Close to one half million living healthy trees to be cut down around San Francisco!!

[CreekDog]

48. The author of the OP has been told that their OP is incorrect, they have not fixed it

in fact, they came back to the thread to double down on it.

But they are wrong for a multitude of reasons:

1) this isn't "around San Francisco" it's the East Bay.

2) the plan is not to clear cut the Eucalyptus, but "thin" the Eucalyptus stands (the Sierra Club, by the way, wanted all these trees removed and replaced with native plants).

The Eucalyptus are a non native species that create all kinds of problems not only for people but for our native ecology.

Battle erupts over future of Oakland hills eucalyptus trees

Posted: Jun 02, 2015 1:20 PM PST

The Sierra Club and another environmental organization filed a lawsuit last week arguing that the tree-cutting plan doesn't go far enough. The Sierra Club wants all of the estimated 500,000 eucalyptus trees in the region felled and replaced by native plant species.
...

"In 1991, the fire event that occurred here was one of the most expensive natural disasters in history. We don't want to see a repeat of that," said Vincent Crudele, Vegetation Management Specialist with the Oakland Fire Marshall's office and Oakland Fire Department.

"We're not in the business of creating a larger hazard or cosmetic eyesore for our citizens. What we're trying to do is reduce the fire threat and return this back to what it should be," Crudele said, emphasizing that the goal was to allow native trees to grow, once the non-native species are gone.

Opponents are worried about the use of an herbicide listed in the FEMA plan to prevent the Eucalyptus from growing back.

"It's a very small application per tree, it's not sprayed," Crudele said. "We're not trying to conduct any work here that's going to be environmentally hazardous."

Critics have also complained there's no plan to replace the trees cut down.

Crudele responded that the City of Oakland has already contacted volunteer groups to help come up with a plan to replace some of the trees.

"There's no immediate funds in the FEMA grant specifically for replanting," Crudele said. "That choice will be up to the city of Oakland in terms of how to re-forest this area."

http://wn.ktvu.com/story/29221185/battle-erupts-over-future-of-oakland-hills-eucalyptus-trees

Courthouse News Service
Thursday, May 28, 2015Last Update: 7:15 AM PT

Greens Want Bay Area Eucalyptus Yanked

By KATHERINE PROCTOR

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Federal plans for wildfire protection in California's East Bay Hills unwisely fail to deal with eucalyptus trees - explosively flammable, non-native hazards that should be replaced, the Sierra Club claims in court.

The Sierra Club and SprawlDef, an environmental legal defense fund, claim the Federal Emergency Management Agency's final environmental impact statement uses an undefined "unified methodology" that "fails entirely to describe and weigh 'thinning' the eucalyptus versus long-term restoration of native East Bay Hills shrubs and plant communities with more manageable fire behavior characteristics."
...

And the trees' oily leaves and branches can literally explode in a wildfire. "Highly flammable eucalyptus tops are subject to torching" and "its constantly shed bark provides a ubiquitous fire tinder," the groups say in the complaint.

The Sierra Club and SprawlDef say FEMA should have dealt forthrightly with the trees, "not only to prevent long-term fire hazard and save public funds, but also to compensate for habitat impacts to several at-risk species by restoring their native environment."
By adopting thinning instead of native restoration, FEMA's plan ignored the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's opinion that total removal of the eucalyptus and native species restoration is required, the environmental groups say.

The 1,500 acres at issue are subject to "grave and unique fire threats," and thousands of homes adjoin undeveloped natural areas that have "repeatedly and disastrously been engulfed in fires."

Eucalyptus and Monterey pine trees are key factors in the area's fire susceptibility, the groups say - especially eucalyptus, whose invasive nature and height have allowed it to increase in density and choke out much of the native underlying vegetation.
...

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/05/28/greens-want-bay-area-eucalyptus-yanked.htm