5-15-19

In the Feather River canyon, draining west from the Sierra Nevada. The damage results from the enormous Camp Fire that devastated hundreds of square miles of the Sierra Nevada foothills in November 2018. The fire was started by sparking power lines and obliterated the town of Paradise, as well as many isolated houses and businesses. It crossed the ridge here, coming from the north (right side of picture), driven by warm katabatic winds from out of the east. The fire in turn jumped CA State Route 70 (the highway here) and even crossed the Feather River locally. The left inset shows a view of burned country extending to the north west of here. The other two insets show salvage logging in the vicinity of a hydropower installation on the Feather. Evidently quite a number of trees were scorched severely enough to be killed, but the wood is still usable. Note the logger trimming the partly burned tree in the far right insert. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the utility that owned the lines, has pre-emptively filed bankruptcy due to the billions in lawsuits already filed.

Near the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills, looking northwest from California State Route 70 toward the destroyed town of Paradise. The burn results from the enormous Camp Fire in the Sierra last fall. Despite the gray lighting the extent of the damage is still apparent.