Forestry Experts Say California Tree Mortality Brings Extra Risk
Sierra Sun Times (October 5, 2016)
Pine trees in California forests will die out and give way to brush and chaparral, forestry experts warn, unless agencies undertake what one analyst called a "massive effort" to reduce fuels and replant trees. Otherwise, the conversion to chaparral could further increase risk of wildfires and affect the state's water supply.
A U.S. Forest Service survey, released in June, revealed that 66 million trees—mostly pine species—have died in the southern Sierra alone, due to bark beetle infestations, drought, wildfire and climate change. One question now, experts say, is what will replace those dead trees.
There has to be at least consideration of a massive effort to aggressively remove much of the dead, beetle-killed trees and replant to the species that want to be there, said Bill Stewart, co-director of the Center for Forestry at the University of California, Berkeley. Bark beetles are wreaking havoc on the large-diameter pine trees, leaving the forest with small-diameter and younger pine trees, incense cedar, fir trees and hardwoods like black oak and laurel trees.