Monthly Archives: March 2021

SoCal Edison To Remove 11K Palm Trees Over Wildfire Risk

By CBSLA Staff

Filed Under: KCAL 9, SCE, SoCal Edison, Wildfire Risk, Wildfires

SoCal Edison To Remove 11K Palm Trees Over Wildfire Risk

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – In an effort to mitigate the threat of wildfires, utility giant Southern California Edison announced last week that it will remove 11,000 palm trees which are located too close to its power lines.

FILE — A palm tree burns in a residential area in the Silverado Fire on Oct. 26, 2020, in Irvine, California. (Getty Images)

SCE announced Friday that it will begin removing the palm trees in April. The process will take about two years.

Some cities that will see removals include Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, La Canada Flintridge, Malibu, Lake Elsinore and Santa Ana.

SCE says that removing the palm trees is significantly more effective that trimming them back.

“We are looking to remove these palms to avoid any fires or outages,” SCE vegetation management and forestry manager Jon Pancoast said in a statement. “Trimming this species only stimulates growth, so it’s best to remove this type of vegetation. State regulations require that all types of vegetation should be at least four feet away from power lines in high fire risk areas at all times. We make sure it doesn’t grow back and touch a power line before we’re able to schedule another inspection.”

Palm trees that are located directly under or above power lines will be prioritized because falling fronds can cause outages and fires, SCE said.

SCE notified California state regulators that its equipment may have been to blame for sparking the Silverado Fire, which broke out east of Irvine in late October 2020, burning 13,400 acres and forcing more than 90,000 people to evacuate their homes.

RELATED: Firefighter Injured Battling Silverado Fire Released From Hospital After 17 Surgeries

Also last October, Ventura County fire investigators reported that the Easy and Maria fires, which broke out in October of 2019, were both caused by electrical equipment failures. In the Easy Fire, SCE equipment was to blame, officials said.

In November of 2019, while the Easy and Maria fires were still burning, SCE reached a $360 million settlement admitting that its equipment was also responsible for starting the 2017 Thomas Fire north of Santa Paula and the 2018 Woolsey Fire north of Simi Valley.

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Why You Should Plant Oaks

IN THE GARDEN

Why You Should Plant Oaks

These large, long-lived trees support more life-forms than any other trees in North America. And they’re magnificent.

By Margaret Roach

When I arrived years ago at the piece of land I now garden, I saw it as a blank canvas and set about madly planting things, imagining my efforts would bring every square foot to life. I did not understand then that the heavy lifting had already been done — and probably by some blue jay, or maybe a squirrel.

Douglas W. Tallamy, an entomologist and longtime professor at the University of Delaware, would have known right away what the giant old oak trees along the front property line meant to the place — and to any place.

“There is much going on in your yard that would not be going on if you did not have one or more oak trees gracing your piece of planet earth,” he writes in his new book, “The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees.” READ MORE

California Alliance for Nature says CA Wildfire Budget should save lives and homes first

Following is a letter to California State Legislators from the California Alliance for Nature:

March 12, 2021
California State Legislature
Sacramento, CA

Re: The Proposed Wildfire Budget – Lives and homes first

Dear Honorable Member of the California State Legislature,

The Newsom administration’s new budget proposal to address wildfire risk has, for the first time, allocated funds to support proven strategies that will save lives and protect homes – focusing directly within and around communities at risk to make them fire-safe.
This is a hopeful beginning. However, only 5% of the proposed $1 billion budget will be available to communities to protect themselves from wildfire. The rest, $922 million, is being allocated for plans to fund the clearance of half a million acres of habitat per year including the logging of forests far from most communities at risk – an approach that has consistently failed to protect our neighborhoods from wildfire and will cause significant damage to the natural environments we treasure.1

Primary Goal: Make saving lives and homes the top priority.

Key Metric: Nine out of the 16,909 fires in California during 2017 and 2018 caused 95% of the damage. All nine fires occurred under extreme, wind-driven conditions where vegetation clearance projects proved ineffective. Nearly all the most devastating wildfires in California since the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire exhibit similar characteristics, and most had little to nothing to do with forests. A comprehensive fire management plan must focus on wind-driven fires where most fatalities and READ MORE:

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