Earlier this week, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) launched the next phase of California’s clean-up efforts associated with the Camp Fire in Butte County as the agency prepares to remove hundreds of thousands of fire damaged trees in the Town of Paradise and surrounding communities. The agency will award four contracts to manage and remove hazardous trees that pose a hazard to the public safety of residents who are or will be living in and around the area that was ravaged by the fire.

The 2018 Camp Fire devastated Butte County, taking 85 lives and destroying more than 18,000 homes and other buildings in Paradise, Concow and Magalia over a two and a half week period. Since then, CalRecycle has largely been tasked by the state with physical clean-up and recovery efforts, and completed its structural debris removal program in November 2019. With the debris removal completed, CalRecycle can now move forward with its tree removal program while Butte County’s residents work to continue rebuilding their communities. “Leftover hazard trees from the Camp Fire pose a huge public safety concern for those traveling roads within the fire footprint as well as our residents workIng to rebuild and get back home,” said Butte County Supervisor Doug Teeter, who also serves as RCRC Water and Natural Resources Committee Vice Chair. “Butte County is excited about this next stage of the cleanup and appreciates the State’s continued help to restore Concow, Magalia, Paradise and the unincorporated areas while folks continue to recover, rebuild and invest in the area.”

CalRecycle will approach the program in two stages: first, identification of hazard trees by certified foresters and arborists, followed by removal of those trees by licensed timber operators. The agency is working with Butte County to secure right-of-entry agreements from affected property owners, having received responses from two-thirds of impacted landowners so far.

For more information on CalRecycle’s Camp Fire tree removal efforts, visit CalRecycle’s website here.