Sacramento, CA (AP) — Former Governor Jerry Brown invited a group to his ranch for an urgent conversation when smoke remained in the air during the devastating season of wildfires in California: California What more can we do to save the forest from wildfires?
The reality of the state’s annual fire devastation has become part of Brown’s life since his great-grandfather built a retired home on land settled about 60 miles (96 km) northwest in the 1850s. .. Sacramento.
Treed areas are at greater risk of fire than where he used to live. Some small ones were harvested nearby and more destructive flames came within about 10 miles (16 kilometers). Brown said that California’s forests could burn out within 20 years recently when about 20 scientists, fire experts, forest product executives and others convened a group to engage in regular wildfire discussions. I spoke to a climate expert who warned me.
“That makes me think this isn’t a business as usual,” Brown told The Associated Press in an interview. “This is a big, comprehensive threat to California.”
They created a two-page document called the Venado Declaration, named after the area where Brown’s land is located. One of its central conclusions is that it is time to shift the fire paradigm from the suppression and exclusion paradigm to the management and adaptation paradigm.
This is followed by seven emergency measures calling for an extraordinary increase in spending on preemptive fire protection. That’s $ 5 billion from public and private funding, more than three times the record $ 1.5 billion Newsom for forest management this year in a huge budget. surplus.
Wildfires are becoming more intense and destructive due to climate change. Brown’s group reached spending because it was about the same amount that the state and federal government spent on fire extinguishing in the state last year.
Other proposals include adding biomass facilities and sawmills to process harvested trees, training forest management workers, and reforming state and federal environmental laws, but the group has little detail. Did not provide.
Brian Nowicki of the Biodiversity Center is concerned about the involvement of some people associated with the U.S. Forestry Department, which his group considers abandoned in their management, and the document states that. He said he lacked enough details to assess the benefits.
“I don’t know what this really means,” Novicki said.
Brown once held a meeting on September 24th at an outdoor spot on his property, which he stopped by along the stagecoach route. When Brown served from 2011 to 2019, Kempimlot, head of California’s forestry and fire department, helped organize the group.
It was a featureless move for Brown. Since his resignation, Brown has avoided participating in policy debates and providing public advice to his successor, Democrat Gavin Newsom. He said he was talking now because the group has an important message on the imminent topic.
“As a citizen of Colusa County and California, I don’t think my duty is to somehow go to the wilderness of silence,” he said.
Mr Pimlot said he was urged to act in the midst of a big summer fire and felt that the political situation had overshadowed the Newsome administration’s excellent commitment to forest management. The second-largest wildfire in state history broke out in August, forcing an unprecedented evacuation of South Lake Tahoe, a tourist mecca with more than 20,000 people.
Meanwhile, when Newsom faced a call, his opponents caught a story on Capital Public Radio, which found him highly exaggerating the scope of fuel reduction projects completed by his administration. .. At the same time, resistance to thinning by some environmental groups was drawing attention.
Pimlot and the rest of the group wanted to push back.
“Independently, we are all struck in some way or form to comment or say something,” he said. “A unified group has strengths.”
Pimlot was asked why they were acting now that he was out of government, and when Brown took office in 2011, the state was facing budget cuts due to lack of funding, but eventually now. The beginning of Megafire, which said it began to increase investment in firefighting and preventive equipment around 2015, the era of the United States. He also pointed out the Forest Carbon Plan announced by the administration in 2018 and touched on similar ideas.
Don Hankins, a professor of geography and planning at California State University, Chico, and an expert in indigenous practices such as burning to burn fire fuels, said California is a well-trained worker. He said that the training part of the workforce is particularly important because there is no such thing. Effectively use what is currently budgeted.
“It’s not just about going out and running a chainsaw and throwing a match to the ground to make a fire,” he said. “How do you do it to achieve the results you want?”
Most of the ideas reflect the ideas of the January Wildfire Resilience Report released by the Newsom administration. The group hopes that their declaration, in the face of some criticism, demonstrates that there is widespread support for the direction of the state.
“Even if nothing else, we need a broad consensus to take real decisive action. We are trying to help build that consensus,” says Brown.
Pimlot admitted that he didn’t have a roadmap for his next appointment, but group members would promote his ideas in upcoming legislative meetings, state budget talks, and even private work in academia and industry. I hope that. Based on his reaction to the document, he and Brown may organize further discussions.
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Ronayne writes about California’s climate change and the environment. Follow her on Twitter.
Jerry Brown focuses on saving California forests from fire | WGN Radio 720
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