LA Fire question for any timber guys on here

[Podgy]

Forester/Certfied prescribed burn managers/Wetland biologist/Program manager over many different type of ecosystem restoration projects here. As posted here previously someone mentioned a relative of theirs who was a research forester warned of these disasters years ago. Our professors at State told us this was coming 30 years ago when the CA stepped away from prescribed burning. CA & FL are defined as all season fire states. Fire is natural and necessary for most of the environment. Removing yearly wildfires fires and not prescribed burning created this situation.
The removal of fire from the area has changed the historical species composition from predominantly early successional species to a scrub/shrub environment.
Realistically there’s no way to prescribe burn all of CA forest. The acreage is crazy, but you can create containment zones for the extremely rural areas by burning perimeters. As for the high density areas like the Palasides prescribed fire would have definitely prevented this catastrophe. But due to politics your balancing smoke management, carbon output policies, and budget cuts to the US Forest Service and USFWS as well as state and local forestry/wildlife departments proper management hasn’t occurred.
Unfortunately the path forward to find a solution will be dominated by politics and not sound science and in 20-30 years this fiasco will probably be repeated.

One of the great things about this site is we can all post both reasonable and crazy opinions on different topics. But, we also have people with unique knowledge and experience when needed.

 

[Podgy]

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Didn’t Earn It.
Seems to be a common theme in this Fiasco.

I don't know if they're qualified but the things they're highlighting are sufficient for any reasonable person to think they might not be.

 

[KentuckyDawg13]

 

[mstateglfr]

The fact that they had full reservoirs around Los Angeles and cut 17 million dollars on fire in Los Angeles may make this a terrible day for the officials elected, no matter what party you affiliate with.

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw overall increase

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw an overall increase.

abc7.com

With the new contract approved, the budget for the fire department in Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million. When compared to the previous year's budget (Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024), this current year's fire department budget in total is larger by $58.4 million.

Not really sure what is true or false. I am confident that budgets are incredibly complex for even small towns, so the budget of the 2nd largest city in the country has to be 17ing confusing and complex as anything.
Budgets are use to support narratives that conflict with other narratives because with so many numbers and projections, its easy to manipulate or filter out what you want in order to show what you want.

So the budget was cut 17MM, but its now larger by over 58MM. Go figure.


Maybe this shouldnt be a talking point for anyone, until there is clarity.

 

[mstateglfr]

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Didn’t Earn It.
Seems to be a common theme in this Fiasco.

I had never heard of any of these people before last week. I still know basically nothing about them.

How in the 17 are you so confidently able to declare that none of them earned the positions they are in?
- Have you been following their careers for years now?
- Have you spent hours each day digging into their careers and found some smoking guns?


Maybe they all shouldnt be in the positions they are in...I have no idea. Or maybe only one is 'deserving'...I have no idea.
But I just dont see how some random guy on the other side of the country could confidently know this on his own.
Forgive me here because I am going to suggest something that could be hurtful...it seems like you are just trying to tie this to something you dislike to show it is more 'proof' to support your position.

 

[vhdawg]

Also apparently Pacific Palisades is at the end of the water system in that area so if you’re getting high demand the pressure can drop. Not a good scenario.

Are you saying the Palisades is the SoJack of LA?