Author Archives: Rebecca Latta

PG&E Scraps Tree-Trimming Program Once Seen as Key to Fire Prevention

California utility spent more than $2 billion on effort it says was ineffective; focus now is on power-line settings

WSJ News Exclusive | Business
Aug. 2, 2023 5:30 am ET

By Katherine Blunt

PG&E began the so-called enhanced vegetation management in 2019, establishing 12 feet of clearance between branches and power lines.Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

The California utility company PG&E spent about $2.5 billion on a yearslong effort aimed at reducing wildfire risk by cutting or clearing more than a million trees growing alongside power lines.

It now says that work was largely ineffective and is eliminating the program, according to an internal analysis reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with utility executives.

The strategy shift marks a calculated risk by the utility that new power-line settings will be more effective than the tree-trimming program that was put in place after a series of devastating wildfires. The program, which the company called “enhanced vegetation management,” was meant to supplement routine tree-trimming work required by regulators.

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CA Native Plant Society Offers Weed Workshop

March 1, 2023
From CNPS newsletter, March 2023)

New Conservation Project: Santa Fe Dam Natural Area Volunteers wanted!

by Gabi McLean


Photo by Gabi McLean

Longtime California Native Plant Society (CNPS) volunteer Gabi McLean is spearheading a new conservation and outreach program at the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area, including a Weed ID Workshop, which will be held on Saturday, March 18, from 10am to noon. Many other activities, including classes and walks, are on offer, and volunteers are welcome!

An L.A. County Park located in Irwindale, the area includes a large stretch of undeveloped alluvial scrub, which provides habitat to many bird and animal species. Its plant community is threatened by development, arson, invasive weeds, and influx of our homeless neighbors. The area is home to almost 300 plant species – CalFlora lists 227 different plant species for the area; in the iNaturalist database, 284 plant species are recorded in this area as well as 167 bird species, 150 insect species, and 11 reptile species.

The CNPS conservation and outreach program offers the following activities:

  • Monthly plant walks, from February through June, to observe changes through the season and to explore various locations throughout the natural areas of the park
  • Outings in partnership with Pasadena Audubon Society to provide the opportunity of learning about and appreciating the whole ecosystem.
  • Plant ID class to identify and distinguish both native and invasive species for volunteers and staff of the managing agencies.
  • Regular weed parties, on weekends and weekdays, from February through June, whenever weather is favorable
  • Support for control of invasive plants that are too big to be manually pulled

A variety of agencies are responsible for various parts of the San Gabriel River creek bed and flood control area that comprise the natural area of alluvial scrub, including Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, Army Corps of Engineers, and San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy.

This spring, we’d like to get the word out about the beauty and value of this natural resource, so important to our mental and physical wellbeing. This area provides the opportunity to enjoy nature nearby. It also provides habitat for wildlife and is part of a wildlife corridor from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Whittier Narrows area and beyond.

We are working in cooperation with the County park management, staff, and volunteers, as well as the leadership and volunteers of the San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy. For activities open to the public, watch our email notices and website announcements at www.cnps-sgm.org.

If you are interested and motivated to join our efforts and can volunteer, please contact Gabi McLean at gabi.mclean@verizon.net. Visit the CNPS website HERE.

Scientists make inroads against tree-killing pests

Early detection increases the chances of eradicating pests

January 24, 2023

by Randall Oliver
Read article at farmprogress.com
 
John Kabashima/UCANR
 
An adult male red striped weevil. John Kabashima/UCANR

Trees provide shade to keep us cool, produce oxygen for us to breathe and calm our nerves. Numerous studies have demonstrated that even brief contact with trees and green spaces can provide significant human health benefits such as reductions in blood pressure and stress-related hormones. Trees also reduce noise and visual pollution, help manage storm water runoff, reduce erosion and provide habitat for birds and wildlife. Trees naturally capture carbon, helping to offset the forces of climate change. They also increase the value of our properties and communities. In short, trees are essential to our well-being.

