By Jim Carlton
PARADISE, Calif -- 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 stacks are visible throughout the charred remains of
Paradise. One of the biggest sits along Skyway Road on the
outskirts of town, where contractors working for utility PG&E
Corp. have stacked more than 3,000 logs over the past month,
according to a worker. Smaller stacks could be seen on residential
and business lots, some of which also contain charred cars and
other fire debris.
The so-called log decks have angered residents who complain the
dead trees are an eyesore and would still burn in a fire. Many of
the residents blame the utility, which state investigators last
month found was responsible for the 153,000-acre Camp Fire that
killed 85 people and destroyed Paradise because its transmission
line sparked the inferno.
"PG&E is just abdicating all their responsibility up here,"
said John Scott, a 74-year-old retired aerospace-facilities
engineer who lives about a mile away from a log deck.
Paul Moreno, a spokesman for PG&E, called the stacks
"temporary log-staging areas" that are part of the normal
transportation chain. The utility, he added, is educating some
contractors who mistakenly piled the logs in fields where they
don't belong.
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.
Mark Wilson was hired by a contractor that works for PG&E to
cut down trees around Paradise, located 90 miles north of
Sacramento. One morning last week, he unloaded freshly cut timber
from the back of his flatbed trailer in a field just outside
Paradise filled with hundreds of similarly discarded logs. He said
he had no other options.
"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. 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?"
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.
"Our contractors may haul logs to out-of-county facilities, some
of which have their own storage properties," he said.
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.
Loggers are pouring into the woods throughout Northern and
Central California to lessen the risk of fires that have become
increasingly common amid drought and a warming climate.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in March signed an emergency order that
cleared the way for expedited tree and brush removal from 90,000
acres of wildlands abutting hundreds of California's
most-threatened communities.
PG&E has told state officials it will double the number of
drought-damaged trees it plans to trim or remove to 375,000 this
year from 160,000 in 2018. That's in addition to the roughly one
million trees its crews remove annually for other reasons.
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.
"There's a shortage because it's a hot, sweaty, dangerous job,
and it doesn't pay as well as some jobs," said Bob Dean, senior
assistant business manager for IBEW Local 1245 in the northern
California town of Vacaville.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 14, 2019 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
PG&E (NYSE:PCG)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Feb 2024 bis Mär 2024
PG&E (NYSE:PCG)
Historical Stock Chart
Von Mär 2023 bis Mär 2024