- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Oct. 19 meeting to discuss tree-related issues in Valley fire area
COBB, Calif. – In response to concerns from the community about removal of trees in the Valley fire area, a meeting will take place next week featuring officials from a variety of state and local agencies to discuss the reasons for the tree cutting and also the reforestation process ahead.
County Supervisor Rob Brown has organized the meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at Cobb Mountain Elementary School, 15895 Highway 175.
Brown said trees will be the meeting's main topic.
He said a wide variety of agencies involved in the fire recovery – and, in some cases, the tree removal – are being invited to take part, including Cal Fire, the California Office of Emergency Services, CalRecycle and its main contractor on the cleanup Pacific States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Caltrans, Pacific Gas and Electric, AT&T, the University of California Cooperative Extension and the county of Lake.
There also will be representatives on hand from wood mills to discuss purchasing the timber, Brown said.
The work of taking down burned, dead or dying trees has been ongoing since not long after the fire began on Sept. 12.
Caltrans and PG&E are estimated to have taken down the most trees, citing safety concerns in public right of ways and the potential for damaging utility equipment, which could give rise to another fire.
The county of Lake, Caltrans and PG&E officials explained their activities in a Lake County News article published earlier this month: www.bit.ly/1LnHoyb .
However, community members have reported trees that appear to be OK being removed from areas that don't appear to be near right of way.
Brown said he's followed up on those reports, finding some of them to be accurate, but also finding cases where the trees were clearly burned and needed to be felled.
He said he's been attending a number of small group meetings in the community about the trees in recent weeks in an effort to get a sense about people's concerns.
Frequently asked questions he's hearing relate to the costs to remove trees once they're taken down and who will have to remove hazard trees that remain on properties but aren't in public right of way areas. Brown anticipates having definitive answers for those and other questions by the Monday meeting.
Other discussion topics will include the massive reforestation effort ahead.
Cal Fire Capt. Joe Fletcher emphasized that trees that are being removed need to be taken down for safety reasons. The trees aren't selected randomly.
Fletcher also said there will be a massive reforestation process ahead, as well as efforts to control erosion and protect the watershed.
“Trees do a lot more than just provide oxygen and shade,” he said, adding, “They're part of the water system.”
Fletcher estimated that up to 500,000 tree seedlings will need to be planted in and around the nearly 3,500-acre Boggs Mountain State Demonstration Forest area alone.
Late in September, Cal Fire announced it was closing the demonstration forest indefinitely due to the hazardous conditions created there because of the fire.
Greg Giusti, University of California Cooperative Extension's director and advisor for forests and wildland ecology in Lake and Mendocino counties, is one of the local officials invited to attend and speak.
Giusti said he has convened a working group of about 15 forestry and resource professionals – including regional foresters, Cal Fire, Natural Resources Conservation Service, local resource conservation districts and large property owners – to begin talking about the reforestation process.
He said the group has met once, and will meet again on Monday morning, which will allow him to have an update at the Monday night meeting.
Giusti said he understands the concerns of community members regarding the removal of trees so soon after the fire.
He said he's contacted Caltrans to suggest that the agencies and utilities removing trees be sensitive to what people are going through in the fire's wake.
While he appreciates the effort to make the area safe after the fire, “It may be prudent to slow down a little bit and to be sensitive,” he said, adding that community members need the chance to breathe.
“I think there needs to be a recognition that people's nerves are raw,” he said, acknowledging the intense visual impact of cutting down trees in the midst of dead and dying trees.
Giusti said many people have asked if Cobb will look the same.
“The reality is, it will be decades before it looks like it did before the fire,” he said.
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