President Donald Trump, weighing in on the emergency during a trip to France, said early on Saturday that "gross mismanagement of forests" was to blame. "There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor," he wrote in a Twitter post.
"Billions 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!" he added.
I can't speak to the northern fires, but the areas down south in the fire zone have nothing to do with forest, no less forest management. They are hill side, suburban communities for the most part, located in chaparral. There are major efforts by government and home owners to clear brush away. But when the wind blows badly, fire gets out of control, especially when the natural vegetation is dry. There are no federal dollars from federal forrest service involved, and the only Fed money that I am aware of (and I'm willing to be corrected) is dealing with fighting the fire.
I know many people who have been evacuated, at the last thing they need in their anguish now is this. They want to know their government is doing everything possible to save their homes and towns. Not a pissing fight on if California should be removing dead trees from some forest area that is not presently burning (again, I can only speak to the SoCal fires). There is a time, I suppose, to look at how to manage the risk of fires in SoCal, but this is not it. The focus should be on fighting the fires.
"Billions 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!" he added.
I can't speak to the northern fires, but the areas down south in the fire zone have nothing to do with forest, no less forest management. They are hill side, suburban communities for the most part, located in chaparral. There are major efforts by government and home owners to clear brush away. But when the wind blows badly, fire gets out of control, especially when the natural vegetation is dry. There are no federal dollars from federal forrest service involved, and the only Fed money that I am aware of (and I'm willing to be corrected) is dealing with fighting the fire.
I know many people who have been evacuated, at the last thing they need in their anguish now is this. They want to know their government is doing everything possible to save their homes and towns. Not a pissing fight on if California should be removing dead trees from some forest area that is not presently burning (again, I can only speak to the SoCal fires). There is a time, I suppose, to look at how to manage the risk of fires in SoCal, but this is not it. The focus should be on fighting the fires.
