Mismanagement! . . . By Whom?

For the last week or so, some of my grandchildren are having their soccer practices cancelled while their local high school has moved P.E. classes and lunch indoors. About one-hundred miles to the south of them, people are constantly wearing masks when outside, and despite temperatures around 100, and many are reluctant to turn on their home air conditioning because it draws air from outside the house. Why? Because in both places the air quality is horrible! Where are these godforsaken places? Drum roll, please!   Dada!! . . . In California!

In the state that is soooo concerned about air quality, about 25% of the State has air quality so bad that people are being warned not to do any exercise outside! Here in the state that is over the top on air quality and climate change, there are innumerable fires with the inseparable big time property damage, and the unfortunate loss of life. How did we get into such a predicament? Well of course those in charge are putting the blame on climate change and drought, because both the heat and the dryness make the forest trees more susceptible to bark beetles which kill the trees, which then are the perfect fuel for these massive conflagrations.

However, if you can blame climate change and drought for the fires, then in essence no one is responsible except Mother Nature! California has been run by liberals for a very long time now, and it seems to me that these predisposing conditions are not new. The liberals have been talking about global warming and climate change for a long time. Droughts are certainly not unexpected in California, and the bark beetles have been an increasing threat for decades. Has someone been asleep at the wheel?

Earlier this year The Little Hoover Commission released a new report calling for a dramatic culture change in the way forests are managed to curb a disastrous cycle of wildfire and tree deaths. (The Little Hoover Commission, formally known as the Milton Marks “Little Hoover” Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy, is an independent state oversight agency created in 1962. The Commission’s mission is to investigate state government operations and policy, and – through reports and legislative proposals – make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature.) The Commission’s report, Fire on the Mountain: Rethinking Forest Management in the Sierra Nevada recommended that instead of focusing almost solely on fire suppression, the state must institute wide-scale controlled burns and other strategic measures as a tool to reinvigorate forests, inhibit firestorms and help protect air and water. Immediate action is crucial, according to Pedro Nava, chair of the Little Hoover Commission. “Dead trees due to drought and a century of forest mismanagement have devastated scenic landscapes throughout the Sierra range,” said Chair Nava.  “Rural counties and homeowners alike are staggering under the financial impacts of removing them.  We have catastrophe-scale fire danger throughout our unhealthy forests and a growing financial burden for all taxpayers and government like California has never seen.” Over the course of the Commission’s year-long study, the number of dead trees in the Sierra rose from 102 million to 129 million. The Commission found that the deadly bark beetle invasion, responsible for the tree kill, signaled a larger problem of mismanaged forests and climate change.

So let me get this straight: The Commission feels that in order to correct this “mismanagement” that the course of action should be drastically and immediately changed. So in accordance with the “We rob banks, ‘cuz that’s where the money is!” philosophy, perhaps we should be going after the bark beetle and the dead trees because that’s where the problem is. Of course those responsible for the “mismanagement” will not agree with that. Who are those who are responsible for this mismanagement? This report doesn’t identify who has mainly been responsible for the “mismanagement,” although we all basically know. After all who has been against increased, albeit selective logging? Who has been against controlled burns? Who has been against using any sort of pesticide in order to try to inhibit the destructive march through the forests by the bark beetle?

The following is a quote from a legal brief filed in 2011 by environmentalists on behalf of itself and several other groups, the South Dakota-based Friends of the Norbeck: “Yes, bark beetles are killing many trees, but that won’t necessarily lead to large fires. Even if it did, there’s not much humans can do directly to forests to influence fire risk, except to begin reducing human causes of climatic change. Logging the forest will not significantly influence fire spread, and removal of dead trees has many negative effects on the forest ecosystem.”                                                                                         Let me see if I have this straight: Dead trees do not lead to large fires, but “even if it did,” the way to combat this danger is to drive electric cars!

Another environmental group, the allied “Native Forest Council” issued a statement a few years ago saying, “Insects, fire and disease are part of nature. They keep our Commonwealth of forests healthy and alive. They did so until the white man came and began liquidating them, using them up because they were there. Nature’s insect, fire and disease don’t destroy forests. Man, chainsaws and greed destroy forests. Man, scientists, even foresters have never grown a forest, let alone a “like kind or better” forest. They don’t know how. They never have and they never will.”                              Let me see if I have this straight: The real problem is the white man. Fire and diseased trees don’t destroy forests, man and chainsaws do!

Now we can all laugh at the absurdity of the last two nonsensical statements, but these gung-ho environmentalists have been a major part of the “problem of mismanaged forests.” Unfortunately for us who live in the Golden State this forest mismanagement is not likely to end anytime soon, as our liberal politicians and governor do not find themselves having to wear masks or stay inside because of poor air quality, and as usual, the environmentalists have their ear!