Dead trees in California increases by 62 million in 2016 due to drought and bark beetles

The death march against California’s once plentiful trees continues due to a combination of the state’s five-plus year drought and the unrelenting bark beetle infestation that preys on the drought-weakened trees.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Friday that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has identified an additional 36 million dead trees across California since its last aerial survey in May 2016.

The majority of the 102 million dead trees are located in ten counties in the southern and central Sierra Nevada region. However, the USFS also identified increasing tree mortality in the northern part of the state, including Siskiyou, Modoc, Plumas and Lassen counties. Having now entered the sixth consecutive year of severe drought in California, a dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and warmer temperatures are leading to these historic levels of tree die-off. As a result, in October 2015 California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency on the unprecedented tree die-off and formed a Tree Mortality Task Force to help mobilize additional resources for the safe removal of dead and dying trees.

“These dead and dying trees continue to elevate the risk of wildfire, complicate our efforts to respond safely and effectively to fires when they do occur, and pose a host of threats to life and property across California,” said Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA has made restoration work and the removal of excess fuels a top priority, but until Congress passes a permanent fix to the fire budget, we can’t break this cycle of diverting funds away from restoration work to fight the immediate threat of the large unpredictable fires caused by the fuel buildups themselves.”

California has experienced a record setting wildfire season this year. The Blue Cut fire, in San Bernardino County, scorched over 30,000 acres and triggering the evacuation of 80,000 people. Extreme drought conditions persist in much of California and the outlook for the remainder of the fall and winter remains uncertain. Fire officials claim that longer, hotter fire seasons — where extreme fire behavior has become the new norm — as well as increased development in forested areas, are dramatically driving up the cost of fighting fires and squeezing funding for the very efforts that would protect watersheds and restore forests to make them more resilient to fire. Last year fire management alone consumed 56 percent of the Forest Service’s budget and is anticipated to rise to 67 percent in by 2025.

Forest Service scientists expect to see continued elevated levels of tree mortality during 2017 in dense forest stands, stands impacted by root diseases or other stress agents and in areas with higher levels of bark beetle activity. With public safety as its most pressing concern, the USFS has committed significant resources to help impacted forests, including reprioritizing $43 million in California in fiscal year 2016 to conduct safety-focused restoration along roads, trails and recreation sites. However, limited resources and a changing climate hamper the Forest Service’s ability to address tree mortality in California.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service officials claim to be seriously hampered not only by short-term budgets passed by Congress, but also a broken budget for the Forest Service that sees an increasing amount of resources going to firefighting while less is invested in restoration and forest health. In 2016 alone, 62 million trees have died, representing more than a 100 percent increase in dead trees across California from 2015. Millions of additional trees are weakened and expected to die in the coming months and years.