California Fire Threat

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Potential consequences are huge if this comes to be. Not just fires, but flooding aftermath, water supply issues... Pogo was correct.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/us/california-today-100-million-dead-trees-prompt-fears-of-giant-wildfires.html?google_editors_picks=true

 

[ski3pin]

I thought there was a little hope after last year's above normal snowpack. Not the case. The number of conifers that died around us this summer and fall is staggering - 20 in the lot across from us, 10 in the lot above us, 12 in the lot on the opposite side. CalTrans is employing many contractors removing dead tress, hazards, along the length of highway 50 over the summit. Yosemite Valley looks worse now than it did in this photo from a year ago. The times, they are achanging.

The number quoted in the article - 100 million dead trees, is short of the real total, I'm afraid.

California Tree Mortality

 

[Foy]

I've never been to the Sierra, but trips including Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana during 2010, 2011, and 2015 brought us through immense stands of pine beetle killed evergreens. Huge swaths of Rocky Mountain NP in Colorado along with huge areas, at least thousands to tens of thousands of acres, within National Forests in North Central Utah, northwestern Wyoming, and southwestern Montana.

Likely we've all read inputs from professional foresters decrying the long-term effects of 5 or more decades of highly active suppression efforts and restrictions on timber harvest. Sometimes we must be careful what we ask for, as we might get it.

Foy