Are California Laws Contributing to Wildfires?

Stephine Bone

Taylor Gear

Timothy Giles

Paul Kerr

Robert Ponce

Professor Spring

Fall 2018
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The state of California is just now recovering from the worst fire season in recorded

history. A total of 6,721 fires had burned an area of 1,508,815 acres (6,105.96 km2), according

to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The loss of life and property has

reached an almost unimaginable devastation to the states infrastructure. Mass evacuations and

closure of interstate highways appears to be the new norm during fire seasons. At the peak of the

Carr fire, California Governor Jerry Brown reached out for Federal aid by declaring these fires as

a state of emergency. Along with this Federal aid came the comment that inspired the question

for this paper. Are California environmental laws inhibiting the effectiveness of resources

required to combat wildland forest fires.

According to Kristine Phillips in her Aug. 17 article titled “Fire officials to Trump: No,

California didn’t worsen wildfires by dumping water into the ocean.” President Trump tweeted

that the state is “foolishly” diverting “vast amounts of water from the North” into the Pacific

Ocean instead of using them to fight its wildfires. The state’s “bad environmental laws” are to

blame, he added. This has sparked much debate amongst political figures, environmentalists,

and law makers alike.

Ninety percent of all wildland fires are caused by humans according to Warren Cornwall.

In his article, “While many Overwhelming Cause of California Wildfires: Humans,” many

experts are quick to denounce these claims made by the President and are even quicker to blame

mankind and global warming. However, a more in-depth look could suggest that both sides of

this argument may share some common blame in its denial of opposing viewpoints. California

Fire manages thirty-one million acres of private land and is responsible for the conservation of

these lands. Management of logging and/or thinning of wildlands are often met with resistance
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from environmental groups. This opposition has all but brought a standstill to management

efforts. No opposition exists to the extinguishing of fires and after decades of “Romp and

Stomp” firefighting activities has left California wildlands rife with massive amounts of

underbrush and debris that is fueling these massive fires.

There are many contributing factors to the wildfires that occur in California. One such

factor is the use of clearcutting. Clearcutting is a logging method in which an entire section of

trees are harvested for their timber. After harvest, the remaining debris is bulldozed and burned.

The result is large empty patches in forests as well as negative after effects on the ecosystem. In

his controversial tweet regarding the California wildfires, President Trump claimed, “...bad

environmental laws which aren't allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be

properly utilized...Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!” According to President

Trump, the main reasons for the severity of the California Wildfires are the California

Environmental Laws and a lack of clearcutting. However, Stop Clearcutting California, a Forest

Health and Protection Advocate, claims otherwise. The use of clearcutting has been proven to be

more of a problem than a solution as President Trump believes. Trump believes that just because

there is a clearing in the forest it will solve the problem of forest fires spreading. In reality the

clearing in the forest will lead to fires being more devastating than before. According to Stop

Clearcutting CA, a lack of tree canopy leads to a lack of shade and in turn, an increase in heat

and dryness. The combination of an increase in heat and dryness result in an increased risk of

more destructive wildfires. As for the lack of water, that can be attributed to the method of

clearcutting as well. According to Stop ClearCutting CA, clearcut forests lead to a decrease in

our water supply. With fewer trees for shade and an increase in temperature, the snow that
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accumulates in the Sierras throughout the winter melts more rapidly, depleting a huge portion of

California's water supply. Even though there is evidence that supports the dangers of clearcutting

and its role in Wildfires, rather than placing laws to cull the use of the method it is being viewed

as the solution to California Wildfire problem.

In a compelling article published by the Sacramento Bee president Trump acknowledges

the need for more action to be taken here in California to better reduce the risk of further

devastating forest fires. Trump is quoted saying California needs to adjust the environmental

laws and do more clear cutting in order to get the problem at hand under control. Although these

statements sound clear and simple, the Trump administration is looking to further reduce funding

for The Department of Interior and The National Forest Service. Many would agree that his

appears to be a double-edged sword as California and other entities would not be able to operate

sufficiently without the required funding. The proposed budget cuts by the Trump

administration would slash millions of dollars from these programs; The Sacramento Bee states

in this article that these government entities control approximately 40 percent of the total forest

lands in California. It is unclear if the current budget is not enough to better maintain the forest

land or if the policies put in place are in fact the real problem with the land management in

California at this point. California policy makers are requesting an additions 96 million dollar

increase to the budgets to help mitigate the problem; however, lawmakers in Washington are not

to interested in increasing any budgets at this time.

Some would agree that looking back at work completed in the past few years can

sometimes describe what problems developed over time, and sometimes this kind of examination

can uncover information which only add further questions to the problem. The article examines
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the past work completed by the US Forest service for 2017, and what can be seen is a shock.

The Forest Service was only able to cover about one quarter of the forest land mass in California

for 2017. Although the data shows the need for further money to be spent on land management,

the Trump administration is attempting to decrease the amount of money for these projects.

Unfortunately, the news articles are overlooking the loss of human life in all these situations.

Many people would argue that we should set all else aside for the greater good. At this point we

have laws put in place that might inhibit the management of the forest, not enough money being

spent in programs that are designed to better manage the land, and people in higher parts of the

government causing more problems instead of simply fixing the problems. The simple fact that

the Forest Service was only able to manage about one quarter of California lands last year should

be a red flag in itself. I would go further to question if the Department of Interior and the Forest

Service might need to employ more personnel; furthermore, other companies who would have

interest in timber for profit might do some of the work for free if we simply give the timber to

them. Interestingly, action on the situation seems to be at a standstill for the time being.

