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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

President Trump threatens to withhold federal payments over California fires

2018-11-10

[AP via Independent IE] President Trump earlier issued an emergency declaration providing federal funds to help firefighters.

President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold federal payments to California, claiming its forest management is "so poor".

President Trump said "there is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly fires in California".

The president said that "billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments".

The comments were President Trump’s first about massive wildfires, including a blaze that incinerated most of the Northern California town of Paradise and killed at least nine people.

Wildfires also raged in Southern California, including the town of Thousand Oaks, where a gunman days earlier killed a dozen people at a local bar.

President Trump earlier issued an emergency declaration providing federal funds to help firefighters.

Posted by:Besoeker

#9 Controlled Burn - See Los Alamos NM.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-11-10 19:53

#8 and no burn can be perfectly controlled

Some years back, the Michigan Dept of Natural Resources tried to do a controlled burn to create some habit for the endangered Kirtland's Warbler and ended up burning down a goodly portion of the state. No idea if the warblers appreciated the gesture.

If you decide to do a burn after suppressing natural fires for decades, you have a whole lot of accumulated fuel that wouldn't be there if natural fires were allowed to take their course.

Just thinking out loud, I wonder if a low-yield nuke could be used to blow out a forest fire. They do something similar with oil well fires.

Further thinking out loud, why isn't JTOL (just thinking out loud) a standard interweb acronym?

Posted by: SteveS 2018-11-10 19:07

#7 Beetle tree loss was not removed until recently - last couple years. Years of Tahoe trips have seen the difference. Old diseased/dead wood has only recently been logged out

Posted by: Frank G 2018-11-10 18:34

#6 The big problem with managed burns is that the managing entity effectively assumes the liability for damages, and no burn can be perfectly controlled. Damage from natural burns confers no liability.

Posted by: Glenmore 2018-11-10 16:44

#5 It is not as easy as that.

It used to be. Problems were minimal.

Then the ignoramii took over. "Natural is best." "Save the spotted owl." "You'll kill Bambi." Now even they are they were wrong. But are too proud to admit it. Maybe because all their other drug induced beliefs are put at risk as well?

Either way, the celebrities houses are starting to go up in smoke so things will have to change, but not in a way that threatens their other deeply held absurd beliefs. It's going to take some thinking to pull that off. In the meanwhile, Cali burns.

Posted by: gorb 2018-11-10 15:38

#4 Jerry Brown would much rather blame the fires on global warming.

Posted by: Abu Uluque 2018-11-10 13:35

#3 Looks like mother nature is doing just fine using a big hammer to "manage" the forests. I don't think fires will be a concern in these areas for another 100 or so years...

Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2018-11-10 11:14

#2 It is not as easy as that.

Posted by: newc 2018-11-10 10:25

#1 Obean withheld funds over the Texas drought. Man, they hate it when they're treated like they treated other people.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-11-10 07:54

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