Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region Participates in Tree Mortality Task Force

Written by: John Hutchings

Dying trees from bark beetle infestation. Over the past few years, California has been experiencing a rapid increase in conifer tree (pine tree) mortality due to bark beetles, which are native to California. This is a direct result of the drought: the lack of water has caused the pine trees to become stressed, and they are unable to fight off insects and disease as they normally would.

Bark beetles are small insects – only about the size of a piece of cooked rice – that attack stressed trees by boring holes into the bark. A healthy tree would be able to fend off the attack by exuding pitch into the holes, pushing the beetles out. But drought-stressed trees have a difficult time producing enough pitch to fight off the insects. Compounding the problem, the beetles release pheromones that attract other beetles. This mass influx of beetles can quickly overwhelm a tree, killing it in just two to four weeks during warmer months.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, tree mortality from bark beetles and drought has reached over 29 million trees, up from 3.3 million in 2014. Most tree mortality in California has occurred in the southern Sierra Nevada and the Central Coast. Southern California began seeing a rapid increase in tree mortality in 2015, experiencing up to 90 percent pine-tree mortality.

This situation has been spreading north and has reached El Dorado and Placer counties, where the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region owns a significant amount of land in the Auburn State Recreation Area (ASRA) and Folsom Lake State Recreation Area (FLSRA). Placer County has formed a Tree Mortality Task Force to respond to the crisis, and El Dorado County is in the process of forming a similar task force.

Many of the populated rural communities in Placer and El Dorado counties are adjacent to the Reclamation-owned lands in the ASRA and FLSRA, and the dead trees present a risk of wildland fires, endangering our watershed and the public. Reclamation has joined the Placer County Tree Mortality Task Force to help address these issues on our lands and assist in a regional solution.

Participating on the Task Force adds a significant new challenge to the Mid-Pacific Region’s fire management/pre-fire suppression efforts, which are already in place to mitigate wildfires in the communities surrounding the ASRA and FLSRA. These projects are being conducted as multi-agency efforts with the public, the California Department of Parks & Recreation (State Parks), CAL FIRE, the California Conservation Corps, local fire departments, and local fire-safe councils. This collaboration is critical to developing long-term solutions.

CAL FIRE has developed a “Bark Beetle Campaign Toolkit” to help inform California residents about bark beetle infestation. Please visit http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Bark-Beetle-Campaign-Toolkit/ for additional information on this serious problem.

Published on May 26, 2016