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PG&E has is not trimming vegetation back sufficiently. It is an infrastructure expense that is easy to defer -- for a while. In the Sonoma County fires, trees

PG&E has is not trimming vegetation back sufficiently. It is an infrastructure expense that is easy to defer -- for a while. In the Sonoma County fires, trees contacting power lines and either catching on fire directly, or causing a short leading to a transformer explosion sparked a lot of fires. Of course, 100kph winds will cause the fuel to burn wicked fast. I saw a photo of a melted cast metal BBQ grill after the Sonoma fire. A fire that hot is hard to fight in any circumstances. As far as climate change, goes... well, maybe? We had five years of drought, followed by a very wet winter. I have property in the Sierra foothills. With dry, drought-stressed trees interspersed with a few drought-killed trees, there was a lot of standing "hot" fuel. The wet winter caused the grasses to grow like mad the next year -- by late summer, when the grass was dormant and tinder-dry, there was a lot of "cool" ground-fuel to spread fire. Some idiot drove through tall grass and the hot catalytic converter lit the grass, leading to the Detwieler fire, which burned over the top of my property -- most of which burned cool (I lost a few trees, and a 60 year old not-historical-at-all outhouse... some of my neighbors were not nearly so lucky.) Back to PG&E maintenance practices, there was a tree that fell on a power line near my property taking a power for a short service stretch, luckily it didn't spark any more fire on the mountain. PG&E can whine about climate change, but bottom line, they need to be much more diligent about vegetation control. It doesn't take a PhD to understand how some wind and a dry branch can cause a whole lot of trouble.

almost_usual 8y ago
PG&E needs to be doing a better job and California should consider bringing back its logging industry. I get burning wood isn’t the cleanest energy source but dead trees are going to burn no matter what. I’d rather someone harvest it and burn it in a controlled environment rather than it rage uncontrollably.
- bsder 8y ago
  > PG&E needs to be doing a better job and California should consider bringing back its logging industry. The logging industry will happily wipe out nice, mature, profitable trees that are robust against fire and leave behind the unprofitable brush that serves as tinder. No thanks. Electricity infrastructure probably needs to be moved back to a core government function like roadways--especially considering that the infrastructure part is going to dominate more and more over the metered part as more renewables come online.
  - almost_usual 8y ago
    >The logging industry will happily wipe out nice, mature, profitable trees that are robust against fire and leave behind the unprofitable brush that serves as tinder. No thanks. That wood waste used to power electric plants across the state before cheap renewables and solar were an option. >Electricity infrastructure probably needs to be moved back to a core government function like roadways--especially considering that the infrastructure part is going to dominate more and more over the metered part as more renewables come online. The forests will burn as long as Federal Lands are not managed and cut like they used to be. The Federal Forests will threaten private forests and the adjacent land will be impacted. It’s simple, dead trees need to be cut down. Invest in as much renewable and clean energy as you want but if we don’t take care of these trees the air quality will be trashed. It’s happening right now.
- mistermann 8y ago
  Would composting be viable for some of it? This article claims significant carbon capture: http://biomeiler.nl/carbon-sequestration-by-biomeiler-wood-compost/ http://biomeiler.nl/carbon-sequestration-by-biomeiler-wood-c...
- Fomite 8y ago
  There's plenty of western states on fire right now with robust logging industries.
  - briffle 8y ago
    Which? Oregon and Washington are a small fraction of what they used to be. Federal laws (endagered species act, etc) killed off the vast majority of it, and decimated many small towns.
    - Fomite 8y ago
      Idaho and Montana.
NDizzle 8y ago
I came here to make this point, but you made it better than I would have. The Carr fire started in a similar way. A blow out on a trailer tire, and the sparks from the wheel hitting the asphalt started the whole thing. One of the large fires last year was started by a backfire. Seriously. Way back in ancient history, the 90s, I saw 'brush hogs' all over the place in Arkansas keeping the side of the roads neatly trimmed. Dense forest existed, but it wasn't directly next to the road. Why we don't have that in California I don't know, but we don't. I have only seen brush hogs at work here a a handful of times in the 19 years I've been in California. Instead they do ridiculous things like bring in a herd of goats or sheep to graze on the medians. Just 'hog it. For starters. I don't even want to get into the logging conversation - this isn't the time or the place. The enormous forests should have some kind of logging happening to thin them out. I'm not talking about Muir woods - I'm talking about a 50 mile radius around the great city of Redding, for example. All of the area surrounding Clearlake. All of Lake County. It's a start.
- throwaway427 8y ago
  I don't know why you are downvoted -- there isn't enough management of our resources happening. State and national park services are stretched thin due to ongoing fires they don't have the time or resources to do controlled burns or clear land (they want to, they are just limited). Our forests are too dense and turn into tindersticks with one or two years of drought.
- waterphone 8y ago
  Commercial logging is not the answer, though mechanical thinning might be to get things back to a natural state before reintroducing a properly balanced fire regime with natural and if necessary prescribed fire.

