Years of mismanagement built up in California forests are feeding massive wildfires scorching the state, which is on track to experience its most destructive fire season ever.
Nearly 3,000 acres of state and local lands in California have been burned this year, about triple the size of the five-year average for this time of year.
The amount outpaces 2017’s historic fire season in the state by about 70,000 acres, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The Little Hoover Commission (LHC), an independent California oversight agency, has been documenting forest mismanagement in the Golden State for decades. LHC described California’s Timber Harvest Plan in 1994 as an “inadequate tool” for balancing environmental and economic needs.
“Litigation rather than resolution is often the focus of the participants, leading to a strained decision-making process and lack of consensus,” LHC’s report said, pointing out one of the main issues with logging and forestry management in California.
Other issues in the Timber Harvest Plan included a limited view of the site impacts without accounting for the health of the overall ecosystem and focusing on process rather than outcome, according to LHC.
Recent droughts and bark beetle infestations have killed millions of trees in California that lie throughout the forests and are extremely susceptible to fire.
About 129 million dead trees have littered California from 2010 to 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Our forests are dramatically overcrowded,” LHC project manager Krystal Beckham told The Washington Examiner.
“There are some places where there may be four times as many trees as there should be,” Beckham said. “When you have trees that close together, they can’t get the water they need, so they are more susceptible to drought, insects, and disease. And when they start dying, they become a terrible fire threat.”
Read more at Daily Caller
Please correct the acres burned to 300,000 not 3,000 in the second paragraph…
“Nearly 3,000 acres of state and local lands in California have been burned this year, about triple the size of the five-year average for this time of year.”
Every Californian should take note and vote appropriately
Too many forests in California are mismanaged and the Greens idiotic lawsuits to halt logging are only making things worst its time to start putting these Eco-Wackos on these fires all the tree sitters and tree huggers start with Julia(Butterfly)Hill and her fellow tree huggers
So instead of harvesting these trees for economic gain the leadership in California (as well as the US Forest and other federal agencies) have left the trees in place until fire consumes then and destroys much more. Same happens here in Colorado where droughts and beetle infestation have kill large numbers of pine that are just waiting for a fire (usually started by lightning) to do so.