Wildfires, Drought, and Climate Change: Impact on Tree Mortality

The following is a testimony given by Laurie Wayburn, President of Pacific Forest Trust, at the informational hearing, “Wildfires, Drought, and Climate Change’s Impact on Tree Mortality” at the California State Assembly on Feb 22, 2016.

I’d like to express my deep appreciation to Mr. Williams and Mr. Bloom, and the committee overall for holding this hearing. We have serious challenges in a huge rise in tree mortality that the drought has initiated and climate change is further exacerbating. The issue is larger than tree mortality—it is about forest function in the state.

Forests may be defined by trees, but these problems are not confined to trees per se, they affect forests overall in their function and in the benefits they provide us. As we develop solutions to the present tree mortality crisis, we need to also address the underlying forests and promote their longer term health to ensure they can provide us with the range of benefits we rely on, form water to climate mitigation to wood products to wildlife habitat. This present crisis has been developing over a long time, but in this crisis, there is opportunity. If we address the underlying causes of the present crisis, we can fundamentally change the trajectory of our forests overall from one of crisis to one of opportunity, from forest stress and decline towards health and resilience.

This present dramatic tree mortality is a symptom of more systemic problems, which need to be addressed to achieve that change.

Three main factors are key in shaping the current condition: a century of fire suppression combined with overplanting has led to overstocked forests; unplanned development and land use that have led to forest fragmentation and stretch fire fighting resources to protect; our forests have a preponderance of relatively young and homogenous forests that are less resilient to stress. All three issues need to be addressed in our solutions.

The forest health issues we see range from fire risk near communities and roads to watershed health and decline in function, to carbon stocks that are lower than natural levels and sometimes in unstable condition. The solutions we deploy will need to be equally substantial, directed at the multiple risks and fit the long-term nature of forests. We won’t be successful if we address these only in the short term—tempting as that may be! Just as forests provide us with water, wildlife, wood, and climate mitigation—our solutions need to ensure these values are also benefitted.

Fortunately, the state has developed several sources of funding that can be deployed complementarily to address these issues:

• The SRA fee for fire protection in State Responsibility Areas was specifically developed to help reduce fire and public safety risks near communities and help in rural areas. With almost $100,000,000 collected annually in the SRA, these substantial funds can and should be gotten out the door to markedly accelerate thinning in and around rural communities at risk. This is a key tool that the state has not yet deployed, and it should do so.

• The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds (GGRF)—recommended at $150,000,000 in the Governor’s budget can complement SRA fees and should be focused on both reducing near-term emissions and fire risk in our forests, while also ensuring those forests endure to re-absorb hundreds of thousands of tons of excess CO2 emissions that they can, annually. These forests are well below their optimal carbon stores and well below their optimal resilience condition. Combining fuels reductions with long-term conservation agreements that ensure forests remain our most significant natural carbon-absorbing tool just makes good sense.

• GGRF energy funds should be directed to help develop a viable, efficient, clean woody biomass energy program that utilizes wood waste from fuel thinnings for energy. Woody biomass can be a 24/7, renewable energy source, but has a decades-old infrastructure, which needs improvement for efficiencies as well as air quality. Further, we have a grid-based system that does not readily lend itself to biomass energy. GGRF investments in a more diversified, cleaner bio-energy system will provide renewable alternatives, and be especially helpful in peak demands periods.

• Prop. 1 funds can and should be directed to improving and ensuring the watershed functions of forests. Forests are an integral part of our water systems. They collect, store and treat water for communities across the state. Prop 1 funds should be used to help reduce overstocking as well as protect key forest watershed lands as such.

• Lastly, we need to recognize that fire is a normal and needed part of the natural landscape in California. Part of our challenge is how to get fire back on the landscape safely. This means we need to deal with how we develop in forested areas, and how we allow fires to burn, not just how we put fires out. Just as we have recognized with floods, building in flood zones does not make sense. So too, it may be time for us to limit how development in remote rural areas affects the expense and feasibility of putting out all fire when in fact, we would benefit from letting them burn. Investing in preventative burning programs, and reexamining our present policy of “zero tolerance” for fire are timely considerations, as well.

Thank you.

Laurie A. Wayburn, President of Pacific Forest Trust, is an accomplished forest and conservation innovator who advises policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels. She pioneers new approaches to develop sustainable resource economies using her deep experience in the fields of conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainability. A preeminent authority on the climate and ecosystem benefits of forests, she leads efforts enacting climate change policies that unite conservation and sustainable management with market-based approaches. She has received several highly prestigious honors bestowed for her leadership and is a frequent speaker, writer, and media commentator on working forest conservation.