$562 million need to cut down California's dead trees, Senator Feinstein seeks funding

There are an estimated 66 million dead trees in California, and 5.5 million of them need to be cut down immediately to prevent catastrophic fires according to the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein has asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for $38 million to be shifted in the budget to pay for removing the dead trees from federal land, those already identified as highest risk by Governor Brown's Tree Mortality Task Force.

The identified "high hazard" zones in the Stanislaus, Sierra, and Sequoia National Forests and have already received all necessary environmental clearances and are ready to be removed once funding is available.

"After five years of historic drought, which has led to the death of an estimated 66 million trees in California alone, my state and its people face a heightened and potentially catastrophic risk of wildfire this year and for years to come," she said in a letter to Vilsack.

Feinstein has also asked the USFS to request sustained federal funding to remove the trees.

Currently the USFS has budgeted $32 million for the year for tree removal.

- South Tahoe Now staff report