The Buzz: What happens to all those storm-ravaged trees after they're cleared? – Redding Record Searchlight

This week’s snowstorm devastated our Tree City USA, a designation the Arbor Foundation bestows on communities for their commitment to urban forestry.

Crews with the city of Redding, Shasta County and the state Department of Transportation will be working in the coming weeks removing all the trees that toppled into roadways. Workers also will focus on trees tangled in power lines, across parks and greenbelts.

Redding has closed its parks and trails, saying they’re not safe. Whiskeytown National Recreation Area also is closed.

“The amount of tree loss in this community will be substantial,” Redding Community Services Director Kim Niemer told me earlier this week.

But what will happen to all that wood once it’s cleared?

Fuel for co-generation plants, material for landscaping, erosion control and compost are among the possibilities.

Among the places residents can go to haul debris:

• Redding’s transfer station on Abernathy Way and West Central Landfill on Clear Creek Road are accepting tree debris free of charge through March 2. Shasta County residents also can bring their brush, limbs and trees there.

• Shasta Lake residents can take their wood debris from the storm to the south end of Shasta Gateway Drive in the Shasta Gateway Industrial Park. Only wood debris — trees, branches, etc. — will be accepted.

• Wheelabrator Shasta Energy Company in Anderson is accepting salvaged wood. The co-generation plant won’t take painted lumber, pressure-treated lumber, root balls, tree stumps or yard clippings like loose leaves.

Nathan Cannon of Redding’s solid waste department told me with the amount of trunks and limbs expected to be collected, the city will look to outside options.

“It could go to co-generation plants, fuel buyers for those co-generation plants,” Cannon said.

Some of the wood will be composted at the city’s waste yard off Abernathy Way, but Cannon said the city won’t have the ability to compost all the salvaged wood because there’s so much.

“Most of these (trees that fell) are aged oaks. You don’t have the nice yellow pine, the really good milling material,” said Pat Minturn, public works director for Shasta County.

Andrea Howell, corporate affairs director at Sierra Pacific Industries, said most of the trees damaged in the snowstorm were ornamental and hardwood.

“These are trees that SPI does not manufacture into lumber,” Howell said.

However, many of the tree services working to remove the trees are aware of the types of logs SPI can use.

“So, there is a chance some of the fallen and damaged coniferous trees can be processed at our mills,” she said.

Most of the fuel used to feed SPI’s co-generation plants are the residuals from the company’s sawmills, Howell said.

Minturn believes that many who lost trees on their property will burn the salvaged wood once weather conditions become favorable.

As for the county, crews right now are just trying to move the trees and branches off roadways. They will have to return in the coming weeks to clear them from the shoulders.

The county has a 40-acre yard off Clear Creek Road where it can put some tree debris. Crews also will haul some of the salvaged wood to Wheelabrator.

Paul Moreno of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. told me the trees and branches less than 4 inches in diameter will be chipped and hauled away as utility crews work to clear areas around its lines.

“Wood larger than that we will leave for the tree owner or property owner on site because the tree belongs to them,” Moreno said.

Of the wood PG&E picks up, some will go to co-generation plants, while some might be used for base material.

“For example, when we built our base camp in Paradise (after the Camp Fire), we threw down chipped wood, so we wouldn’t have to walk in the mud,” Moreno said.

In Redding, some of the wood that is chipped also will be used in parks.

This massive amount of wood debris comes on top of all the trees that were destroyed and damaged after the Carr and Camp fires.

“This is a really bad year for anybody trying to get rid of wood because there is so much out there,” said Minturn, of Shasta County. “The wood-cutters pretty much had their heyday already.”

Lake Shasta filling up, but still plenty of room

It’s been a wet year so far, and Lake Shasta, the Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir whose water levels can make or break a houseboat operator’s summer, is benefiting.

As of Friday, Redding had received nearly 26 inches of rain, more than 5 inches above the normal season to date.

Lake Shasta is at 71 percent of its 4.5 million acre-feet capacity and is now storing 3.2 million acre-feet of water, representing 108 percent of the historical average.

“We have significant storage capacity left in Shasta so there are no plans to increase releases right now,” Elizabeth Hadley, acting Bureau of Reclamation area manager, said Friday. “We went up 2 feet in the reservoir last night. That’s great.”

And with all the rain and snow that fell in recent days, lake levels will continue rising.

More: Mountain residents see no end in sight for power outages

More: Redding rainfall hits milestone

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