almost_usual 8y ago

PG&E needs to be doing a better job and California should consider bringing back its logging industry. I get burning wood isn’t the cleanest energy source but dead trees are going to burn no matter what. I’d rather someone harvest it and burn it in a controlled environment rather than it rage uncontrollably.

bsder 8y ago
> PG&E needs to be doing a better job and California should consider bringing back its logging industry. The logging industry will happily wipe out nice, mature, profitable trees that are robust against fire and leave behind the unprofitable brush that serves as tinder. No thanks. Electricity infrastructure probably needs to be moved back to a core government function like roadways--especially considering that the infrastructure part is going to dominate more and more over the metered part as more renewables come online.
- almost_usual 8y ago
  >The logging industry will happily wipe out nice, mature, profitable trees that are robust against fire and leave behind the unprofitable brush that serves as tinder. No thanks. That wood waste used to power electric plants across the state before cheap renewables and solar were an option. >Electricity infrastructure probably needs to be moved back to a core government function like roadways--especially considering that the infrastructure part is going to dominate more and more over the metered part as more renewables come online. The forests will burn as long as Federal Lands are not managed and cut like they used to be. The Federal Forests will threaten private forests and the adjacent land will be impacted. It’s simple, dead trees need to be cut down. Invest in as much renewable and clean energy as you want but if we don’t take care of these trees the air quality will be trashed. It’s happening right now.
mistermann 8y ago
Would composting be viable for some of it? This article claims significant carbon capture: http://biomeiler.nl/carbon-sequestration-by-biomeiler-wood-compost/ http://biomeiler.nl/carbon-sequestration-by-biomeiler-wood-c...
Fomite 8y ago
There's plenty of western states on fire right now with robust logging industries.
- briffle 8y ago
  Which? Oregon and Washington are a small fraction of what they used to be. Federal laws (endagered species act, etc) killed off the vast majority of it, and decimated many small towns.
  - Fomite 8y ago
    Idaho and Montana.

NDizzle 8y ago

I came here to make this point, but you made it better than I would have. The Carr fire started in a similar way. A blow out on a trailer tire, and the sparks from the wheel hitting the asphalt started the whole thing. One of the large fires last year was started by a backfire. Seriously. Way back in ancient history, the 90s, I saw 'brush hogs' all over the place in Arkansas keeping the side of the roads neatly trimmed. Dense forest existed, but it wasn't directly next to the road. Why we don't have that in California I don't know, but we don't. I have only seen brush hogs at work here a a handful of times in the 19 years I've been in California. Instead they do ridiculous things like bring in a herd of goats or sheep to graze on the medians. Just 'hog it. For starters. I don't even want to get into the logging conversation - this isn't the time or the place. The enormous forests should have some kind of logging happening to thin them out. I'm not talking about Muir woods - I'm talking about a 50 mile radius around the great city of Redding, for example. All of the area surrounding Clearlake. All of Lake County. It's a start.

throwaway427 8y ago
I don't know why you are downvoted -- there isn't enough management of our resources happening. State and national park services are stretched thin due to ongoing fires they don't have the time or resources to do controlled burns or clear land (they want to, they are just limited). Our forests are too dense and turn into tindersticks with one or two years of drought.
waterphone 8y ago
Commercial logging is not the answer, though mechanical thinning might be to get things back to a natural state before reintroducing a properly balanced fire regime with natural and if necessary prescribed fire.