LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In the wake of the Valley fire, county and state agencies along with Pacific Gas and Electric are working throughout the fire area to remove damaged trees that create safety issues for public utilities and right of ways.
Starting almost immediately after the fire broke out on Sept. 12, the effort to deal with trees and other vegetation in the 118-square-mile fire area has been ongoing, with officials explaining that removing the trees is necessary to protect infrastructure and public safety.
However, in some cases, community members are raising concerns with tree removal, alleging that trees that don't appear to be damaged and which are not close to right of way or infrastructure are being cut down.
County Supervisor Rob Brown said he's received complaints of such tree removal, which also has inspired a petition from community members asking the removal be stopped.
“I've invited people to call me with specific addresses,” where the tree cutting is taking place, so he can investigate, he said.
In one case, Brown said he was personally aware of trees being cut on a property that wasn't near public right of way.
He said he's meeting on Thursday with PG&E and the Office of Emergency Services to talk about tree-related issues.
Lake County Public Works Director Scott De Leon said the county hired a contractor that went through the fire area – particularly areas that were being repopulated after the fire – to check for hazardous trees in the right of way for county roads.
He said the county's contractor, Pacific Tree Care, began work on Sept. 19, with the contract ending on Tuesday.
The county contractor followed along behind PG&E's crews. De Leon said the majority of the trees he has seen cut down in the fire area were taken down by PG&E, which was in the process of installing new overhead facilities.
De Leon said he didn't know the number of trees the county's contractor took down, with the contract costing the county $144,000.
He said the county's contractor is leaving any trees it cuts down on the roadside.
If county road crews can get freed up, they will remove the trees or put them out to bid for removal by another contractor.
He acknowledged, “There's a lot of trees getting cutting down.”
Caltrans addresses hazardous trees
Phil Frisbie, the public information officer for Caltrans District 1, said that agency and PG&E are doing much of the tree removal, estimating that Caltrans is removing the most trees.
As for how many trees exactly have been cut, he didn't have an exact figure.
“We are removing thousands of trees,” he said.
Frisbie said he sat in on the Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting – during which community members spoke about the tree removal – and that Caltrans is aware of the concerns.
He explained that the work – being carried out by Caltrans' contractor, Granite Construction, and its subcontractors – is being done as quickly as possible due to safety concerns.
“They've been hard at it for almost two weeks right now,” he said.
Although the National Weather Service has a longterm forecast for a wet winter – with most of the rain expected to hit in January – Frisbie said the weather is not a critical concern at this time.
Explaining the process, Frisbie said every tree that has the potential to fall into a roadway is being inspected by an arborist. That process is ongoing.
If, after being inspected by an arborist, the tree is determined to not be viable, it's marked and the crews respond to remove it, he said.
“That's the biggest thing we're doing right now,” he said.
“They have another two to three weeks of tree removal still until they have all the trees removed to ensure the highway is safe this winter,” Frisbie said.
He added, “Not all of these trees that we're removing are on the state right of way.”
In normal conditions, when Caltrans sees a tree that's dead or damaged on private property, they go through public records, contact the owner and have them remove the tree, or else remove the tree and charge the landowner, Frisbie said.
While Frisbie said they're trying to follow their normal procedures as much as possible, the Valley fire has created an emergency situation.
As such, he said Caltrans is moving forward with dropping all trees that need to be removed for safety – whether they were damaged by the fire or could potentially fall into the state right of way.
If those trees are on private land, crews are cleaning them up and leaving them in place for the landowners, he said.
“We're only hauling off the ones that were in the state right of way,” Frisbie said.
As for what will happen with the trees being removed from the public right of way, Frisbie said, “That is being negotiated right now.”
Due to the fact that Caltrans entered into an emergency contract with Granite Construction, Frisbie said a lot of details were left out, one of those being disposing of the trees.
Because of the presence of sudden oak death, Frisbie said the trees are restricted as to where they can be moved. For example, they can't be taken east, to areas including the Sacramento Valley.
He said that restriction is in place even though most of the trees are pines, which can still transport sudden oak death spores. “That's what we're being told.”
He said Caltrans is looking for local nonprofit groups that would be interested in having the wood as part of sponsoring a firewood program, and could accept donation of the wood. “We would love to do that,” he said.
Because Caltrans is a state agency, Frisbie said special arrangements for disposing of the trees need to be made with groups like nonprofits. Because the trees are a resource, simply giving them away becomes a gift of public funds.
PG&E crews at work in the fire area
PG&E spokeswoman Brittany McKannay said crews were out in response to the fire right away, both working on repairing damaged utility infrastructure, and dealing with trees and vegetation.
The work related to trees and vegetation is two-fold, she explained.
The first prong of that response was to remove vegetation that was posing a problem for first responders, especially in areas close to power facilities, she said.
Once access to certain areas was cleared, she said crews started taking out vegetation that had come in contact with power equipment.
The second part of the vegetation-related work was an assessment, McKannay said.
She said PG&E crews went through the entire fire area to assess what trees posed hazards to equipment. Those trees were in the right of way or near it.
The crews looked for trees that could come down and cause further damage to equipment or create fire hazards, McKannay said. As a result of that assessment, crews have been pruning or removing hazardous trees.
She did not have a number immediately available for how many trees PG&E has removed.
In addition to the first assessment, McKannay said PG&E had arborists go back out and reassess all of the trees marked for removal to double-check if they actually needed to be removed or could just be pruned.
“Sometimes when a tree is removed, it may not look like it's a dead or dying tree,” which is why PG&E is having arborists go out and do further assessment, McKannay said.
She said if the tree's cambium layer – the inner growing layer of the trunk – is damaged, it will stop the tree from being able to grow in a healthy way, which could potentially cause issues. Damaged trees also are at risk for disease, as well as beetles or other insects.
“We don't want to have any sort of safety concerns or issues along those power lines because that can be a fire hazard,” she said.
She said PG&E also has been doing more surveying and aerial flights than it normally does to look at tree health, including reviewing impacts not just from the fire but from the bark beetle and the ongoing drought.
“There's a lot of things we're doing to try to protect our system,” she said.
McKannay did not have a deadline for when the tree pruning and removal work will be completed, noting that the crews are trying to get the work done as quickly as possible so the work of rebuilding the community can move forward.
“The community will see us in the area in full force right now,” she said.
PG&E has heard concerns from residents about trees being removed or logged, and McKannay said the company is letting customers know that it's not PG&E's policy to remove any trees felled on private property, although such trees will be moved from the road.
Rather, the trees will be left there, and smaller vegetation – 4 inches in diameter and less – will be chipped, she said.
Separately, she said if anyone sees a tree that is a safety concern near power utilities, they can call PG&E at 800-PGE-5000 and a member of its team will respond to assess the situation.
Email Elizabeth Larson at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.