California Drought has Killed 12 Million Forest Trees since 2014

Eureka: Millions of dead trees intensify forest fire danger in the Golden State

The catastrophic drought in California has killed more than 12 million trees across the Golden state’s forests over the past year, according to an aerial survey conducted the U.S. Forest Service last month.

Using a digital mapping system, while flying in a fixed-wing aircraft about 300m above ground, a USFS team visually surveyed the forests.

The surveyors tracked about 8.4 million acres in Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles and Los Padres National Forests, as well as the Southern Sierra Nevada, and documented a total of more than 12 million dead trees.

The surveyors found substantial pine mortality in San Diego County, especially across the Cleveland National Forest and Mt. Laguna.

A ferocious forest fire that burned for nearly three months late last summer and early fall consumed about quarter-million acres of forest around the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County, northern California.

As of last week (April 28, 2015) some 99.86 percent of California was abnormally dry or plagued by drought drought levels D1 – D4.

• Drought levels D1 – D4: 98.11 percent of the land area
• Drought levels D2 – D4: 93.44 percent
• Drought levels D3 – D4: 66.60 percent
• Drought levels D4: 46.77 percent

Drought conditions in California are expected to intensify as the dry season begins.

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – May 28, 2013

More than 500 people killed in Iraq amid mounting violence

At least 511 people have been killed and more than 1,350 wounded so far this month, making May the deadliest month in a year.

In April, more than 460 people were killed and about 1,300 others wounded.

-oOo-

6,000 evacuated as fast-moving wildfire rips through Santa Barbara County

A fast-moving brush fire continued to consume hillsides in Santa Barbara County, Calif., blackening more than 1,200 acres and threatening 50 structures.

The “White Fire” broke out Monday in Los Padres National Forest near the White Rock Camp Area in Red Rock Canyon, forcing the authorities evacuate 50 families from nearby homes, and about 6,000 campgoers from the Paradise Road area.

No injuries were reported, as of posting, and the fire was only 5 percent contained. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Further south, a large blaze in San Diego County consumed about 1,000 acres, and was about 40 percent contained by late Monday.

-oOo-

DISASTER CALENDAR – May 28, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,019 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,019 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

What Next After The Telegraph Fire?

“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For reasons unknown to Moderators, Google has blocked this post [it only shows up via Technorati.com and examiner.com]  – Aug 14, 2008

The Telegraph Fire rages on, but what would the next fire be called, the Internet Fire?

The figures are astronomical. The frequency, magnitude, acreage and cost of wildfires are growing each year. Like the Internet statistics, the costs are clocking 9-digit figures.

Agent Orange over Vietnam? No, an air tanker dropping its load of fire retardant on the slopes of Mt Bullion near Mariposa. Photo by Michael Maloney / The Chronicle. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Big Fires: Big Business!

In the 1990s the Forest Service spent just over $300 million a year fighting wildfires. In 2007 the cost jumped up to nearly $1.4 billion, a 4.7-fold rise (466 percent).

In California the rise was more “modest,” only 152 percent.

In the 1990s the wildfires consumed an average of about 3.6 million acres a year. Since 2000, the average was more than doubled to about 7.3 million acres. Last year, the figure nearly tripled to more than 9 million acres. The charred acreage this year is on track to break 2007 record.

Is this a thermonuclear explosion? A volcanic eruption? No, It’s a massive convection column of smoke rising above Los Padres National Forest during the $141million Zaca fire. Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

The Zaca Fire, which began burning northeast of Buellton in Santa Barbara County, California, started on July 4, 2007 and by August 31 it had burned about 240,210 acres (972.1 km²). The fire was declared controlled on October 29, 2007, at a cost of $141million.

Help Make Wildfires Fun (!)

Build your home at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a million homeowners can’t be wrong! Right? More than 1 million homes (about 61% of all new housing) built in California, Oregon and Washington between 1990 to 2000 were erected at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a University of Wisconsin study reported.

Tell You What…

Let’s uproot all the trees, shrubs and bushes, pave over the mountains and cement the wildlands … till there’s nothing more left for fire to consume!

Related New Links:

• As wildfires get wilder, the costs of fighting them are untamed
• Fire near Yosemite closes Highway 140

Related Links:

• And Now, The Telegraph Fire!

• Wildfires
  
• Stop Nature! She Is Ruining Our Lifestyles
• California Fires

• Nature Must Be Punished, Look at the Mess in California!
• California Inferno Rages On
• The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California!

• Images of the Day: California Fires
• Lightning Safety Awareness Week: June 22-28
• A Few Extreme Events Away

• 2008: Year of the Fire
• Raging Wildfires: Mother Nature ensuring the cycle of life?
• Nature’s Defense Mechanisms

• UPDATE #2 – California Fires
• UPDATE: California Fires
• Early Halloween
• Images of the Day: California Fires
• Climate-enhanced catastrophes in the US

.

Update >> Telegraph Fire: Day 5
See Also >> California Fires: Not Hard to Understand!