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California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable

chuckiechan

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California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe

For decades, traditional forest management was scientific and successful, until ideological, preservationist zealots wormed their way into government and began the 40-year overhaul of sound federal forest management through abuse of the Endangered Species Act and the no-use movement.

California Globe has talked with Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) numerous times about this very issue. McClintock has warned, “Our forests are now catastrophically overgrown, often carrying four times the number of trees the land can support. In this stressed and weakened condition, our forests are easy prey for drought, disease, pestilence and fire.”

Traditional forest management had simple guidelines: thin the forest when it becomes too difficult to walk through; too many trees in the woods will compete with one another, because the best trees will grow at a slower rate.

Today, only privately managed forests are maintained through the traditional forest management practices: thinning, cutting, clearing, prescribed burns, and the disposal of the resulting woody waste.

And private lands do not suffer the wildfires the rest of the state does.

When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future”, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.
 
Don't worry, like the BLM and Antifa protests, California is 93% not burning...
 
[h=2]They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won’t Anybody Listen?[/h]
The sitation in California is just like the one in Australia
Tim Ingalsbee has been fighting fires or trying to prevent them since 1980. He founded Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology.
[h=3]They know how to prevent megafires[/h]Elizabeth Weil, ProRepublica
So what’s it like? “It’s just … well … it’s horrible. Horrible to see this happening when the science is so clear and has been clear for years. I suffer from Cassandra syndrome,” Ingalsbee said. “Every year I warn people: Disaster’s coming. We got to change. And no one listens. And then it happens.”
The pattern is a form of insanity: We keep doing overzealous fire suppression across California landscapes where the fire poses little risk to people and structures. As a result, wildland fuels keep building up.
This week we’ve seen both the second- and third-largest fires in California history. “The fire community, the progressives, are almost in a state of panic,” Ingalsbee said. There’s only one solution, the one we know yet still avoid. “We need to get good fire on the ground and whittle down some of that fuel load.”
[h=4]Modern Californians are burning 0.1% of what indigenous California’s used to do:[/h]Academics believe that between 4.4 million and 11.8 million acres burned each year in prehistoric California. Between 1982 and 1998, California’s agency land managers burned, on average, about 30,000 acres a year. Between 1999 and 2017, that number dropped to an annual 13,000 acres. The state passed a few new laws in 2018 designed to facilitate more intentional burning. But few are optimistic this, alone, will lead to significant change. We live with a deathly backlog. In February 2020, Nature Sustainability published this terrifying conclusion: California would need to burn 20 million acres — an area about the size of Maine — to restabilize in terms of fire.
..is there is any meaningful scientific dissent about controlled burns? \
“None that I know of.”
The incentives are all wrong. There is a risk in doing cool burns, but no immediate risk in foregoing them. And among other things, fires are big business. Cal Fire may spend $1 billion this year. Full time Firefighters earn $148,000 a year.
A lot of the money though, goes on late afternoon planes dumping fire retardant to save a few wild trees:
Keep reading →
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe



When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future�, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

And certainly none of those homes destroyed by hurricanes should be able to rebuild either.
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe



When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future�, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

Or... or.... like in Australia, the time for controlled burning seasons have become shorter and maybe we can do something about climate change?
 
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[h=1]My Interview on Brietbart Radio News[/h][FONT=&quot]I was a guest this week on “Breitbart News Tonight” on Sirius XM Satellite Radio to talk about the raging wildfires near my home in California and throughout the West. I explained how the fires are driven by weather, not climate change. As readers of WUWT know, they are not remotely the same thing. Please…
Continue reading →
[/FONT]
 
Governor Newsome has blood on his hands.If only he had acted sooner.
 
[FONT=&quot]Forecasting / Weather[/FONT]
[h=1]Storm Forecast This Week Could End Some West Coast Wildfires[/h][FONT=&quot]Last week, computer weather forecast models were hinting at the possibility of a weather system pattern change that could result in significant precipitation for California and the West Coast. While tenuous then, the predictions are firming up now, and it looks like there will be a significant shift in the jet stream, which will put…
[/FONT]
 
Trump on climate change: ’It will get cooler,” he says without evidence during Calif. visit - SFGate

Trump on climate change: ’It will get cooler,” he says without evidence during Calif. visit

Smoke from the West Coast's massive wildfires was visible as President Donald Trump exited Air Force One at McClellan Park, a former U.S. Air Force Base about 10 miles outside Sacramento, Calif., Monday.

Trump visited the Golden State for a briefing on the multiple wildfires burning across the West Coast since mid-August, and from the tarmac he called a question regarding his slow response to the fires "nasty."

"I got a call from the governor immediately and I called him immediately," Trump said. "On that call I declared an emergency. I gave an emergency declaration so don't tell me about not doing it. That included FEMA coming here immediately...That's a nasty question."
==================================================================
Trump is uneducated in the sciences & is himself anti-science. He had no basis for the statement about 'cooler.'
 
Trump is right.It usually gets cooler in the fall and winter.
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe



When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future”, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

They could harvest the wood and create wood to steam plants. Aren't trees a renewable energy source? What a shame letting all that excess energy go up in smoke.
 
They could harvest the wood and create wood to steam plants. Aren't trees a renewable energy source? What a shame letting all that excess energy go up in smoke.

Actually the dead trees are still good for lumber for at least three years. Slash is very bulky so it would be expensive to transport to the power plant, plus the environment peeps would be having a **** fit.
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe



When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future”, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

The left wind environmentalist and the PETA folks really don't understand the principles of true forest conservation, the harvesting of parts of federal lands to preserve the rest or the same type of action concerning animals. The just say save it all and then we get overcrowding, inability to survive.
 
