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California Burning

I am about 60 miles from it. The air quality is terrible from all the burning matter.

California is very, very dry at this time of year.
 
This situation is tragic. I see in the paper 1000 or more people are still unaccounted for from the fire zones. That is not good.
 
It's still pretty chaotic so hopefully most of the missing will be accounted for once some real organization can take hold.
This, and other recent severe fires, is due to lengthy drought conditions and CA's failure to manage its forests. Tree huggers have been extremely successful in stopping (almost) any kind of tree cutting so there is a huge fuel source once one of these get going. Perhaps this disaster will shake things up. Of course, many more fires like this and things will take care of themselves.
I'm a long way from the fire, but even the Bay Area is under a pall of smoke. A bit eerie actually.
This gives you an idea of the size. Kind of big. Paradise burned to the ground. There is literally nothing left.

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Southern Oregon has so far avoided the usual smoke fall out. Just a brutal fire......the issue really is the wild underbrush that isn’t managed. I love the untamed look of our part of the world, but it comes with a heavy price when nature decides to do a little pruning. I’m hoping that most of the missing got out and are just unaccounted for.
 
I see on the news every year thousands of acres are burned..I asked my wife the other day "Do they have much more to burn?" it seems truly unimaginable.

Absolutely, and therein lies the problem with the “we need forest management” argument. The sheer size of our western forests boggles the mind. The cost would be massive. And here is the thing.....the forests bounce back even faster after a burn. It is part of the natural cycle.....unfortunately, people and property get in the way.
 
Well, they should at least do forest management around populated areas if the terrain allows it. I think when they devise a program and have the news conference they need to have the firefighter chief and some firefighters then. When the environmentalists start to protest the governor needs to say " Well, if we are not going to do forest management, then we need firefighters" and the firefighters start handing out applications to the environmentalists. If the environmentalists refuse and hand the applications back, then the governor says " If you aren't willing to help protect your neighbors for the sake of more 'natural' forests, then we are going to manage the forests whether you like it or not." If they throw the applications on the ground, have the state troopers cite them for littering. a $450 fine for littering ought to get their heads screwed on right.
 
As catastrophic fires rage in California, President Trump looked for someone to blame. In a series of tweets posted Saturday and Sunday, Trump faulted "gross mismanagement of the forests" for the wildfires, which have killed at least 31 people. The president also threatened to cut federal funding for firefighting efforts.
Firefighters immediately pointed out errors in Trump's assertions. The Woolsey Fire started not in a forest but on a hillside near Simi Valley before spreading to suburban communities, while the Camp Fire is burning in an area thinned by fire 10 years ago. Forest management didn't cause these blazes and California is considered a leader in Forest management on private lands.

Complicating the management problem is the fact that the State of California owns very few of the forests within its borders – most are owned by the federal government or private landowners.

This thread sounds like it is becoming right wing/left wing argument.
People fear the left wing do not want to touch the forest until they all burn down.
People fear the right wing wants to "manage" them aka let corporations clear cut them for profit.

Forrest management is much more complicated than environmentalists vs lumber companies.

(I would imagine money has a large part on what can be done. Money is always a large part of getting anything done.)

California's Little Hoover Commission did a study in 2018 (Report #242, February 2018) with findings and recommendations.
For the Overview - https://lhc.ca.gov/report/fire-mountain-rethinking-forest-management-sierra-nevada
For the summary - https://lhc.ca.gov/sites/lhc.ca.gov/files/Reports/242/ExecutiveSummary242.pdf

Californians should call their State representatives, let them know you are aware of the report (and are they?) and ask them what is being done to address the commissions findings and recommendations.

"And that's all I have to say about that."
- Forrest Gump
 
BTW, isn't Paradise the town of which Clint Eastwood was mayor some years back?
 
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