XPost: alt.forestry, alt.wildland.firefighting, alt.california
XPost: alt.politics.democrats, sac.politics

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14263133/gavin-newsom-forest- management-la-infernos-palisades-wildfire-california.html

The wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have spotlighted California Governor
Gavin Newsom's 'terrible' record on forest management, which critics say
have turned parts of the city into an apocalyptic hellscape.

Wildfires tore across the LA area with devastating force Wednesday,
forcing thousands of terrified residents, including Hollywood celebrities,
to flee their homes, many escaping through flames, ferocious winds and
clouds of smoke.

As firefighters tackled blazes across the city, and as Newsom declared a
state of emergency across the Pacific Palisades area, the Democratic
governor was battling revived scrutiny over his record on land management.

The governor, widely seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate
in 2028, has faced repeated criticism for his land management policies,
with seasonal blazes ravaging the Golden State throughout his time in
office.

Investigations by California-based media outlets have repeatedly slammed
Newsom for failing to deliver on his promises upon taking office in 2019
of revamping the state's wildfire strategy.

He's been accused of overstating his accomplishments and pulling much-
needed funding from fire safety and land management even as the amount of burnable fuel was piling up to dangerous levels.

Newsom's office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

An investigation from CapRadio and NPR's California Newsroom found Newsom
had failed to deliver on the promise of the executive order signed on his
first day in office in January 2019, aimed at revamping the state's
wildfire strategy.

Those outlets in 2021 accused him of misrepresenting his accomplishments
and even pulling much-needed funds out of wildfire prevention.

They found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690 percent, the number of
acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the areas he had
said needed to be prioritized.

Newsom had claimed that 35 'priority projects' carried out as a result of
his 2019 executive order resulted in fire prevention work across 90,000
acres of land.

But the state's own data showed the actual number was just 11,399 — some
seven times less.

The amount of burnable fuel that Cal Fire was removing from the land
increased in Newsom's first year — but then dropped by half in 2020, the investigation found.

At the same time, he slashed some $150 million from Cal Fire's wildfire prevention budget.

Californians who survived blazes told the outlets how they felt betrayed
by Newsom and other officials, saying he was more interested in photo-ops
than saving homes and businesses from blazes.

'It's a deception,' said Mitch Mackenzie, who lost his home in the 2017
Tubbs Fire and who's Santa Rosa winery was hurt by reduced harvests.

'With all the fire danger that we have experienced year, after year, after
year ... you would think it would be a higher priority to make sure that
all of this area is treated as much as possible,' Mackenzie said.

Politicians 'always want to look good about fixing the problem, but then
they never really do it,' he added.

Across the state, residents have complained that fire safety features,
such as emergency access roads that could help them escape from a blaze,
that were promised had not been completed.

Breanna Morello, a right-wing internet personality, on Wednesday posted a
photo of Newsom looking on at burning homes, saying he was 'admiring all
his hard work after intentionally neglecting forest management.'

Newsom, she added, was too focussed on the 'globalist climate change
agenda.'

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/08/16/93875627-14263133-image-a- 13_1736352510454.jpg

Others shared old tweets from Donald Trump, who as president in 2019
slammed Newsom for a 'terrible job of forest management' and failing to
clean wooded areas of brush that can lead to blazes.

'I told him from the first day we met that he must 'clean' his forest
floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of
him,' Trump posted.

'Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers,' he added, in reference to
forest management policies that were being overlooked.

The claims showcase a split between some conservatives, who see wildfires
as a land management issue, and others, who attribute the blazes to
climate change and seek tighter curbs on emissions of planet-heating
gases.

Blame for the LA wildfires was also hurled at the city's embattled mayor
Karen Bass, who cut the LA Fire Department's budget by a staggering $17.6 million in this financial year.

She'd initially wanted to cut the fire department by even more — a
staggering $23 million.

Bass also faced a backlash for being off duty at a time of crisis — she
was reportedly away in Africa for the Ghanian president's inauguration as blazes turned parts of her city into a terrifying hellscape.

The criticism roiled California's Democratic leaders as thousands of firefighters battled at least three separate blazes in LA's metropolitan
area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena.

LAFD put out a plea for off-duty firefighters to help, and weather
conditions were too windy for firefighting aircraft to fly, further
hampering the fight.

Images of the devastation that emerged overnight showed luxurious homes
that had collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers.

Flames that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the
foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds
down the street to a parking lot.

Residents — one as old as 102 — waited in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses, and construction vans arrived to take
them to safety.

Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city's Pacific Palisades neighborhood, a hillside area along the coast dotted with
celebrity homes.

Among those affected were such Hollywood stars as Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore
and James Woods.

In the race to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of
people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.

'This is a highly dangerous windstorm that's creating extreme fire risk –
and we're not out of the woods,' Newsom said in a statement.

'We're already seeing the destructive impacts with this fire in Pacific Palisades that grew rapidly in a matter of minutes.'

Comments:

Leo4053829
Loma Linda, United States
8 January, 2025

You would have thought that his handling of covid ($30bn in unemployment benefits lost to fraud, the French Laundry incident, etc.) would have
finished off Newsom's career, but he was still re-elected and survived a
recall attempt. I can only hope that people outside California will not
be so forgiving, and stop any ambitions he may have to cause similar
damage at the federal level.

Sid007
CA, United States
8 January, 2025

You'd think... but there's those election machines and all kinds of
crooked election rules in place to facilitate fraud. He's invested well
in hair gel and people have fallen for it. You could see this narcissist
a mile away had you looked at his programs and behavior in office while
mayor of San Francisco. The homeless program in place in San Francisco is
a direct result of him. But he'll move heaven and earth (and the
homeless) when Xi Xi Ping is coming to town.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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