REPLANTING TREES TO BEGIN IN SPRING
Forest in footprint will be different from before the fire
PARADISE >> Local groups will be kicking off a large-scale effort to replant trees in the Camp Fire burn scar this spring with a boost from the Arbor Day Foundation, the American Forest Foundation, American Forests, the Department of Agriculture and others.
It will be an opportunity to not only restore the forest, but also to choose a mix and distribution of species adapted to higher temperatures and resilient to frequent fires, local scientists have said.
The new trees will help stabilize the soil and provide habitat for wildlife. Up to 85 percent of the canopy representing hundreds of thousands of trees appears to be dead or dying following the catastrophic fire, according to some foresters’ estimates. Tens of thousands of hazardous trees have already been removed by the county, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., and private landowners, and more will be removed this year by a mandatory tree removal program run by the state.
That leaves a near-barren landscape where only some species have started growing back.
Starting this spring, the Arbor Day Foundation will help fund at least one large-scale replanting after fires in Northern California, according to an announcement made this week. The project will bring 600,000 trees to around 2,600 acres in the Carr, Delta and Camp fire footprints, said the group’s manager of reforestation programs, Brad Brandt. The money was raised as part of a crowdfunding campaign to plant at least 20 million trees worldwide by 2022 called #TeamTrees and led by YouTuber Mr. Beast and other influencers. The burn scar in Butte County was chosen as a high-priority project.
The American Forest Foundation and the Butte County Resource Conservation District will facilitate the on-the-ground replanting, which will focus on small landowners. Wolfy Rougle, a forest health watershed coordinator at the district, said she is still signing people up for the program. The first volunteer planting day will take place on Feb. 2. There will be at least two other days later in the spring.
The seedlings are sourced as locally as possible, with input from the California Native Plant Society.
The project is not the only reforestation effort underway. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also funds emergency reforestation, but not everyone is eligible. American Forests is providing seedlings for replanting on federal lands.
A different species mix?
The new forest will be different from the one that existed prior
to the disaster, warned Rougle. Already, more oaks are regenerating than pines because the fire was so intense it burned off the seed source of conifers, she said. And on Feb. 2, the volunteers will mostly be planting oak seedlings — by choice. That’s because the oaks may be more adapted to an era of higher temperatures brought about by an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the lower foothills.
“It’s important we replant trees that have a shot with the climate that we’ll have in the future,” she said. “The forest people will remember from their childhoods as 80 percent pines and 20 percent oak will change. It may be switched.”
The changes, called range shifts, are already underway. A 2017 study from UC Davis modeling how greenhouse gas emissions scenarios would play out in California’s different ecosystems found that the Sierra foothills in Northern California was the area at most risk for stress from climate change in the state, along with the Sonoran Desert. Many native species could adapt by migrating northwards and upslope to cooler areas. For example, scientists have found that ponderosa pines have been moving up in elevation on the western side of the Sierra Nevada.
Rougle said volunteers will be replanting conifers, especially at higher elevations, later this spring. She’s encountered a surprising roadblock: It turns out that there’s a shortage of low-elevation conifer seed in California. They are highly sought-after because conifer forests produce valuable timber and have been damaged so much by drought, disease and fire.
The Butte County Resource Conservation District’s website is https:// www.bcrcd.org. The phone number is 693-3173.