USFS Identifies 27 Million Additional Dead Trees in California in 2017; PG&E Continues Critical Safety Work Removing Dead Trees
December 11 2017 - 6:26PM
Business Wire
A new aerial survey released today by the U.S. Forest Service
(USFS) shows that trees continue to die at a rapid rate in
California. Even with record rains last winter and the drought
declared over, these dead trees continue to be a public safety
hazard near roads, communities and critical infrastructure. With
public safety as its top priority, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
(PG&E) has committed significant resources to removing trees
impacted by drought or bark beetle throughout its service area.
During 2017, PG&E expects to have removed approximately 148,000
dead or dying trees that could threaten its power lines. This is on
top of the 1.4 million trees it prunes or removes under its routine
vegetation management program each year.
The USFS announced it has identified an additional 27 million
trees since its last survey in November, 2016, bringing the total
since 2010 to 129 million. Members of the Governor’s Tree Mortality
Task Force, made up of more than 80 state and federal agencies,
local governments, energy companies –including PG&E– and others
have been working together to address epidemic tree mortality.
“We have made significant progress to help reduce wildfire risk
by removing dead and dying trees, and we’re not slowing down. We
will continue this critical safety work in 2018 and expand our fuel
management efforts in high fire-risk areas,” said PG&E
President and Chief Operating Officer Nick Stavropoulos.
In 2018, PG&E’s expanded fuel management work within
designated high-fire risk areas will include: reducing vegetation
near electric distribution lines; providing access space for
emergency responders; maintaining existing fuel breaks and
connecting new fuel breaks to existing ones created by other
private or public entities; and performing long-term fuel
management. This work may also be conducted in areas previously
cleared or impacted by wildfires and is above and beyond state and
federal mandated vegetation clearance requirements.
“As an elected leader in a severely impacted area, I’ve
witnessed first-hand the hard work and incredible support from
PG&E to remove dead and dying trees. Their continued commitment
in 2018 speaks volumes about their unwavering focus on safety and
their customers,” said Madera County Supervisor Tom Wheeler.
Tree Mortality Crisis Response
Since 2013, PG&E has invested $1.6 billion in its vegetation
management programs to reduce power outages and wildfire risks.
Since the tree mortality crisis began in 2014, PG&E added the
following enhanced measures to address areas particularly affected
by drought and bark beetles.
- Increased foot and aerial patrols along
power lines in high fire-risk areas to twice a year and up to four
times a year in some locations.
- Expects to patrol 65 percent of
overhead power lines a second time this year.
- Expects to remove approximately 148,000
dead or dying trees this year.
- Since 2014, provided $11.5 million to
local Fire Safe Councils (FSC) for fuel reduction projects in
communities.
- Provided $2 million to local FSCs for
28 highly-programmable remote-sensing cameras on critical fire
lookout towers.
- Launched daily aerial fire detection
patrols to improve the spotting and speed of fire response.
- Deployed LiDAR (Light-detecting and
Ranging) remote sensing technology to help identify dead and dying
trees near high voltage lines.
Additionally, PG&E is offering no-cost dead tree clean-up
assistance to customers with trees felled by PG&E to protect
power lines in 11 counties which have declared tree mortality
emergencies. The company also is offering this service to customers
in areas impacted by recent wildfires. For more information or to
sign up for the program, call 1-800-743-5000.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com/ and pge.com/news.
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