Unfortunately, invasive pests pose an ongoing threat to California’s forests in both urban and wildland settings. Invasive insects such as goldspotted oak borer and invasive shothole borers have killed hundreds of thousands of trees in Southern California and are continuing to spread. Meanwhile, other pests and diseases such as Mediterranean oak borer and sudden oak death are killing trees in Northern California.

While the situation may sound dire, it is not hopeless. Of course, the best way to stop invasive pests is to prevent them from entering the state, as the California Department of Food and Agriculture has done on many occasions. For example, several months ago, CDFA border inspectors seized a load of firewood containing spotted lanternfly eggs (a pest that is causing extensive damage on the East Coast). When pests do sneak in, the next defense is to catch them early before they become established. Finally, even if pests do become established, they can be managed if not completely eradicated.

A few examples may help to illustrate why invasive tree pests deserve action, but not panic.

Red striped palm weevil eradicated in Laguna Beach

When red striped palm weevil, a highly destructive palm pest native to Indonesia, was discovered in Laguna Beach in October 2010, a working group was quickly formed to develop a management plan. The small but diverse group included international palm weevil experts, research scientists from University of California Riverside, CDFA and U.S. Department of Agriculture, UC Cooperative Extension personnel from San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties and county entomologists from the agricultural commissioner’s offices in Orange and San Diego counties.

The resulting response included a pheromone-based trapping program, public advisory and targeted insecticide treatments. Within two years, additional trapping and inspections could not find any signs of continued infestations. Early detection was key to the success: the infestation in Laguna Beach was identified early, so the weevil population was still relatively small. In addition, Laguna Beach is geographically isolated, the local climate is much cooler than the weevil’s place of origin, and the eradication effort was well funded by state and federal agencies. Eliminating invasive pests where such conditions are not present may prove more difficult.

Invasive shothole borers attack Disneyland

The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim contains 16,000 trees and over 680 different tree species. When park officials identified an infestation by invasive shothole borers in 2016, their initial attempts at vanquishing the insects with pesticides produced mixed results. Then, they consulted with experts from UC Riverside and UC Cooperative Extension and together designed and followed an integrated pest management program that included monthly ground surveys, a trapping program that helped to detect infestation hot spots and find and remove the source of beetles, and occasional pesticide treatments on selected trees. The park went from a large number of beetles in 2017 to very low levels today. There are still some beetles, but resulting damage is extremely low, and although monitoring programs continue, the park’s landscape team has been able to turn its focus elsewhere.

Goldspotted oak borer spotted in Weir Canyon

When goldspotted oak borer was confirmed in Orange County’s Weir Canyon in 2014, a team from Irvine Ranch Conservancy, the organization that manages the area on behalf of Orange County Parks, sprang into action. UC Cooperative Extension and the US Forest Service assisted IRC in developing a management program, and over the ensuing years, IRC has actively collaborated with OC Parks, The Nature Conservancy, OC Fire Authority, and CAL FIRE to control the existing infestation and stop its spread. IRC has surveyed the oaks in the area yearly to monitor the infestation and guide each year’s management actions.

To reduce the spread of the infestation, IRC removed more than 100 severely infested oaks in the first few years of management (no severely infested oaks have been found in the last few years of surveys). Additionally, more than 3,000 tree trunks have been sprayed annually in the late spring to kill emerging adult beetles and newly hatched offspring.

In the most recent survey of the oaks in Weir Canyon, the IRC team found only 12 trees with new exit holes, and most of those had just one to two exit holes per tree, which is an extremely low number. With the situation well under control, IRC is now considering modifying its annual spraying program and adapting other less aggressive treatment options. Finally, IRC has been actively planting acorns to mitigate losses due to the removals as well as the Canyon 2 Fire of 2016.

As these brief examples demonstrate, insect pest infestations can be managed or even eradicated if caught early enough. Early detection not only increases the chances of success, but also minimizes the cost of pest management efforts.

