Santa Clarita Valley residents in the Castaic Lake area may see smoke in the air Thursday as fire crews from the Angeles National Forest burn piles of infected wood or “hazardous fuels.”
Nathan Judy, a fire information officer with the Angeles National Forest, said the crews are burning about 45 trees that were infected with the Goldspotted Oak Borer, an invasive pest that is known for killing oak trees in California.
“We’ve had pile burns so we’ve been burning piles of wood in the area that was affected by the Goldspotted Oak Borer,” he said, “It was an infestation of some oak trees in the area.”
To burn the trees, fire crews are using a curtain burner, or FireBox, which controls the amount of pollution in the air during an open burn.
“We’ve been cutting the oak trees and putting them in a curtain burner, which is a machine to put wood into to minimize smoke and kill off any larvae left in the wood,” Judy said.
Judy said the process of cutting down and burning the infected oak trees began on Monday and may continue for the rest of the week, depending on the weather.
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