President Trump: “You don’t have to have any forest fires”

In a 56-minute speech about the environment he spent two minutes on forest fires

Woodbury Fire Phoenix Arizona
Woodbury Fire in the Tonto National Forest’s Superstition Wilderness east of Phoenix, Arizona June 22, 2019. Inciweb photo.

Yesterday President Trump gave a planned speech from the White House about the environment. In the two minutes he spent talking about forest fires most of it appeared to be without the teleprompter, off script.

As he as done before, he talked about forest management, cleaning the forest, and forest floors. Here are three excerpts:

“You can’t have dirty floors.  You can’t have 20 years of leaves and fallen trees.”

“And you don’t have to have any forest fires.”

“I spoke to certain countries, and they said, “Sir, we’re a forest nation.”  I never thought of a country — well-known countries: “We’re a forest nation.”  I never heard of the term “forest nation.”  They live in forests and they don’t have problems. One was telling me that his trees are much more susceptible to fire than what they have in California, but they don’t have fires because they manage, they clean, they do what you have to do.  There’s not so much to burn.  And we’re going to start doing that.  And it’s called, remember, “management.”  It’s called “forest management.”  So it’s a very important term.”

In the video of the speech, the part about fires begins at 24:00.

The transcript of the two-minute section about forest fires, provided by the White House, is below.


…In December, I signed a historic executive order promoting much more active forest management to prevent catastrophic wildfires like those that recently devastated California and Oregon.  (Applause.)

I went to the fires in California and I said, “It’s also management.”  It’s a lot of things happening, but it’s management.  You can’t have dirty floors.  You can’t have 20 years of leaves and fallen trees.  After the first 17 months, they say the tree is like a piece of tinder.  You have to be very careful.  So you can’t have that.  That’s why you have so many fires.

And I will say this: Spoke with the Governor of California, spoke with many people, and the process of cleaning is now really taking precedent.  It — a lot of people are looking at forest management.  It’s a word that people didn’t understand last year.  Now they’re getting it.  And you don’t have to have any forest fires.  It’s interesting.

I spoke to certain countries, and they said, “Sir, we’re a forest nation.”  I never thought of a country — well-known countries: “We’re a forest nation.”  I never heard of the term “forest nation.”  They live in forests and they don’t have problems.

One was telling me that his trees are much more susceptible to fire than what they have in California, but they don’t have fires because they manage, they clean, they do what you have to do.  There’s not so much to burn.  And we’re going to start doing that.  And it’s called, remember, “management.”  It’s called “forest management.”  So it’s a very important term.

When I went to California, they sort of scoffed at me for the first two weeks and maybe three weeks, and not so much — four weeks.  (Laughter.)  And after about five weeks they said, “You know, he’s right.  He’s right.”

So I think you’re going to see a lot of good things.  It’s a lot of area.  It’s a lot of land.  But a lot of tremendous things are happening…


MEANWHILE:

Wildfires produce heavy smoke in Alaska, Canada, and the Midwest

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wildfire smoke July 9 2019
The map shows the extent of smoke at 6:48 a.m. MDT July 9.

Wildfires in Alaska and Ontario are creating large quantities of smoke that is affecting not only those areas but Yukon, British Columbia, Quebec, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the Midwestern states. Tuesday morning the smoke is unusually noticeable in Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Toronto.

The NOAA map above shows the extent of smoke at 6:48 a.m. MDT July 9. The one below produced by the Canadian government is the forecast for 6 p.m. MDT July 10 but only covers the area within the black border.

wildfire smoke forecast July 10 2019
The map produced by the Canadian government is the forecast the extent of wildfire smoke at 6 p.m. MDT July 10 but only covers the area within the black border.