What you can do to prevent infestation

While management actions will vary depending on the insect or disease, species of tree and location, there are a few steps that will lead to greater success in fighting tree pests and diseases.

  • Keep your trees healthy. Proper irrigation and maintenance go a long way toward keeping trees strong and resistant to pests and diseases.

  • Check your trees early and often for signs and symptoms of tree pests and diseases. These may include entry/exit holes, staining, gumming, sugary build-ups, sawdust-like excretions, and branch or canopy dieback. Use available tools like the UC IPM website to determine probable causes of the problems.

  • Talk with experts (arborists, pest control advisers, researchers and advisors from the University of California and other institutions), and report pest findings to your county Agricultural Commissioner.

  • Evaluate the extent of tree damage and determine a management plan. Remove severely infested branches and trees that may be a source of insect pests that can attack other trees.

  • Properly manage infested wood and green waste. Chip wood and other plant materials as small as possible. Solarization or composting can further increase the effectiveness of chipping. It is generally best to keep those materials close to where they originated, but if you absolutely need to move them, first make sure the facility where they will be sent is equipped to process them. Always tightly cover materials while in transit. If working with a tree care professional, insist that proper disposal is part of the job requirements.

  • Many invasive tree pests can survive in down wood for long periods. When buying or collecting firewood, always obtain it as close as possible to where you are going to burn it and leave leftover firewood in place.

Randall Oliver is UC Statewide IPM Program Communications Coordinator.

Source: University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Tree Survey at Pasadena’s Arlington Garden

Why a tree survey?

by William Hallstrom (Arlington Garden volunteer)
Aug 27, 2021

For the past few months, most of the volunteer crew at Arlington Garden have spent at least some of their time wrapping the trunks of each of the garden’s trees with the kind of soft tape measure you might use for sewing, looking up to the highest branches and pacing underneath them while jotting down notes. It’s all part of the tree survey, one of the recent volunteer projects at the garden, whose goal is to determine how much carbon is being sequestered by the trees in Arlington Garden.

Arlington Garden Communications & Volunteer Manager Andrew Jewell says the idea for the tree survey began from a need for some real data to help bolster a proposal. “We set out to quantify the effect the garden has on various environmental measures including atmospheric carbon, the urban heat island effect, rainwater capture,” he says. This would require human effort, which was facilitated by the growth of the volunteer program in recent months.

Arborist Jonathan Flournoy came out to the garden on Tuesday, June 21nd and walked us through the basic process. It’s pretty simple. Teams of volunteers are assigned parts of the garden to work in. Teams of two people work well—one person can take measurements and the other can record them. READ MORE: https://www.arlingtongardenpasadena.com/2021/08/27/why-a-tree-survey/?mc_cid=6b9fafac4a&mc_eid=137d77d9e0

12 Reasons Not to Use Artificial Turf

By Rebecca Latta

Thinking of replacing a lawn and considering alternatives?
Make sure not to choose artificial turf. Read on to learn why.

Artificial turf:

  • Creates a barrier to soil moisture, potentially harming nearby plants
  • Promotes higher soil temperatures, which can burn underlying roots
  • Is composed of plastic which eventually degrades, leaving harmful particles in the soil
  • Deprives plant roots of needed air circulation
  • Suffocates beneficial soil microorganisms which are essential for plant health
  • Kills earthworms and beneficial insects that live in soil
  • Reduces soil fertility by creating a barrier to beneficial leaf litter
  • Takes the place of excellent lawn-alternative ground covers, such as native plants
  • Reduces opportunities for native wildlife, such as pollinators, to thrive
  • Takes the place of permeable and sustainable paving alternatives
  • Promotes the out-of-date notion that a lawn is necessary to enhance a property’s appearance
  • It’s fake and it looks fake. There are many beautiful, practical and sustainable alternatives that are worth investigating!

