Clear Cutting on the East Bay Hills Area and Why It Is a Very Bad Idea

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Environmental Studies, , language: English, abstract: The recent plan by three large stakeholders in the East Bay Hills area of California to cut down more than half a million healthy mature trees continues to raise concern. California's University of Berkley, East Bay's Regional Park Authority, and the City of Oakland have applied to the Federal Environmental Management Authority (FEMA) to clear cut the East Bay Hills. The region has more than one thousand acres of mature trees targeted in a move to reduce the risk of forest fires facing these hilly areas of California. According to these stakeholders, these non-native eucalyptus trees pose a threat to the inhabitants of the nearby cities and suburbs through forest fires that are common during the dry temperate California summers. They continue to stipulate how these trees provide highly combustible material during these wildfires that have continued to claim lives and destroy hundreds of millions of US dollars in real estate property. The stakeholders suggest that clear cutting the forested regions offers the best solution to forest fires. Therefore, the Californian East Bay Area faces clear cutting, which could present major environmental problems, but solutions exist in the form of several fire management strategies.