Virginia Arthur's Blog - Posts Tagged "treedoakalmostcutdown"
The 350 Year Old Valley Oak Tree on the Cover of My Novel Treed Is Now Dead. It Has Been Killed By My County and Pacific Gas and Electric for Absolutely No Reason AT ALL But To Kill It.
Update. Well, they finally did it. They killed it.
https://virginiaarthurauthor.com/info...
Welcome to California where the only good tree is a dead tree. (Sound familiar?). This is how it is now in this state. They wiped the Native Americans, and now they wipe out their plants. There was no reason for it but to just kill it. It was not a threat to electric lines, access. It was next to a rural road and most importantly, the community wanted it saved. Well FUCK OFF Community. Nevada County, CA also has a Landmark Oak Protection Ordinance. Yes, a Landmark Oak Protection Ordinance. Not joking.
In one of the reviews for Treed, the reader put something like they thought CA liked trees. Well, CA does not like trees. In CA, the only good tree now is a dead tree, starting 20 years ago when a CA legislator created legislation that blamed trees for the very same fire that burned down my WOOD home despite taxpayer supported "fire clearing" of what was native pristine chaparral. NOTHING was said or done about our PLYWOOD HOUSES with ASPHALT COMPOSITE ROOFS on them. Asphalt composite roofing is made FROM OIL (though now they are made with more of a glass component). So you have PLYWOOD HOUSES with OIL ASPHALT roofs on them but blame the fires on basically--the entire natural environment--and proceed with killing everything in the natural environment for "fire safety". Insert the raised eyebrows of the timber industry that suddenly see a fantastic opportunity to call logging, "fire safety" and other Orwellian names.
Our houses were little matchboxes waiting to go up but did this ever come up in "fire safety" discussions. Never. It unleashed where we are now--the unbelievable arrogance and hypocrisy that in order to prevent fires in CA, we have to kill nature, the environment, and especially trees, over a BILLION $ in taxpayer money for "fire safety" projects over the past 20 years, but ignore the 250,000+ PLYWOOD homes that have still burned down that are MADE OF PLYWOOD. Yes, most homes in CA are made out of PLYWOOD.
Nothing has changed. Despite the "fire safety" clearing in my once beautiful little neighborhood, our houses went down because THEY SET ONE ANOTHER ON FIRE. THEY WERE MADE FROM TREES. There is still no discussion of protecting HOUSES THEMSELVES with advances like Fire Foils, Fire Protective Gels, FIRE-RESISTANT ROOFING (most homes go down because the houses set one another on fire via flying embers), what is called "Home Hardening". REALLY 'hard' to get info about this and nothing is provided from the State of CA. Because the timber industry has found its propaganda, as long as no one tallies the number of WOOD houses that still go down in spite of the now billion dollars spent on "fire safety" clearing/logging/thinning, "Resilience" projects, "Forest Health", whatever bogus name they put on it. The effect of all these "fire safety" projects is it is KILLING the forests under Climate Change. They cannot recover.
Two decades ago, when I took the photo of that magnificent valley oak that ended up on the cover of Treed, 300+ years old, endemic to CA, I had a sickening feeling the day would come when it would get cut down. I found out when a neighbor called me--crying. And let us not forget that while I was writing Treed, we were trying to save ANOTHER grove of old-growth oaks in the neighborhood--FROM THE COUNTY! OUR OWN SUPERVISOR! (His buddy wanted a Dollar General store there really, really badly). So far, still there...
Money moves CA. Don't be fooled. The environmental ethic, passion for public lands protection, acquisition, pride in the State's biodiversity, that once made CA infamous--is gone.
What you see on the cover of Treed is what she looked like once, still wild, unmolested. But we can't leave anything alone, can we? The human primate. And the battle goes on. Nearly every week I hear of another slaughter. But don't worry, it's all for your safety.
https://virginiaarthurauthor.com/info...
Welcome to California where the only good tree is a dead tree. (Sound familiar?). This is how it is now in this state. They wiped the Native Americans, and now they wipe out their plants. There was no reason for it but to just kill it. It was not a threat to electric lines, access. It was next to a rural road and most importantly, the community wanted it saved. Well FUCK OFF Community. Nevada County, CA also has a Landmark Oak Protection Ordinance. Yes, a Landmark Oak Protection Ordinance. Not joking.
In one of the reviews for Treed, the reader put something like they thought CA liked trees. Well, CA does not like trees. In CA, the only good tree now is a dead tree, starting 20 years ago when a CA legislator created legislation that blamed trees for the very same fire that burned down my WOOD home despite taxpayer supported "fire clearing" of what was native pristine chaparral. NOTHING was said or done about our PLYWOOD HOUSES with ASPHALT COMPOSITE ROOFS on them. Asphalt composite roofing is made FROM OIL (though now they are made with more of a glass component). So you have PLYWOOD HOUSES with OIL ASPHALT roofs on them but blame the fires on basically--the entire natural environment--and proceed with killing everything in the natural environment for "fire safety". Insert the raised eyebrows of the timber industry that suddenly see a fantastic opportunity to call logging, "fire safety" and other Orwellian names.
Our houses were little matchboxes waiting to go up but did this ever come up in "fire safety" discussions. Never. It unleashed where we are now--the unbelievable arrogance and hypocrisy that in order to prevent fires in CA, we have to kill nature, the environment, and especially trees, over a BILLION $ in taxpayer money for "fire safety" projects over the past 20 years, but ignore the 250,000+ PLYWOOD homes that have still burned down that are MADE OF PLYWOOD. Yes, most homes in CA are made out of PLYWOOD.
Nothing has changed. Despite the "fire safety" clearing in my once beautiful little neighborhood, our houses went down because THEY SET ONE ANOTHER ON FIRE. THEY WERE MADE FROM TREES. There is still no discussion of protecting HOUSES THEMSELVES with advances like Fire Foils, Fire Protective Gels, FIRE-RESISTANT ROOFING (most homes go down because the houses set one another on fire via flying embers), what is called "Home Hardening". REALLY 'hard' to get info about this and nothing is provided from the State of CA. Because the timber industry has found its propaganda, as long as no one tallies the number of WOOD houses that still go down in spite of the now billion dollars spent on "fire safety" clearing/logging/thinning, "Resilience" projects, "Forest Health", whatever bogus name they put on it. The effect of all these "fire safety" projects is it is KILLING the forests under Climate Change. They cannot recover.
Two decades ago, when I took the photo of that magnificent valley oak that ended up on the cover of Treed, 300+ years old, endemic to CA, I had a sickening feeling the day would come when it would get cut down. I found out when a neighbor called me--crying. And let us not forget that while I was writing Treed, we were trying to save ANOTHER grove of old-growth oaks in the neighborhood--FROM THE COUNTY! OUR OWN SUPERVISOR! (His buddy wanted a Dollar General store there really, really badly). So far, still there...
Money moves CA. Don't be fooled. The environmental ethic, passion for public lands protection, acquisition, pride in the State's biodiversity, that once made CA infamous--is gone.
What you see on the cover of Treed is what she looked like once, still wild, unmolested. But we can't leave anything alone, can we? The human primate. And the battle goes on. Nearly every week I hear of another slaughter. But don't worry, it's all for your safety.
