There are now a record 129 million dead trees in California, although the mortality rate has slowed in the last year, according to the U.S Forest Service. Stephanie Gomes leads the Tree Mortality Team for the Forest Service. She says an additional 27 million trees, mostly conifers, have died since November of last year. Gomes says it’s mostly centered in the Southern Sierra, which never received the kind of precipitation the Northern Sierra received last winter…

click to listen to Stephanie Gomes

Meanwhile, Gomes says last year firefighting took up 56% of the Forest Service budget, resulting in a further shrinking of prevention programs…

click to listen to Stephanie Gomes

Gomes says the Forest Service will continue to focus on mitigating hazardous dead trees and thinning overly dense forests, so they are healthier and better able to survive such stressors as drought and beetle attacks in the future. Severe heat this year also offset some of the benefits from record-breaking precipitation in the North State.