A Cal Fire plan aimed at addressing Southern California’s wildfire crisis would actually make it worse, according to the San Diego Superior Court.
The court found the agency’s plan to reduce wildfire risk in the region by clearing vegetation would heighten wildfire risk, according to journalist Noah Haggerty with the Los Angeles Times. The judgment was delivered after a 5-year-long legal action filed by the California Chaparral Institute and the Endangered Habitats League against Cal Fire’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The agency’s Vegetation Management Program, in part, focuses on cutting fuel breaks in Southern California’s native chaparral ecosystems, according to the report. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the plan would let non-native and fast-growing plants take chaparral grasses’ place.
Cal Fire argued that it addressed this issue in its environmental impact review, but the plaintiffs said the agency didn’t take into account that the invasive grasses that take chaparral’s place are much more flammable and subsequently increase fire risk.
The court ordered Cal Fire to address the potential for plant type conversion to worsen wildfire risk and, until it does, it won’t be able to rely on its blanket environmental review to comply with the state’s environmental quality act.
6 Comments
Idiots in Action. DEI and the Democrats OWN the mess and it is NOT going to get better. This has been in the making for DECADES. NO forest management skills, all but completely eliminating logging, restrictions on clearing brush like in the Tahoe Basin. Newsom’s RELEASING all the level one fire crew qualified fire camp inmates so dangerous knuckleheads Rome the countryside. I grew up in San Francisco; the DEMOCRATS allowed the SF Bay to be filled with garbage, (LANDFILL). Then they decided to get into bed with the Earth Nazis and went after logging, Dairies, and cattle ranching. The State government hired and promoted a bunch of frumpy DEI folks to virtue signaling a and you have what you have: Poop Map APPS, screwballs electing screwball and a once beautiful state becoming a massive burnt garbage dump. Just my educated/experienced VICTIMS opinion. My grandfather was a Fire Chief, my uncle a Fire Inspector and Battalion Chief, two of my cousins firemen and lieutenants all in California. I was a law enforcement officer and worked in the Tahoe area and the State. My uncle told me he retired because he was being TOLD to hire and promote unqualified people.
I am a life long Democrat. 32 year federal fire career retiring as a Chief. Both parties are stupid. Especially those that assume their party is the answer for everything.
Blaming this decision on DEI is fascist, dumb ass thinking.
It might be more cost effective to fence fuel breaks and use goats to keep the vegetation low. Or, to just develop and maintain a large goat herd (state owned) and allow them to graze in chaparral areas. I have used goats effectively on similar types of vegetation.
Ridiculous order by the court from a biased group opposed to any fuel modifications, ever. Regardless of what ‘grasses’ replace the current grasses, they are all 1 hour fuels and burn readily. It isn’t about the type of grass, it is about the readiness of said grasses being able to support ignition and spread. ALL grasses fall into the same fuel category and all grasses are 1 hour fuels. If the day is dry enough, ALL grasses support ignition and rapid spread, period. The groups mentioned have an ulterior motive that has nothing to do with grasses, but simply to stop man from even being in Nature as they see it. Burn man out enough times and he may retreat back to the cities where he will not impact Nature. That IS their goal. Fuel breaks to not prevent fires, they are tools used to reduce fire spread and keep them smaller. Regardless of the types of grasses that grow on them, grasses contribute to lower flame lengths, easier fire control access, are readily extinguished with less water, are more manageable with line construction, etc… This isn’t about ‘heightened fire risk’, this is about not letting Man manage his environment for fire control because they don’t want Man in Nature.
The one thing California cant seem to do is to stop building wood frame houses at the edge of wildlands.
A fairly straightforward reply to this lawsuit would include a confirmation on their findings and the subsequent substitution of another species of grass.