Supervisors have declared a Local Emergency because of dead and dying trees from the drought.

Kern County Fire Chief Brian Marshall says the distressed state of the trees has allowed them to become infested by the bark beetle, and more than five million trees are impacted in the Los Padres and Sequoia National forests. Marshall says conditions are ripe for a wildfire like the 2014 Way Fire in the Kern River Valley.

Tuesday’s resolution allows the county to apply for state disaster grants to remove the trees.

SuzG