The Brief

Tree limbs and tops began falling off century-old black oak trees on the La Jolla reservation in northern San Diego County around 2014 and nobody knew why. The die off was puzzling and tribal fire chief Wesley Ruise Jr. couldn’t remove the dead trees fast enough.

The oak trees’ acorns are a vital food source for the birds, deer and other animals on the reservation. But at one point they were also a vital food source for the Indigenous peoples across the state.

“We'd go and gather them and run them through a process to kind of cure them,” Ruise said. “We'd make what we call wiiwish, and it was like a kind of thick pudding that we ate.”

Around that time entomologists from the U.S. Forest Service identified the culprit — the goldspotted oak borer, an invasive beetle that likely hitched a ride on some firewood from Arizona to Southern California. Researchers suspect that could have happened around the early '90s.

The goldspotted oak borer is tiny, but the yellow spotted beetle can cause big damage to California oak trees. The pest has already forced officials to remove at least 90,000 oak trees throughout Southern California.

The beetle has appeared in Green Valley, a small community in the Sierra Pelona Mountains northeast of Santa Clarita in recent years. The beetle has also popped up in L.A., Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and killed off oak trees in city, county and state parks as well as federal and tribal lands.

Could cultural fire be the answer?

The La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians began an insecticide program on the reservation in 2014, but nobody was available to volunteer until 2019. That’s when Joelene Tamm, a graduate student at the University of California Riverside’s entomology department, volunteered to manage the program.

Tamm, who’s also a Squaxin Island tribal member, is the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians natural resource manager. She also does outreach with the California firewood task force, and the University of California Agriculture And Natural Resources.

Her research found burning piles of infested wood stops the beetles from continuing their life cycles by 98%.

The tribe plans to use cultural burns once again in May, targeting the lower part of the tree, where goldspotted oak borer reproduction happens.

“GSOB pupates in the outer bark,” Tamm said. “So we're thinking that the fire, if it's timed in the spring, will have the most heat impact on the outer bark, and it might even burn open their pupil chamber, allowing additional predators to come in like ants or other kinds of flies and insects that can prey on the GSOB.”

Ruise is confident that "good fire" will work. He pointed to the 2007 Poomacha fire that burned about 95% of the reservation and scorched thousands of oak trees. The 5% that did not burn was the campground area, which is where the goldspotted oak borer is currently incubating.

“History shows that in the past, our ancestors used fire to maintain the forest, to maintain the areas around where we lived for the plants and the trees,” Ruise said. “So what we're trying to do now is bring back what we call cultural fire or good fire, back to our tribal land as it was in the past.”

A UC Berkeley study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022 found that Karuk and Yurok tribes carried out cultural burns in the Klamath Mountains for thousands of years, which played a big role in the area's biodiversity and forest structure.

How the beetles survive

Female goldspotted oak borers lay their eggs in the cracks and crevices in tree bark from spring until August. The eggs can take a few weeks to a month to hatch and when it does, the larvae feed on the tissue just below the tree’s bark, the cambium — eventually killing the tree through suffocation.

Female goldspotted oak borers lay their eggs in the cracks and crevices in tree bark from spring until August. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the tissue just below the tree's bark, the cambium — eventually killing the tree through suffocation.

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Mike Lewis

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University of California, Riverside

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By the fall, the larvae will tunnel further into the tree where they continue growing. Come May, the beetles will metamorphose and emerge hungry from oak trees. They’ll eat oak foliage and mate to start the whole process over again.

“The scariest thing about this insect, I think, is its potential,” said U.S. Forest Service entomologist Beth Kyre. “To see the trees that aren’t yet infested and understand that there’s a strong possibility that at some point they could get there.”

What’s being done to manage them?

The U. S. Forest Service starts with removing heavily infested trees. After that the agency uses a topical chemicals that targets the beetles as they land and exit trees. There are also systemic insecticides that move throughout the tree and kill off any living larvae hiding inside.

“It's really important when you start to consider this chemical management that you think of it in terms of an integrated pest management approach,” Kyre said. “So you're thinking of prevention, chemical application, you're also thinking of: ‘Do we need to remove this tree?’”

Kyre also recommended burning firewood in the areas where it was purchased and not transporting the logs elsewhere.

But the agency is also looking into the centuries-old Indigenous practices that the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians plan to use to manage the beetle.

“We can learn from them and apply that to broader scale management,” she said.

Green Valley

Goldspotted oak borers have caused fire officials in Los Angeles County to remove close to 10,000 trees in Green Valley since 2015. L.A. County Fire deputy forester Melissa Valente said many people move to the area for the oak trees and rely on them for firewood in the winter and shade during the summer.

“So for them it's extremely disappointing to watch their trees die,” Valente said.

While it’s hard to say if progress is being made, Valente said the number of dead trees annually has fallen from around 200 three years ago to about 70 this year.

Valente credited basal injections, which the county implemented in Green Valley last summer. Trees are injected with syringes toward the bottom of the trunk where the insecticide moves into the tree and kills the larvae.

Still, Valente’s said she’s worried the beetle’s next stop could be the rich oak forests in the Santa Monica Mountains

“It's a huge concern for the fire department and all of the other agencies in the Santa Monica Mountains,” she said.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.