As wildfires engulf Los Angeles, California’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, is facing renewed scrutiny for his record on forest management.
As of Thursday morning, multiple wildfires, including the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, are raging across Southern California, leaving at least five dead and burning more than 27,000 acres, Fox News reported.
Amid the conflagrations, the governor’s official website released a list of actions the Golden State has taken to prevent wildfires, but his credibility on the issue leaves much to be desired.
“Gov. Newsom has dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to support wildfire response,” the website states. “California officials treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023, and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023” (emphasis original).
The website notes that California will invest $200 million each year through 2028-29 on fire prevention programs, that the state launched dashboards to track the state’s wildfire prevention work, and that California has launched 16 helicopters and gained seven C-130 air tankers. Unfortunately, the winds are too violent in the current fires to allow the use of this firefighting fleet.
While the website touts “more boots on the ground than ever before,” it also notes that California “is implementing shorter workweeks for state firefighters to prioritize firefighter well-being” alongside adding 2,000 additional firefighters over the next five years.
Any increase in forest management would be welcome news and quite relevant to note amid the wildfires, for which President-elect Donald Trump has already blamed Newsom. However, California-based media outlets have revealed Newsom’s penchant for exaggeration on this issue.
Why Does Forest Management Matter?
Forest management is essential for combating wildfires. I grew up in the mountains of bone-dry Colorado and learned from my volunteer firefighter father how important it was to clear the forest floor of the brush and fallen branches that would go up in flames and threaten our family home. The detritus that builds up beneath trees and around bushes dries out and can burn up very quickly, enabling fires to spread.
There are two basic ways to manage the forest floor: you can set a fire that you watch closely and prevent from growing out of control—something called a “controlled burn”—or you can do the work that my brother and I did every summer: raking leaves and bushes and bagging them to remove them from the area.
Forest management is thankless work, and it often seems pointless, but it’s vital for preventing the spread of wildfires, especially in densely populated areas. My Eagle Scout project involved clearing the forest floor above a large propane tank to save the houses on the slopes above the area.
Newsom’s Record
To his credit, Newsom began his term as governor in 2019 by promising to revamp the state’s wildfire strategy.
Unfortunately, it seems the governor has a penchant for exaggeration.
A 2021 investigation from CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found that Newsom had misrepresented his accomplishments and even invested less money in wildfire prevention.
The governor had claimed that 35 “priority projects” had resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres, but the state’s own data showed the actual number at 11,399. He had exaggerated his effectiveness by 690%.
While the Golden State did increase the state fire agency’s removal of dry fuel in the beginning of his administration, by 2020, the rates had dropped back down to levels below Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office. Newsom also slashed roughly $150 million from the state’s wildfire prevention budget.
Even if Newsom’s latest report is entirely accurate and California plans to heavily invest in forest management, it may not be enough.
A research team led by Stanford’s Rebecca Miller found that about 20% of California—20 million acres—could benefit from controlled burns.
While the state Legislative Analyst’s Office claimed that climate change contributed to the fires, it concluded that the accumulation of fuel (the leaves, brush, and fallen branches), along with development in certain exurban areas, drove the increase in fires. A 2018 Little Hoover Commission report called for more aggressive management in the Sierra, an area that fires have devastated.
Of course, not all the blame rests on Newsom’s shoulders.
Just last month, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned city officials that a nearly $18 million reduction in her department’s budget would impact its ability to prepare for and respond to major emergencies, NBC News reported. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slashed that funding.
To make matters worse, thieves stole hundreds of fire hydrants ahead of the devastating blazes to sell the scrap metal, The Center Square reported.
Americans should sympathize with the Angelinos and others who are losing their homes and support relief efforts to help them. But we should also learn from this tragedy the importance of forest management and ignore the climate alarmists who use global trends to distract from the facts on the ground. Ultimately, Californians should demand more accountability from their state and local governments.
