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Dead trees pile up before being mulched to produce fuel for cogeneration plants at the Placer County Eastern Regional\u00a0Material Recovery Facility outside Truckee in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Walk onto almost any forest wildfire prevention or post-fire restoration project in California right now and you will find the same thing: piles of low-value wood, cut and stacked, waiting for somewhere to go.<\/p>\n
The crews did their job. They thinned the overgrown stands and pulled out the dead material. They removed the low-value kindling that turns a manageable fire into a catastrophe.<\/p>\n
Then the wood sits there.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not because the state lacks ambition. California has committed to treating around 1 million forest acres<\/a> annually to reduce wildfire risk and restore forest health. Reaching that goal entails\u00a0removing more than 5 million<\/a> bone-dry tons of woody material annually, and that\u2019s a conservative estimate. Since 2018, California has accumulated 11 at least 1 million bone-dry tons<\/a> of forest biomass in piles awaiting disposal, with much more likely remaining undocumented.<\/p>\n What exactly is this debris, and why is it not turned into lumber or other products?\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Simply, these materials are often dead trees that have burned or decayed and cannot be used for lumber or other wood products. In many instances, this material is brush or young dense trees that were thinned for purposes of fire prevention. You cannot create boards from rotten and small-diameter material.\u00a0<\/p>\n California has become quite adept at piling up these hazardous vegetative fuels. The problem is that we have almost nowhere to send them.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sadly, nature often takes care of it her way, by igniting it.<\/p>\n Woody material with no buyer doesn\u2019t disappear. It becomes everyone\u2019s problem. It remains in the forest as fuel for the next megafire. It gets burned in open slash piles that pollute the air. Or, it decays and releases climate pollutants like methane. None of those outcomes are free. We pay for them in smoke, in suppression costs, damaged lungs and towns that burn.<\/p>\n Before we start the cycle all over again, the state needs to act.<\/p>\n The lack of markets for this forest-based residue is a glaring, yet solvable, missing piece within the fire prevention and recovery strategy of the state.<\/p>\n There is a solution, and in a world full of tortured acronyms, this is a great one: the Forest Organic Residue Energy and Safety Transformation and Wildfire Prevention Fund Act.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n