Light and Shadow

I've had plenty of opportunities to see all kinds of tree cutting and brush removal in the neighborhood being done at the behest of Cal Fire in order to create 'defensible space' around our homes.

Many lots have not been cleared of dead and burned trees There isn't always anyplace to take the wood. The county compost operation is filling up and it costs a lot of money to dump a load there. The dump won't take tree branches. New homes, and those like ours which have remodeled or rebuilt fireplaces must have gas burning fires.

PG&E, in an attempt to make it look like they are making an effort after years of neglect, is cutting trees all over the place. On Wildwood Lane, an even smaller offshoot of our street with four houses on it, we had quite a traffic jam with trucks and flag people directing traffic. It took them all day to cut down several huge old oak trees and theyleft the logs where they fell.

The county has a chipping program. They will come and put anything left on the curb through a chipper and leave the resulting pile of chips on the curb, but the waiting time is now 8-12 weeks. In the meantime, all the brush is lying in neat, or not so neat piles next to the curb drying out and becoming more of a fire hazard than it was before. 

Brush should be cleared, but then what do you do with it...burn it?