Trump spurns science on climate: '''Don'''t think science knows'''

Trump spurns science on climate: ‘Don’t think science knows’

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With the smell of California wildfires in the air, President Donald Trump on Monday ignored the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in historic West Coast infernos and renewed his unfounded claim that failure to rake forest floors and clear dead timber is mostly to blame.

The fires are threatening to become another front in Trump’s reelection bid, which is already facing hurdles because of the coronavirus pandemic, joblessness and social unrest. His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in his own speech Monday said the destruction and mounting death toll across California, Oregon and Washington require stronger presidential leadership and labeled Trump a “climate arsonist.”

Trump traveled to Northern California to be briefed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and federal officials. At one point, state Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot urged the president to “recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forests.”

“If we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed together protecting Californians,” Crowfoot added.

Trump responded, “It will start getting cooler, just you watch.”
==========================================================
He has no basis for making that claim.
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe

When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future�, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

Thankfully we have not gone down that route in Alaska. Only the National Parks prevent the public from gleaning deadwood. You can on State lands, but the feds prohibit it. The National Park Service has no problem with "prescribed" burns however, which has caused numerous problems. I like how they changed the name from a "controlled" burn to a "prescribed" burn when they found that they really didn't have much control over the burn. :doh

The State Department of Fish & Game does make uncontrolled burns every few years in certain areas because it has proven beneficial to the forest bison in those areas.

Prescribed Burn on the Delta Junction Bison Range, Alaska Department of Fish and Game

The military just completed a 30,000 acre "prescribed" burn in an attempt to prevent the remaining 68,000 acres of their land from spreading, should it catch on fire. I'm not sure that they thought that one through.

Wildfire threat reduced on more than 68,000 acres of military training lands in Interior Alaska – AK Fire Info

California, in a lot of ways, has it pretty easy. Their fire season typically begins with the Santa Anna winds in September or October. Maybe as early as August, but fairly late in the year. In Alaska fire season begins just before break-up in April and doesn't end until the snow level drops below 1,000 feet in elevation in October or November. Statistically, 90% of Alaska's wild fires are started by lightning strikes, and mostly in the interior.

This has been a very good year for Alaska, with regard to wild fires. Fewer than 200,000 acres have burned thus far, and there are currently only 30 active wild fires. That is a significant improvement from the 2.5 million acres that burned last year, or the 5 million acres that burned in 2015.
 
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Trump on climate change: ’It will get cooler,” he says without evidence during Calif. visit - SFGate

Trump on climate change: ’It will get cooler,” he says without evidence during Calif. visit

Smoke from the West Coast's massive wildfires was visible as President Donald Trump exited Air Force One at McClellan Park, a former U.S. Air Force Base about 10 miles outside Sacramento, Calif., Monday.

Trump visited the Golden State for a briefing on the multiple wildfires burning across the West Coast since mid-August, and from the tarmac he called a question regarding his slow response to the fires "nasty."

"I got a call from the governor immediately and I called him immediately," Trump said. "On that call I declared an emergency. I gave an emergency declaration so don't tell me about not doing it. That included FEMA coming here immediately...That's a nasty question."
==================================================================
Trump is uneducated in the sciences & is himself anti-science. He had no basis for the statement about 'cooler.'

You can't be serious. It is Autumn and we are approaching Winter. Everyone - except a leftist apparently - knows that it is going to be getting colder. It doesn't matter where you live in the US, everywhere in the northern hemisphere gets colder as we approach Earth's perihelion. If you weren't aware of that reality you certainly have no business criticizing anyone for being uneducated.
 
California is On Fire Again and it was Preventable - California Globe



When the Save the Environment movement took hold in California, forest management ended. The Forest Service used to actually turn a profit letting companies come in and harvest (marked) trees. You would go in with a Forest Service guy and mark the types of trees he pointed out - dying, diseased, cramped and thin, “no future”, too cramped, etc.

Part of the process included the lumber harvesters creating burn piles to light in the winter*. As the environment lobby took hold, every fire was immediately extinguished**. Slash was piled but not burned. Fire was bad because it killed trees and scared Bambi. Logging on public land mostly ceased.

*You would start your burn pile and cover it with plastic to keep it dry, then like triple the size of the pile with the rest of the slash. Then shove a lit signal flare in it December and run! The plastic was the first thing outlawed, effectively ending burn piles. Sadly, I was back in school when they lit those pyres! Damn.

** the Indians routinely lit the forest on fire to bring game back in to feed on the new growth and make hunting easier. You can’t hunt in a thicket.

So today, the forests and particularly the people who live in them are paying the price for misdirected forest management. If it were up to me most of the destroyed properties should not be rebuilt, but be bought by the state and returned to uninhabited forest. For the most part, they are putting out fires to save homes that were built in the wrong place. These fires are going to continue until it rains.

I live in California. there is one other important reason these fires are magnified out of proportion. People want to escape the homeless and the crime of the cities and build in heavy brush areas. Whenever there is a fire, water drop planes and helicopters are out in force along with thousands of people who are trained to fight fires in heavy brush. Many are pit out before getting out of hand. Those that aren't are because of high winds and they get out of hand. Why? because they put out fires.

Contrast the above with what happened just a hundred years ago. Brush and forest fores would burn. They would go on for days and even weeks and no one cared because there were no homes. Maybe just a cabin or two. See the excellent article that Jack Hays posted in post #2.

Like COVID, this is another in a long string of Goebbelsian lies.
 
They could harvest the wood and create wood to steam plants. Aren't trees a renewable energy source? What a shame letting all that excess energy go up in smoke.


Remove the trees and you remove the nutrients that the forest uses to grow. You make the soil poorer and overtime trees grow slower and smaller
 
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