Deader Than Ever: California Forests Head Into Fire Season

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These Ponderosa pines in the Sierra Nevada are a few of the 29 million trees in California's forests left dead after more than four years of unprecedented drought. Photo by Alice Daniel/KQED

By Alice Daniel, KQED News Fix/KQED Science

Roger Coigny has lived in the mountain community of Pinehurst for most of his 75 years. He’s seen a lot of changes, but nothing like the millions of Ponderosa pine trees here in the Southern Sierra Nevada that have died over the past two years.

“And the ones that die the quickest are the biggest, most beautiful, tallest and strongest,” he says.

The trees are stressed and dying after more than four years of unprecedented levels of drought, plus an infestation of bark beetles.

Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/KQED Science.

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