Climate change excuse for California fires does not hold water

Washington Times:

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It was the president’s foray into the clearing-versus-climate debate that inflamed Democrats and activists. In one of several weekend tweets, Mr. Trump said, “With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!”

“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “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!”

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio disagreed. “The reason these wildfires have worsened is because of climate change and a historic drought. Helping victims and fire relief efforts in our state should not be a partisan issue,” he said.

California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom accused the president of insensitivity, tweeting Saturday that this “is not a time for partisanship,” although he said nothing about Mr. Brown’s blast at climate change.

Others sided with Mr. Trump, arguing that a litany of federal and state environmental regulations have made it increasingly difficult to thin overgrown woods or clear dry, beetle-kill stands, turning the federal forests into tinderboxes.

“The president said it maybe not as well as others would have liked, but he said it: We’ve got to do things proactively to prevent this in the future,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, on Fox News. “We’ve got to manage better rather than having these devastating fires.”

Climate Depot’s Marc Morano, author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change,” argued that Mr. Brown’s climate-change claim falls short scientifically.

He pointed to recent studies concluding that there is less wildfire today on the global landscape than in centuries past. In addition, the U.S. leads the world in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.

“Wildfire frequency and intensity is linked to government policies, land use, development and water resources,” Mr. Morano said. “If you look at the climate-related factors like drought, then the case for ‘climate change’ causing more wildfires collapses even more.”

William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, called climate change the latest environmental “excuse” to stop timber-cutting and forest management, picking up from the Northern spotted owl decision of 1990, which decimated the Pacific Northwest logging industry.

“[T]hese anti-harvesting radicals demand ‘nature’s way’ in the management of the national forests, which means, as it did before the country was settled, periodic massive blazes to make way for a new forest,” Mr. Pendley said. “Today, however, millions of Americans live in or near where those forests will burn.”
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The stated reasons for not managing the forest better to prevent fires make no sense.  Environmentalists are the cause of this problem and harvesting of the dead wood is a good solution that would benefit the residents in the area as well as businesses who use wood products.