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1This Advisory is designed to raise awareness of firefighters and all field going employees of the increasing
falling tree hazards across the country.
In several geographic areas this spring¶s wet weather hasaccelerated root rot in beetle-killed trees and even green trees, and has created a safety hazard that will bedifficult to mitigate. Wind and especially high winds, elevate the danger even more. All regions havemounting hazard tree dangers where forest health conditions are in decline.
Heads up
to all firefighters and all employees working and/or mobilizing to regions that have mountain pine beetle affected forests. There are three million acres alone in Colorado and Wyoming, (specifically theWhite River NF, Arapaho and Roosevelt and MedBow Routt National Forests) of dead or dying treesinfected by insects. Other western regions and forests (R-1, R-3, R-4, R-5, R-6), snags are an ever-increasing hazard after years of drought, fire exclusion, and bug kill.The downed tree photo is from a near miss whileworking on a fuels project. Wind was less than 5 mphin the area. Trees were not touching each other.Rotten tree fell towards the sawyer when he wasmaking the back cut on the felling tree, see the redwedges. The swamper noticed the other tree fallingand was able to get the sawyer out of the way in time.Both the sawyer and swamper were able to get out of the way without being hit by the rotten tree.
SUMMARY Of SAFETY ISSUES
For decades, hazard trees have been associated withnumerous deaths and injuries of people assigned to fire operations as well project work. Incidents involvinghazard trees and accidental deaths, is one of the top concern of Federal resource management agencies. Inthe private sector, logging is recognized as the most hazardous occupation in the nation, and many associatedfatalities involve hazard trees. The mountain pine beetle epidemic means that there are more standing deadtrees than ever before and we all need to be careful when in the forests, as trees can fall at any time. Hazardtrees in or outside of infested areas, can be dead, dying or even green trees that have become unstable, andare one of the most common risks encountered in a forested environment. During the last couple of yearsthere have been an alarming number of near misses and injuries related to tree felling, fire fighting, andresource management projects. As identified in a newly reported near miss on the R3 South Fork fire, afirefighter was scouting line and while transiting through a bug kill area, a treetop broke loose hitting himwith a glancing blow to the shoulder.
Red Wedge
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