California wild fires

[Allen]

Any of you guys affected by this? The death toll was 2 this morning and now 11 due to people being trapped in their cars trying to leave, others being trapped in their homes. I read also that Malibu was being evacuated.

The previous fires were deliberately set by an illegal (who admitted it). This time it started with forest management problems which doesn't explain much. I guess we'll find the pacific cause later.

[Vern Humphrey]

Any of you guys affected by this? The death toll was 2 this morning and now 11 due to people being trapped in their cars trying to leave, others being trapped in their homes. I read also that Malibu was being evacuated.

The previous fires were deliberately set by an illegal (who admitted it). This time it started with forest management problems which doesn't explain much. I guess we'll find the pacific cause later.

Probably Greenies who sued to keep the Forestry Service from clearing out the dry fuel on the ground. And left-wing judges who supported them.

[togor]

Probably Greenies who sued to keep the Forestry Service from clearing out the dry fuel on the ground. And left-wing judges who supported them.

Do you know the cause or not?

[dryheat]

This happens all the time over there. I don't know how they get insurance.

[S.A. Boggs]

Could also be a prelude to coming attractions and I am NOT being flippant.
Sam

[Clark Howard]

The dems and their tree-hugger allies stopped the efforts to reduce forest fuel buildup in California about 40 years ago. Before that, prisoners, as well as contracted crews, worked to reduce the dead material that accumulated in the brush and tree covered areas. Those work camps were closed, and funds were halted for the project. Now, when a fire starts during the windy season (Santa Anna Winds), it is impossible to control or extinguish. The guilty parties will never admit their role in this tragedy, nor will they ever be held to account. They will rebuild their homes, and wait for the next fire. Regards, Clark

[barretcreek]

John McPhee published a series of essays from The New Yorker (from before it became a leftist propaganda rag) as The Control of Nature, dealing with the follies of messing with nature. One of the essays, written in the '80s, was about California's fixation on fire suppression.

Recommended reading.

[Major Tom]

At last count, 25 people dead!
Trump says he will make CA clean the 'fuel' in forests.

[togor]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-bark-beetle-fueled-californias-wildfires/

I may be the only one here who actually engages in prescribed burning on a regular basis. Cheap shots at the afflicted state notwithstanding, if you have a major disease-related dieoff in a roadless area, combined with drought, high winds and low relative humidity, the combination of fuel and conditions is explosive. Fuel accumulates faster than it can be removed. From what I hear the Camp Fire may have been started by a downed PG&E transmission line in the wooded area. If this fire started on the right-of-way then blame the private sector for it.

[barretcreek]

It has been over 20 years since I have been able to do a prescribed burn. We have such a fuel load of beetle kill that a private individual would be nuts to do one, even hiring the state forest service. All the Feds want to do is assign liability to someone else for their addiction to "sue and settle". Around here the USFS is closing roads because they don't have enough money to maintain them and then the roads are needed to access areas with fires.

[togor]

Forest Service is USDA, right? They have plenty of money to write checks to farmers but none for forest roads. I'm guessing some locals actually prefer it that way. In 2017 I made a trip to the high country in WY, including a couple days at a USFS campground to get acclimated to the altitude (for the first 24 hours above 9K feet this flatlander pees like crazy). Signs of indifference were everywhere, including the fact that no one besides us was using it. I liked it better when wild lands were wild and people had to travel to experience them. Nowadays people want to experience it by moving in next door.

[Liam]

My father-in-law has a prairie on his property in Wisconsin. They do annual or bi-annual burns with the help of the local fire dept. and volunteers. Some seeds actually need fire in order to sprout, like Lodgepole Pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia. So, the occasional fire is part of Nature's design.

[barretcreek]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/28/the-950-billion-farm-bill-in-one-chart/?utm_term=.2f12d6a2c03d

You wouldn't want the little darlings to miss out on their soda pop. How else will they be able to develop Type II diabetes in their 30s?

[Vern Humphrey]

My father-in-law has a prairie on his property in Wisconsin. They do annual or bi-annual burns with the help of the local fire dept. and volunteers. Some seeds actually need fire in order to sprout, like Lodgepole Pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia. So, the occasional fire is part of Nature's design.

Well, Eucalyptus and Banksia are exotics, not native to America. They come from Australia, and have some negative impact on the native flora. So maybe NOT germinating them is part of nature's design.

[Bill D]

If I’m not mistaken, USFS is part of the Department of the Interiot, Togor.