As contractors rush to cut down trees so that this community decimated by a wildfire last year doesn’t burn again, they’re creating a fresh problem: piles of timber everywhere.
“The mills are full, so we have to take the wood here,” Mr. Wilson said as his white pickup truck idled.
According to federal data, there are only 25 sawmills in California, down from more than 100 in the 1980s, due in large part to curtailed logging in national forests over environmental concerns, noted WSJ. The number of biomass plants, another option for disposing of trees, has fallen to about two dozen from 66 in the 1990s, in part due to the expiration of government price subsidies, according to the California Energy Commission.
Most remaining sawmills are running at capacity, and owners are reluctant to expand due to fears that demand won’t stay high beyond the current glut, said Rich Gordon, chief executive of the California Forestry Association, a timber trade group.
“It’s the Achilles’ heel of the whole situation,” said Calli-Jane DeAnda, executive director of the Butte County Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit group. “We can write grants to get rid of these trees, but where do you put them?”
George Gentry, senior vice president of the California Forestry Council trade group, said the biggest threat posed by the log decks is the insects they may attract. The insects may go on to attack surrounding trees, which would dry them out and make them more flammable. “You really don’t want to leave big stacks of logs around your community,” Mr. Gentry said.
The recent logging is part of an effort to remove an estimated 300,000 highly flammable dead and dying trees in Butte County, which remains at high risk of another catastrophic inferno, according to local officials.
Mr. Moreno of PG&E said the company has almost finished removing about 90,000 dead and dying trees from around power lines in the Camp Fire area and finding places to take them hasn’t been a problem.
PG&E has assured local officials that it plans to clear out the unpermitted log stacks by the end of July, said Casey Hatcher, a spokeswoman for Butte County.
The San Francisco-based utility advised state regulators in April there is “a risk of delay” to that work from myriad challenges, including finding enough qualified tree trimmers. Officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers say they have deployed 3,500 union members to remove trees and brush in mostly PG&E territory, three times the normal average.
