An article on the cleanup and preventative tree-work in California fire-affected areas. Logs Are Littering California Towns as Trees Are Cut to Prevent Wildfires The gist of it is the logs are being stockpiled, with no apparent future use.
What is sad is all that money could have been earmarked towards helping taxpayers rebuild and retrofit homes (as has been proven to work elsewhere in the state) to endure the fires that are a natural occurrence there.
Just a bit more government waste. So they stack it up in the towns then it burns... Just won't cause forest fire but will cause town fires maybe.
Yep! It's a total joke and there will be 0 accountability. To make matters worse they're going to be doing emergency power shut offs throughout fire season (which is basically half the year). 5 million (yes with an M) customers will be affected this year. They did a test last year in my county (yes they shut off the power to the entire county on purpose). Houses, businesses, everything. I work at a hospital and there was a lady with a newborn on home oxygen. They spent the better part of 2 days in our lobby so she could plug into our power (on generator). When PG&E came to the town hall to address the furious customers, their sack of skin in an empty suit told us in not so many words, to pound sand. On their information page it said that if you have health problems that requires electricity you better make preparations. Yeah tell that to an 80 year old grandmother on a respirator and a fixed income to pick up all her stuff and "make preparations". We're installing a whole house genni (I scored for free ) because they said it's going to be larger areas this year with longer durations. We're in the highest danger zone. Funny weren't 5 years ago. Wife is in nursing school so we're stuck but I think I've finally had it. It's a shame because we love where we live. Catch is, I probably won't be able to sell my house because it's impossible to insure now. May have to walk away from it. I'm not bitter or anything...
Because it’s California and they are petrified that someone might make a profit on making lumber which would provide jobs which would allow carpenters to build houses and yet again someone else might make another profit....and, well I think you get my point...
I have worked in California , subcontractor for pg&e the problem is not the utility it is the dam tree huggers that will not let you do your job and clear powerlines to appropriate specs , thus reducing vegetation related outages and subsequent fires. The utility is not responsible for removing the wood than they would be accused of stealing Go figure Enjoy your air conditioning. .......next time someone wants to clear your lines let them and don't be a AHole
Around here the utilities have a legal right of way that they maintain. They will give the landowners a heads-up when they are planning on doing line clearing. Not a big deal at all.
The state does not want to admit it, but, cutting the timber before it catches fire is a better idea, putting in more logging roads to make it possible to really FIGHT fires, not let them burn millions more board ft of timber up into useless junk. Do some REAL timber management instead. To me, its just a way of thinking they are helping you, "i'm from the government, i'm here to help you '' type of attitude. Reforestation is a natural thing, but, it has to have some help, the liberal ''thinkers'' think they know it all. No logging, lock the timber up, don't let anyone in, put people out of work, control , control, control. Plain and simple. Get rid of the brush, stop letting these huge area's of fuel add up year after year after year by growing brush, not timber. There are so many ''liberal'' foresters out there it's pathetic, take a look for yourself, they are more interested in ''saving the timber'' than actually managing it. Timber IS a renewable resource through natural recovery, plus replanting, and feeding. It just takes common sense.
It has been interesting to watch this thread. When I posted the link, I expected to see someone suggest a fleet of our car hoarders help reduce the piles of logs. I’ve got a friend with a young family and home within a mile or so of the Paradise fire, and am well aware of the seriousness of the issues facing those in that region. Some of what I’ve read points a finger at decades of too-aggressive firefighting. Where I lived in CO there was a definite element of personal responsibility (removing fuel from around the buildings and applying knowledge gained from studies of fire-resistant building materials). The insurance companies are definitely paying attention to university research on that front, and I expect homeowner rates will more properly reflect that. This isn’t my area of training, but, as a “thinker” myself, I suspect the solutions will be more complex and nuanced than getting liberal foresters to be less conservative (? these labels confuse me). I fully respect the recent tragedies and the remaining threats as well as the depth of emotions, agree that changes in the management of the resources need to be made, and realize my observations are made from afar.
I live about 60 miles for Paradise. I have friends that are working that cleanup. The logs that are being piled up are slated to be sent to China. They are cutting, piling on landings and trucking to other places for shipment. As I understand it, they are going to put these logs in shipping containers and ship them over there. Lots of these logs are "yard trees" and are full of metal. Apparently, China can deal with that somehow. Right now, most of the logging and trucking of logs has stopped I have been told. It stopped when we said we were going to put more tariffs on China. I'm sure that that will change soon. Paradise was right at timberline, and lots of the trees in town were big pines and firs. There is lots of wood there that is coming down. I have to say it's good to see logs trucks running again.
I remember in the 80s when I went out west has a kid. And we stopped at Yellowstone National Park. I was amazed at the dry tinder.. Feet of pine needles raked off camping areas in humidity of barely 15% One of the types of Sequoia tree needs fire to open up their pine cones to reproduce. A delicate balance for sure!!
