It’s hard for some to keep the facts straight in this “post-truth” age of “fake news” and hyper-partisan demagoguery.
It certainly wasn’t easy for the demagogue-in-chief, President Donald Trump, who preceded a visit to areas of California hit hardest by the Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire with a tweet blaming the state’s wildfires on poor forest management.
While he was criticized by fire chiefs and organization heads like Harold Schaitberger of the International Association of Fire Fighters, who said Trump’s comments “are reckless and insulting to the firefighters and people being affected” besides being untrue, that didn’t stop the Trump Train from rolling right off the rails.
During his Nov. 17 visit to Paradise, Trump claimed that the president of Finland told him about “raking” the forests to prevent wildfires while outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown and governor-elect Gavin Newsom stood by in confusion.
Trump is trying to politicize the issue in his usual bombastic style. He’s not the first to do this.
As California’s wildfires have continued to grow in size and scope of destruction, the blame game has been ongoing. Conservatives blame lefty environmentalists for tying their hands regarding controlled burns in forests and other areas, while the lefties blame increased urban development and climate change exacerbating drought conditions.
That argument came to a head locally at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting on Oct. 2, where the county Fire Department asked to increase the use of prescribed fire and vegetation removal.
Familiar faces from both sides of the political spectrum traded barbs of blame back and forth when 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf chimed in. Wolf, an environmentally minded south county lefty herself, lost her home and everything in it in 1990 during the Painted Cave Fire. She said that both sides needed to see the merit in each other’s arguments.
“We don’t want this to devolve into two different camps,” she said. “We really need to be coming together.”
Amen, sister!
But there’s a flip side to this coin. Beware anyone who tells you that “both sides” are to blame for disagreements like this. That’s an easy way of not taking a hard look at the issue.
For the most part, conservatives still dig in their heels regarding human-caused climate change, saying it’s not real despite the overwhelming scientific consensus. The environmentally minded folks on the left, however, have actually heard out the other side’s argument regarding forest management.
That’s why our own state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) authored bills to address forest management and other wildfire prevention and response methods, three of which were signed by Gov. Brown. One of the bills aims to make it easier for landowners and local governments to collaborate with state and federal agencies to mitigate wildfire risks, with prescribed burns and an eye toward future development.
Massive wildfires continue to hit California hard, from our area to those nearby, and how to fight them is up for debate. I’m wary of anyone who’d rather cast blame than discuss the facts and reach a consensus. But in the case of using rakes for forest management, who are you gonna believe?
The Canary has a hard time believing any of it. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 6, 2018.