After years of wildfire and drought, California's forests need help.
Cal Fire is asking landowners -- and the public -- to keep an eye out for pinecones. Green ones. Growing in the tops of conifer trees.
"Right now, they're still green," said Jessica Huang, manager of the State Seed Bank. "Some species might be forming. It varies by area and elevation."
Huang works at Cal Fire L.A. Moran Reforestation Center in Davis.
"We're looking for 15 to 20 trees, healthy and the top-third of the tree having a lot of green cones," Huang said. "Enough to fill maybe two buckets, two Home Depot buckets."
Huang said Cal Fire then works with skilled climbers who go up into the trees and harvest the pinecones.