trees from beetle mortality and thinning overcrowded forests to help with fuel load issues, root thinning and removing understory to reduce ladder fuels. We’ve done a lot of post fire work and forest restoration, and also replanting trees. Anybody who’s got several acres and wants to do some forest health work or treat dead and dying trees, we are available to help.”
Clear Lake Environmental Research Center Fire and Forestry project coordinator Laurel Bard summarized ongoing projects: “Our forest health grant is set to begin later in 2022, and that includes 987 acres of fuel reduction and forest health work on private land and 16 acres of fuel reduction and forest health work on the Mendocino national forests. That’s 1,600 total acres of work under that grant. We also have the North Bay Forest Improvement Program, which is a rolling application cost share program similar to EQIP, (an incentive program that provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers and non-industrial forest managers to address natural resource concerns) but localized in Mendocino, Lake Sonoma and Napa counties. It is intended for properties between five to 500 acres. The ideal project size is between five and 20 acres, and there can be an up to 80% cost share for landowners in disadvantaged communities. Unlike EQIP, there is not a restriction for defensible space work. Our final project is actually a subset of the fire prevention grant.”
Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance program director Lindsay Dailey made summarized projects related to the bark beetles: “We have full time intertribal hand crew. Our program is looking at how do we build capacity here locally, to create an ecologically informed, well trained workforce that can help implement better forest management practices. There’s a lot of knowledge existing in the native community around how to care take the land and we are wanting to share that with the greater community through our work.”
