Tuolumne County has thousands of dead and dying trees that threaten public safety and infrastructure. The County is taking action to work towards mitigating hazardous dead trees in the following ways:
On September 18, 2015 the Board of Supervisors proclaimed a Local State of Emergency due to pervasive tree mortality.
On October 30, 2015 Governor Brown issued a State of Emergency proclamation, which can be read here. This proclamation recognizes and addresses the need for the removal of dead and dying trees throughout the State and authorized California Disaster Assistant Act (CDAA) funding which provides 75% reimbursement for all eligible costs related to removal of hazard trees that threaten public infrastructure.
County, City and Special Districts are eligible for reimbursement through CDAA.
The Governor's Executive Orders allow County, City and Special Districts the flexibility to remove dead and dying trees that threaten public infrastructure. Some of these trees may be on private property. The County will send out Right of Entry permits to homeowners who may have dead trees on their property that could potentially impact County maintained roads or County maintained structures. Once the homeowner signs and returns the right of entry permit, they will be entered into a secure database which notifies the contractor which properties they can access.
Tuolumne County received preliminary approval for CDAA on November 18, 2015.
CDAA does not provide assistance to private property owners or businesses.
