Publication Date November 2, 2015 | San Gabriel Valley Tribune

California dead tree 'emergency' could fuel wildfires, El Nino floods

United States
A view of the Angeles National Forest. The governor has declared a state of emergency because of dead trees that pose a fire hazard and a potential mudslide and debris concern during El Nino storms. The state estimates 22 million dead trees and millions more to follow due to the four-year drought. (Staff file photo/Los Angeles News Group)
A view of the Angeles National Forest. The governor has declared a state of emergency because of dead trees that pose a fire hazard and a potential mudslide and debris concern during El Nino storms. The state estimates 22 million dead trees and millions more to follow due to the four-year drought. (Staff file photo/Los Angeles News Group)

There is no saying which trees will die, but by [Biologist Greg Asner's] estimation the count statewide could be close to 120 million — as much as 20% of the state's forests...Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University who has been studying the California drought, is not surprised by Asner's numbers.