The U.S. Forest Service inspected a large area of California to assess the tree damage from the ongoing drought. Image courtesy U.S. Forest Service
LOS ANGELES, May 7 (UPI) -- More than 12 million trees have died in drought-stricken California, raising concerns as the state heads into its warmest months and wildfire season.
A recent survey by the U.S. Forest Service found the four-year drought has killed more than 12.5 million trees, leaving the land a tinderbox and increasing the risk of fires as summer approaches. Instead of the lush green colors in the San Bernardino National Forest, tall pine trees are brown and burnt-red as the die-off continues.
"The situation is incendiary," William Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the Los Angeles Times. "The national forest is stressed out."
Jeffrey Moore, a U.S. Forest Service biologist and acting regional aerial survey program manager, and other researchers examined more than 8.2 million acres of forest in April. Using digital aerial sketch-mapping systems, they flew a fixed-wing aircraft about 1,000 feet above ground to survey Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles and Los Padres national forests. They also examined Stanislaus, Sierra and Sequoia national forests, as well as Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings national parks. In all, there was 999,000 acres of dead trees.
The ongoing drought is not the only problem. Bark beetles, tiny brown insects that chew away at dehydrated pines and make them brittle, have also infiltrated the forests. Dehydrated trees can't make protective resin which, under normal conditions, would ward off the bugs.
"A lot of trees are competing for whatever available moisture there is in a drought situation," Moore told KPBS. "When you have too many trees in an area, it makes it hard on all of the trees."
Moore said the last time researchers saw so many dead and dying trees was the drought in the mid-1970s,when an estimated 14 million trees died.
