trees
Scientists and pilots in aircraft equipped with cameras and sensors have updated the number of dead trees they believe are standing today in California forests.

There are now about 129 million dead trees on 8.9 million acres in the Golden State, up from estimates of more than 102 million dead trees statewide a year ago, federal Forest Service people based in Vallejo said Monday.

Aerial surveys this year show an additional 27 million trees, mostly conifers, have died in California since November 2016.

Tuolumne and Calaveras counties remain listed among the 10 counties most impacted by tree mortality statewide, Ginessa Stark with the Forest Service said Monday. The other eight counties listed north to south are Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, Tulare and Kern. These are the same 10 counties identified as most impacted a year ago.

To date, 3,921 dead trees have been removed in Tuolumne County through funding streams that include the California Office of Emergency Services, a statewide Disaster Assistance Act, Cal Fire and the Forest Service, Ryan Campbell, an administrative analyst with the county Office of Emergency Services/Tree Mortality, said Monday.

In addition in Tuolumne County, Caltrans has felled 22,000 trees, Pacific Gas & Electric has felled 13,000 trees, Tuolumne Utilities District has felled 1,658 trees, Twain Harte Community Services District has felled 422 trees and the nonprofit Tree Mortality Aid Program has felled 230 trees, Campbell said.

More than 99,600 trees have been felled in the Stanislaus National Forest since early 2016, said Forest Service spokesperson Diana Fredlund.

"Of those, we estimate about 80 percent of those have been removed from the forest and sent to local industry," Fredlund said.

The statewide information comes from staff with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region offices in Vallejo, where they manage national forest lands in California, Hawaii and U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands. Eighteen national forests are in the region.