From Daniel Swain of @WeatherWest:
“Well, it’s official: most of California just experienced driest February on record. Locations like Ukiah, Sacramento, Redding, & San Francisco recorded no rain *at all* during a month at peak of the rainy season. Wildfire concerns are elevated this week.”
Can we simply admit that some of the folks who are “in charge” in our various gov’t branches simply don’t care what happens to the environment as long as someone (preferable someone they know) can make money on it. This is most pronounced in our elected officials but also in the folks in the land management agencies and related groups (like the EPA) they appoint who are too afraid to contradict them or who actively side with them for political gain.
It would be refreshing to see the supervisors and agency heads come right out and say “This is bad for the environment and goes against our mission but the political leaders you elected are demanding it.” Same holds true for those defending the budget proposals this administration put forward that guts much of the actual land management mission of the FS, BLM, FWS, and NPS.
Call me cynical but I don’t see it happening, nor do I see where even overwhelming negative public comments will have any effect on the final decision at all because they’ll ignore it just like they did for the sage grouse, the monument downsizing, and the methane rules.
Whoops! this was supposed to be on the Fireworks post, not here.