By Danielle B. Franz
Monday, January 13, 2025
Tens of thousands of acres have gone up in flames in
Los Angeles County, a tragedy made all the more infuriating by the fact that it
was entirely preventable. California’s leaders knew this could happen — yet
they chose inaction, distractions, and virtue-signaling over protecting their
citizens.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s priorities have been
astonishingly misplaced. To appease radical environmentalists, he pushed
forward initiatives to remove dams, under the guise of protecting marine
species, and thereby handicapped water supplies for crucial uses such as
preventing and fighting wildfires. Not unrelatedly, fire hydrants across Los
Angeles ran dry during precious moments of fighting back the
flames. Newsom’s response was essentially a shrug. Saying
that someone would figure it out, he left Californians to fend for
themselves.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has failed to
meet even the most basic expectations for leadership. Despite California’s
being ground zero for wildfires in the United States, she slashed the fire department’s budget by nearly $20 million.
Then, as the inferno spread, she was halfway around the world, attending an
inauguration in Ghana and scrambling to charter a military plane back home.
Finally, when confronted on air regarding her absence, she sat in stunned
silence for nearly two minutes.
Instead of taking responsibility for their failure to
act, California’s leaders have repeatedly tried to shift the blame to climate
change. But while the climate may play a role in exacerbating dry conditions,
these fires are fueled by human negligence, not an inevitable force of nature.
Poor forest management practices in California have resulted in dense,
overcrowded forests that are essentially tinderboxes. Regardless of climate
change, Californian forests are prone to uncontrolled wildfires. Ignoring basic
forest stewardship while crying “climate change” is nothing more than a
convenient excuse to justify inaction.
This blame-shifting doesn’t just obscure the problem — it
perpetuates it. The reality is that these shortages and failures aren’t
isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a broader, decades-long problem:
progressive leaders’ outright refusal to engage in responsible forest
management. For years, this hands-off approach has allowed debris to pile up,
overgrowth to choke the land, and forests to become dangerous tinderboxes. A
single spark in these unmanaged areas can unleash devastation, yet simple
solutions such as clearing debris, thinning overgrowth, and prescribed burns
are ignored — not for lack of knowledge, but for lack of political will.
Even worse, mainstream environmentalists wholeheartedly
endorse this approach and resort to litigation when active forest management
practices are proposed. They tie up land management agencies in endless
lawsuits, weaponizing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other
laws. According to a study on NEPA litigation, nearly 50 percent of public land challenges were based on forest
management practices. As a result, the Forest Service spends more time in
courtrooms than in the forests, unable to fulfill its mission of stewardship.
Fortunately, President-elect Trump seems to understand
where we’ve gone wrong in stewarding our nation’s forests and preventing
tragedies such as we’ve seen in Los Angeles. During his last term, he
highlighted California’s dangerous forest management practices and the need
for urgent reform, then doubled down on his position during a campaign
appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience. At the time, he was mocked for
daring to point out the obvious: active forest management works. Clearing
brush, removing dead trees, and conducting controlled burns aren’t just
effective, they are essential for preventing tragedies and saving lives.
His message is exactly right, and the solution is simple.
Active forest management isn’t about clear-cutting entire forests or destroying
ecosystems. It’s about stewardship — caring for our land so it can thrive.
Healthy forests are more resilient to wildfires, disease, and pests. They allow
wildlife to flourish and provide resources for communities. And when fires do
occur, well-managed forests can handle them without the catastrophic loss of
life and property we’ve seen in Los Angeles.
Fires are a natural part of forest ecosystems, but what’s
happening in California is anything but natural. This is the result of weak
leadership, misplaced priorities, and a total lack of political will. The
solution is as straightforward as it is obvious: We need to manage our forests.
We need leaders who will stand up to radical environmentalists and their
destructive agenda. And we need to stop pretending that ignoring problems will
somehow make them go away.
We can make America beautiful again by prioritizing the
management of our nation’s 800 million acres of forests — both publicly and
privately owned — and ensuring that this kind of event never happens again.
This means action, not just rhetoric. It means standing up to those who
refuse to acknowledge the reality that active forest management is responsible
stewardship.
Californians shouldn’t have to watch their homes and
communities burn because their leaders can’t — or won’t — do their jobs. It’s
time to hold these politicians accountable and restore to management of our
forests the principles of stewardship, responsibility, and common sense.
We know what needs to be done. The only question is
whether we have the courage to do it.
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