To Fight Wildfire, California Gets a Surprising Solution: a New Sawmill
The logging facility will be a major help in forest-thinning projects that are urgently needed in California and Nevada to aid fire prevention, advocates say.
A new sawmill under construction near Lake Tahoe is offering hope to state officials and some environmental advocates. Its first job will be to process wood from trees killed in the massive Caldor Fire in 2021, before moving onto smaller trees.
Photographer: Patrick Mouzawak/BloombergAs California braces for another potentially devastating wildfire season, state officials and some environmental advocates are finding hope for forests in an unexpected place: a new sawmill under construction near Lake Tahoe.
Tahoe Forest Products, LLC broke ground last month on a $10 million sawmill in Carson City, Nevada, which sits just across the California border on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe. It will be the first sawmill of its size to be built in the area in nearly a century, according to project leaders. Many scientists say forest-thinning projects are urgently needed in the face of climate change, and the new mill’s supporters believe it will make a major impact in managing wildfires in a heavily wooded region that was threatened just last year by a massive blaze.