XPost: alt.wildland.firefighting, alt.los-angeles, alt.politics.miserable-failure
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics

https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/01/09/gavin-newsom-has-credibility- forest-management/

As wildfires engulf Los Angeles, California’s Democrat governor, Gavin
Newsom, is facing renewed scrutiny for his record on forest management.

As of Thursday morning, multiple wildfires, including the Palisades Fire
and Eaton Fire, are raging across Southern California, leaving at least
five dead and burning more than 27,000 acres, Fox News reported.

Amid the conflagrations, the governor’s official website released a list
of actions the Golden State has taken to prevent wildfires, but his
credibility on the issue leaves much to be desired.

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“Gov. Newsom has dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland
and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to
support wildfire response,” the website states. “California officials
treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023,
and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023” (emphasis original).

The website notes that California will invest $200 million each year
through 2028-29 on fire prevention programs, that the state launched
dashboards to track the state’s wildfire prevention work, and that
California has launched 16 helicopters and gained seven C-130 air tankers. Unfortunately, the winds are too violent in the current fires to allow the
use of this firefighting fleet.

While the website touts “more boots on the ground than ever before,” it
also notes that California “is implementing shorter workweeks for state firefighters to prioritize firefighter well-being” alongside adding 2,000 additional firefighters over the next five years.

Any increase in forest management would be welcome news and quite relevant
to note amid the wildfires, for which President-elect Donald Trump has
already blamed Newsom. However, California-based media outlets have
revealed Newsom’s penchant for exaggeration on this issue.

Why Does Forest Management Matter?
Forest management is essential for combating wildfires. I grew up in the mountains of bone-dry Colorado and learned from my volunteer firefighter
father how important it was to clear the forest floor of the brush and
fallen branches that would go up in flames and threaten our family home.
The detritus that builds up beneath trees and around bushes dries out and
can burn up very quickly, enabling fires to spread.

There are two basic ways to manage the forest floor: you can set a fire
that you watch closely and prevent from growing out of control—something
called a “controlled burn”—or you can do the work that my brother and I
did every summer: raking leaves and bushes and bagging them to remove them
from the area.

Forest management is thankless work, and it often seems pointless, but
it’s vital for preventing the spread of wildfires, especially in densely populated areas. My Eagle Scout project involved clearing the forest floor above a large propane tank to save the houses on the slopes above the
area.

Newsom’s Record
To his credit, Newsom began his term as governor in 2019 by promising to
revamp the state’s wildfire strategy.

Unfortunately, it seems the governor has a penchant for exaggeration.

A 2021 investigation from CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found
that Newsom had misrepresented his accomplishments and even invested less
money in wildfire prevention.

The governor had claimed that 35 “priority projects” had resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres, but the state’s own data showed the
actual number at 11,399. He had exaggerated his effectiveness by 690%.

While the Golden State did increase the state fire agency’s removal of dry
fuel in the beginning of his administration, by 2020, the rates had
dropped back down to levels below Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office. Newsom also slashed roughly $150 million from the state’s wildfire
prevention budget.

Even if Newsom’s latest report is entirely accurate and California plans
to heavily invest in forest management, it may not be enough.

A research team led by Stanford’s Rebecca Miller found that about 20% of California—20 million acres—could benefit from controlled burns.

While the state Legislative Analyst’s Office claimed that climate change contributed to the fires, it concluded that the accumulation of fuel (the leaves, brush, and fallen branches), along with development in certain
exurban areas, drove the increase in fires. A 2018 Little Hoover
Commission report called for more aggressive management in the Sierra, an
area that fires have devastated.

Of course, not all the blame rests on Newsom’s shoulders.

Just last month, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned city
officials that a nearly $18 million reduction in her department’s budget
would impact its ability to prepare for and respond to major emergencies,
NBC News reported. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slashed that funding.

To make matters worse, thieves stole hundreds of fire hydrants ahead of
the devastating blazes to sell the scrap metal, The Center Square
reported.

Americans should sympathize with the Angelinos and others who are losing
their homes and support relief efforts to help them. But we should also
learn from this tragedy the importance of forest management and ignore the climate alarmists who use global trends to distract from the facts on the ground. Ultimately, Californians should demand more accountability from
their state and local governments.


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