As different as agricultural trees are from the forest, the California drought is devastating to the entire ecosystem with varying effects relative to the state's economy. The areas that will feel the effects are the overlap areas in the various adjacent foothills and of course the indirect yet associated effects on state fire resources as well as other long-term aspects - erosion, construction and lumber.
According to an aerial survey conducted last month by the U.S. Forest Service, approximately 12 million forest trees have died in Southern California and the southern Sierra Nevada mountains over the last year. The report credits unusually high temperatures, a diminished snowpack and a severe lack of rainfall with drying up the trees, leaving the region susceptible to forest fires.
Of the more than 4.2 million acres surveyed in Southern California, researchers found 164,000 acres with high tree mortality. They found approximately 2 million trees had died over the last year.
In the southern Sierras, researchers found over 10 million perished trees in 4.1 million acres. There, mortality is "widespread and severe" in the foothills among ponderosa, gray pine, blue oak and live oak trees.
California growers continue to expand their almond acreage in the state during the current drought while Governor Jerry Brown has mandated that urban families slash their water usage by 25 percent.
California’s 2014 almond acreage is estimated at 1,020,000 acres, up 50,000 acres from the 2013 acreage of 970,000, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That is an increase of 5 percent in one year.