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President Trump took to Twitter to blame bad forest management. Gov. Jerry Brown pointed to climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Their arguments about the cause of disastrous wildfires roaring across the state have turned a California catastrophe into the latest political cudgel in the ongoing slugfest between Washington and Sacramento.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Both leaders are in a sense promoting their political agendas. In Trump\u2019s case, that is an attack on environmental regulations. In Brown\u2019s, it is a call to arms to slow global warming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But as is often the case with political rhetoric, reality is far more complicated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Trump-Brown exchange ignores what many experts consider core reasons for fire\u2019s escalating toll: Humans keep sparking them, and Californians keep building in high-fire zones prone to the fierce winds that inevitably drive the state\u2019s most calamitous blazes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In a tweet in the wee hours of Saturday, Trump framed a lack of logging as the sole cause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThere is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,\u201d\u00a0Trump tweeted<\/a>\u00a0after the Camp fire \u2014 the deadliest wildfire in modern state history \u2014 leveled much of the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBillions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!\u201d Trump declared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The next day, Brown called the firestorms that have flared from Paradise to Malibu the \u201cnew abnormal\u201d that threaten Californians\u2019 way of life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cManaging all the forests everywhere we can, does not stop climate change,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd those who deny that definitely are contributing to the tragedies that we are witnessing and will continue to witness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College, sees the comments \u201cas a conversation between two pit bulls.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve got\u201d from Trump is that \u201cforest management is bad and California is suffering and that serves them right,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd Brown goes for \u2026 the higher ground \u2014 if we\u2019re thinking of climatic issues \u2014 but it doesn’t actually solve anything on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s missing in this politicization of wildfire, Miller said, is a vital question. \u201cWhy is it that at the county, city, town level, we have repeatedly green-lit development in areas that we know are fire zones?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhether it is to allow a rock star to build on a ridgeline in Malibu or a manufactured-home community that nestles into the foothills, the decision is the same and the consequences are the same.\u00a0<\/strong>People who have been routed out of their houses have lost their possessions, and many people have lost their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This is not the first time Western wildfires have became a political football. President George W. Bush\u2019s administration pushed more commercial logging in national forests after huge wildfires erupted in federal forests in the West in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But with his wildfire tweets, Trump is once again breaking old boundaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been following these issues for 40 years, and I don’t remember a time when the issue of wildfire has ever been politicized anywhere close to the extent it is now,\u201d said Richard Frank, director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Trump\u2019s tweets and comments on the subject are completely uninformed,\u201d he said. \u201cTo attempt to make political points in the middle of calamitous public disasters of wildfires of the type and extent we\u2019ve never seen in recorded California history is not helpful, to say the least.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Overgrown forests \u2014 the result of a century of fire suppression as well as past logging that cleared the way for dense young stands of trees \u2014 pose a heightened wildfire threat in some parts of the Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But that has not played a role in the string of wildfires that is exacting a horrific toll on life and property in California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The conflagrations have mostly seared oak woodlands, chaparral and grass. Although Paradise is near forestland, the wind-whipped Camp fire tore across areas that burned in 2008 lightning fires and were also later logged. It is not fueled by heavy timber.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, fire scientists say Brown\u2019s emphasis on climate change is too narrow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe way I think most scientists see it is that climate change is exacerbating this situation. It’s making it worse. But it is by no means the primary cause,\u201d said Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Southern California, he pointed to human-related ignitions and drought, which left masses of dead shrubs to fuel flames.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s big in Southern California is whether or not somebody starts a fire during a Santa Ana wind event. And if they do it after seven years of drought, it\u2019s way worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The cause of the wind-driven Woolsey blaze that has scorched nearly 100,000 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains and incinerated more than 400 homes has not been determined. Nor has one been given for the Camp fire. But in both cases, anomalies with utility lines have been reported around the time flames were first spotted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Keeley\u2019s research found that from Sonoma County to San Diego, 99% of the wildfires in coastal California have human-related causes, whether that be downed power lines, sparking equipment or weed whacking during hot, windy weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The state should focus on where people build and reducing fire starts, particularly from downed power lines, Keeley said. \u201cWe need a fire zone where people are not allowed to build in areas that are hazardous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Similarly, UC Berkeley fire scientist Scott Stephens said that although climate change is playing a role in wildfire growth, he worries that a focus on global warming can leave the public thinking that \u201cthere’s really nothing to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In fact, he said, \u201cCommunities could still be better prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Re Blog ” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Re Blog from<\/strong><\/span>:-\u00a0 Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-fire-policy-trump-brown-20181114-story.html<\/p>\n By BETTINA BOXALL<\/p>\n NOV 14, 2018<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Sidebar” orientation=”right” area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ background_layout=”light” remove_border=”off”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_sidebar][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button admin_label=”Button” button_url=”http:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/?p=30751″ url_new_window=”off” button_text=”Back to the 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