Clouds and Sounds of Pollution in Our Communities

Posted on

Find this article HERE: https://www.coloradoboulevard.net/clouds-sounds-pollution-in-our-communities/#abh_about

Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a 2-part series. This article first appeared in the ColoradoBoulevard.net March 2021 print edition.

two leaf blowers with dust on the street

Two leaf blowers in South Pasadena (Photo – William J. Kelly)

The roar begins each morning at 8:00 am. Step outside your home and see the cloud of dust settling on your freshly washed car, new house paint, or patio furniture. Breathe deeply and smell the fumes.

By William J. Kelly

Throughout the San Gabriel Valley, that’s the time gardeners start their engines, blowing a torrent of smog-forming and cancer-causing compounds and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere from leaf blowers, lawn mowers, weed whackers, and a myriad of lawn and garden equipment.

But don’t blame the army of mostly low-wage, often self-employed, and largely Latino workers who mow household lawns and maintain city parks and golf courses. After all, for decades these have been the only tools of the trade available to them to eke out a livable wage.

Indeed, according to the California Air Resources Board, California has 16.5 million gasoline-powered lawn and garden tools. That’s more than the State’s 13.7 million light-duty passenger cars, which don’t include pickup trucks and large SUVs. And unlike those cars, which have become progressively cleaner since the catalytic converter was required in the 1970s, lawn and garden tool engines largely are bereft of any emissions control systems.

No wonder, then, that today in the San Gabriel Valley and throughout the South Coast Air Basin, lawn and garden equipment emits more smog-forming and cancer-causing volatile organic compounds, like benzene and butadiene, than passenger cars.

In fact, the latest South Coast Air Quality Management District data show lawn and garden equipment emits 31.2 tons a day of these compounds in the Air Basin, while light-duty passenger cars emit 24.4 tons a day. Other pollutants from the equipment include carbon monoxide, particulate, and nitrogen oxides.

The emissions contribute to smog that triggers asthma, suffered by an estimated 7.7 percent of adults and 8.4 percent of children in the U.S., according the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. The particles and gases also cause allergies and exacerbate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory ailments, according to the American Lung Association.

South Coast Air District spokesperson Nahal Mogharabi notes that gardeners have much higher exposure to equipment emissions than nearby residents. This, he says, can put them at increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as cancer.

compariosn chart between leaf blowers and cars

Source: California Air Resources Board

California Air Resources Board data show gasoline-powered leaf blowers, which gardeners strap on their backs, emit more smog-forming pollutants in an hour than driving a 2016 Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver. Using a lawn mower for an hour emits as much as driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Concern is growing too about the carbon dioxide emitted by gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment; carbon dioxide is the primary cause of global warming. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates nationwide lawn and garden equipment emits about 23 million tons a year of the greenhouse gas. In the South Coast Air Basin, which includes San Gabriel Valley, carbon dioxide emissions from the equipment total more than 270,000 tons annually, according to Mogharabi.

Accordingly, many cities have included plans to potentially curb use of the gasoline-powered equipment and replace it with electric leaf blowers and lawn mowers in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The climate action plans for both Pasadena and South Pasadena, for instance, outline the need for action to cut the emissions.

Fortunately, clean-air technologies have emerged in recent years that will protect the health of both gardeners and residents, as they restore peace in your neighborhood. Part 2 of this column will outline what’s being done.

Part 2: Solutions and tips (coming April 14).
> This article appeared in the ColoradoBoulevard.net March 2021 print edition.

William J. Kelly has spent his career in journalism and communications, including as a reporter and editor for what is today known as Bloomberg Industry Group in Washington, D.C., and as a writer for numerous publications. He also managed communications for the South Coast Air Quality Management District and has authored several books.

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SoCal Edison To Remove 11K Palm Trees Over Wildfire Risk

By CBSLA Staff

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.

READ ARTICLE HERE

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.

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:

wildfire-budget_lives-and-homes-first