Emergency Declaration Drought-Caused Tree Mortality Viewer

Large numbers of trees are dying due to four consecutive years of drought that have weakened trees and left millions of acres of forestland highly susceptible to bark beetle attacks. The drought stress is exacerbated in forests with too many trees competing for limited resources, especially water. Tree losses due to drought stress and bark beetle attacks are expected to increase until precipitation levels return to normal or above normal for one to multiple years.

On October 30, 2015 Governor Brown issued an emergency declaration requiring public agencies to identify areas of tree mortality that hold the greatest potential to result in wildfire and/or falling trees and threaten people and property in these areas. Once identified, these areas will be prioritized for tree removal.

CAL FIRE has created a web-based map viewer to allow Californians to participate in understanding and identifying the areas most impacted with tree mortality as a threat to life and property. This viewer shows areas of tree mortality mapped from 2012 through 2015 as well as assets important to life and property, such as roads, water supply infrastructure, and communications facilities. Where the tree mortality intersect an asset will be categorized as high priority.

We are currently working on identifying the areas where tree mortality and assets to be protected coincide. To facilitate information sharing, we are making the viewer available prior to finalizing these areas. With the current information on the viewer, you can see and turn on and off:

• Tree mortality from 2012 through 2015 detected by the US Forest Service and CAL FIRE
• Assets to be protected in the following categories:
  • Transportation
  • Communications
  • Utilities
  • Recreation
  • Communities

LAUNCH THE VIEWER

More Information
If you have questions or comments about this viewer, please contact frapwebmaster@fire.ca.gov

For more information on the drought and on forest specific drought information, see the links to the right.