Winter’s snowfall damage left Northern California at risk for wildfires

By Mike Chapman
Redding Record Searchlight
April 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

As if Shasta County residents haven’t gone through enough from last summer’s Carr Fire, a fresh hazard is lurking as a new fire season approaches. The new wildfire peril is apparent in neighborhoods, along tree-lined roads, in parks, greenbelts and other open spaces. It’s all the broken-off branches and trees that were damaged in the Feb. 12-13 snowstorm. “It’s a significant fire hazard — absolutely,” said Capt. Nick Wallingford of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The heavy, wet snow uprooted innumerable trees and left branches cracked and dying. By summer, downed wood that hasn’t been cleared will add more fuel to any fire in its path. This more combustible landscape only adds to an already-pressing, overall need to clear fire-prone brush and thin out stands of trees for a defense against fire — a realization that’s hitting home with some but not all homeowners in a post-Carr Fire era.

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