The increase of wildfires in California has drawn the attention of many people, including

our President, Donald Trump. According to the San Francisco Chronicle “California wildfires…

have killed nine people and destroyed more than 1000 homes”. A few days later, on August 5th

2018, Trump tweeted “California wildfires are being magnified and made so much worse by the

bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be

properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire

spreading.” The next day, Trump also tweeted “Governor Jerry Brown must allow the free flow

of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific
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Ocean. Can be used for fires, farming, and everything else. Think of California with plenty of

water – Nice! Fast federal govt. approvals”. We can also date back to 2016, when, during his

campaign, Trump also stated that California “has a water problem that is so insane. It is so

ridiculous when [we’re] taking the water and shoving it out to the sea”. Many experts have no

comment or are completely baffled about Trump’s tweet. We were able to interview U.S. Forest

Service professionals about this claim to gain their experiences regarding wildfire regulations:

“In terms of (National Forest) management, I would say that the laws of California have

very little direct effect on wildfire damage caused by the massive fires we have seen this

summer,” states Don Errington, a Timber Management Officer with Eldorado National Forest.

He has seen many fires and worked with them for about 40 years. Errington believes the

limitations on timber harvest and the time and cost of processing harvest plans on private lands

impedes the ability of private landowners, particularly large private landowners in putting up

timber sales that in many cases are designed to reduce the risk of wildfire. With private lands that

are situated near federal land, then of course delays of doing work on private land, which could

increase the risks to the adjacent federal lands. He continues this statement with “...I think it is

largely the absence of needed work on federal land that is affecting the resultant damage to

federal land from fires regardless of whether a particular fire originates on private land or on

federal land. I think it is more common that the limitations on the management of federal land is

affecting the damage to private land from wildfire and not the other way around.” As Trump and

our government approves of budget cuts, they are asking for these same agencies to commit to

clearcutting and “not waste water” into the oceans.

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Fuels Battalion Management, Rob Scott with Eldorado National Forest, has a different

but shockingly similar thing to say: “Cutting alone doesn’t do anything to fire severity. It costs

money to make a forest look one particular way. We all have a different expectation to a forest...

Logging needs to be done in an environmental conscious way, that adds to the ecosystem

process. Another thing that needs to be done is to add fire to the ecosystem with prescribed

burning. We, as a fire agency, use management action every time a fire is put out and nothing

gets done with it.” He continues to state that California Law is in fact more restricted than that of

the Federal government, but this is not a bad thing… “When California counterparts start a

project, it will take six months, while Federally it will take two to four years. While (California)

has more regulation, they actually get the job done. They say these are the impacts and we will

live with them, while the Forest Service will change the project a little bit and most likely will

not get done at all, causing a more susceptible wildfire situation.”

Interviewing NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Planner, Nancy Nordensten,

with the Eldorado National Forest was a particularly helpful interview as she deals with laws

specific to the Environment. California actually funds the Forest Service for certain projects as

the state has more money for projects to conserve the forest. “(Forest Service) often obtains state

grant funds to implement some fuels work (work that doesn’t pay for itself, like mastication of

fuels), which does require that CEQA is completed before grant funds can be dispersed. I think

we normally contract out the CEQA (e.g. to a local Resource Conservation District) to get it

done. It is an extra step, as is getting approval from the State Water board for water quality

waivers for timber sales, but I’m not aware that it has prevented us from receiving funding or

slowed us down to any appreciable degree. Also, with respect to the water quality regulations, I
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don’t know if California is different than any other state, so I wouldn’t say that ‘California laws’

are specifically affecting the process.”

Many would agree the facts and evidence are overwhelming that California Law is in not

so much the problem. It seems that Trump may hold ill-will and a large lack of intelligence to

critically understand the amount of terrain and diversity that California contains. Furthermore,

the Trump administration would only be creating more problems by slashing budgets for the

service which help manage and maintain the land in California. Ultimately, nothing is as simple

as a tweet, there are regulations in place here to protect our resources for sustainability. It may be

used as a claim, however he has had a clear alterior motive to allocate water to farmers. The

President is a far outcry on understanding the branches that make California’s ecosystems

diverse and healthy.

Works Cited

Cornwall Warren. Overwhelming Cause of California Wildfires:

www.news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140517-san-marcos-wildfires-

california-weather retrieved 10/04/2018

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Irby, Kate. “Trump Wants to Clear More Trees to Halt Fires. The Feds Need to Spend More,

Experts Say.” Sacbee, The Sacramento Bee, 2018, www.sacbee.com/news/politics-

government/capitol-alert/article216160995.html.

Kauffman, J. (2018, August 06). Trump tweet blaming water diversion for fires baffles

experts. Retrieved from https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Trump-explains-

California-wildfires-then-experts-13133880.php

Phillips, Kristine. www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/08/07/fire-officials-

to-trump-no-california-didnt-worsen-wildfires-by-dumping-water-into-0cean. retrieved

10/04/2018

Sutter, J. D. (2018, August 08). Trump's 'ridiculous' wildfire tweet. Retrieved from

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/07/health/trump-tweet-california-wildfire-water-

invs/index.html