Memorandum
Date: July 25, 2023
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: The Honorable Jessica Pyska, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
Susan Parker, County Administrative Officer
Matthew Rothstein, Deputy County Administrative Officer
Terre Logsdon, Chief Climate Resiliency Officer
Subject: Consideration of a Request for Assistance under the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) to Mitigate Pervasive Tree Mortality, Including a Cover Memo, Hazard Tree Removal Plan (HTRP), and Letter Requesting Waiver of 25% Local Match Requirement
Executive Summary:
As you are aware, repeated and compounding wildfire events, extreme drought conditions and groundwater depletion have led to widespread Tree Mortality in the State of California, and Lake County. Aerial Surveys conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture's (UDSA's) United States Forest Service (USFS) demonstrate this is a highly burdensome and growing problem.
In 2019, USFS estimated 1,000 Lake County acres were afflicted by Tree Mortality. The estimated number of dead trees was 3,000. Those estimates have exponentially grown in the time since:
* 2019 - 1,000 Acres, 3,000 dead trees
* 2021 - 21,000 Acres, 331,000 dead trees
* 2022 - 31,000 Acres, 590,000 dead trees
An estimated 22,000 of those trees sit along County roadways and rights of way; many miles of which are critical arteries and evacuation routes for our communities.
On May 3, 2022, your Board Adopted Resolution 2022-61, a "Proclamation of the Existence of a Local Emergency Due to Pervasive Tree Mortality."
The unprecedented storms of 2023 temporarily lessened drought conditions, but they also demonstrated the vulnerability of County rights of way to obstruction from downed trees.
The removal of over 22,000 hazard trees that threaten public infrastructure and public safety is clearly far beyond the capacity of the County to fund through local resources. In the time since our Board's Proclamation,...
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