Trump administration blames 'radical environmental groups' for Camp Fire. Experts disagree

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

As do most rational thinking people.
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Nov. 20--The Trump administration Tuesday resumed its attack on environmental groups it blames for the deadliest wildfire in California history -- even as policy experts called the criticisms misguided.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, in a conference call with reporters, said litigation by environmentalists has prevented the federal government from implementing common-sense projects that would thin out trees and reduce wildfire hazards. Their comments came as the death toll in the Camp Fire in Butte County has reached 79, with 699 people still unaccounted for as if Monday night.

Zinke was insistent on blaming "the radical environmental groups who would rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree or thin the forests." He and Perdue urged Congress to pass pending legislation that would give their agencies greater latitude to remove trees without doing exhaustive environmental reviews first.

Yet many policy experts, and even the logging industry, now say many environmental groups have relaxed their opposition to forest-thinning projects. A Sacramento Bee investigation in early October showed that while environmental groups once routinely used the courts to block or delay forest-thinning projects, many of them have begun working with the logging industry in recent years.

"The vast majority of the mainstream environmental community is on board," said Rich Gordon, president of the California Forestry Association, the industry's main lobbying group in Sacramento. "We've been working hard together ... and have good partnerships."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/fact-check-trump-administration-blames-radical-environmental-groups-for-camp-fire-experts-disagree/ar-BBPVjpL?li=BBnb7Kz

[CountAllVotes]

1. Luckily .....

Lame duck tRump won't be able to push his agenda through.

That's whatcha get when you VOTE BLUE!

[underpants]

2. Logging is tied to education spending in much of the mountain west

Directly tied.

[marylandblue]

3. I feel like we don't have to read the news anymore, they just phone it in

Every day, it reads, Trump blames _____ for ______, everyone disagrees.

[spanone]

4. the worse administration in every facet of governing

the entire party is corrupt to the core

[fishwax]

5. "Experts disagree" could be tacked on to most sentences that start with "Trump Administration says"

;donkey:

[GulfCoast66]

6. Climate Change, Evolution, government healthcare.

These folks are living in Jim Jones land.

No proof will deter their predetermined assumptions.

They truly would drink Kool Aid before admitting they were wrong.

[RHMerriman]

7. Fire ignites at 0630 on privately-owned land, roughly 6-7 miles upslope from foothill town with

Fire ignites at 0630 (before dawn) on privately-owned land, roughly 6-7 miles upslope from foothill town (Paradise) with one 4-lane-highway in or out, three other small roads, and 27,000 residents. Winds are 50-75 miles per hour (these are gale force winds, one step below a hurricane), blowing downslope, straight from ignition point towards Paradise; fire burns outlying village (Concow) 60 minutes after ignition, and hits larger town 90 minutes after ignition (0900) on a weekday morning.

The eastern third of Butte County is US Forest Service land; the western two thirds is mostly privately-owned, and most of it is flat farmland. The eastern third is foothill and mountainside, and the town itself was bounded on all sides by deep, rugged canyons carved by mountain creeks, with drops of several hundred feet in the space of a few miles.

If you want to understand the impact topography had on this fire, do a Google maps search for "Butte County, California," switch the view from map to terrain, and then look at the topo lines. Switch it to satellite, and consider the reality that even in beautiful downtown Paradise, there are more trees then there is asphalt or open space. Do some street views and look at the types of structures (wood frame, wooden roofs, etc.) that dominate the streetscape, such as it was. This was, to put it mildly, "unforgiving" terrain for firefighting.

The only way to have prevented the loss of life and property damage in Paradise and Concow would have been to never have built either town in the first place.

Zinke was, supposedly, a military officer, who was educated as a geologist; presumably he has some grasp of the interface between weather, topography, and logistics. Perdue was also a military officer; presumably he, as well, has some understanding of what it takes to get people from Point A to Point B in an emergency. They're both idiots.

See below for the timeline.

[link:https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-camp-fire-tictoc-20181118-story.html|]

[CountAllVotes]

8. Very well-written article from the LA Times

Thanks for the link/story.

Well written = something you rarely see these days!

& recommend.

[peekaloo]

9. PG&E are radical environmental terrorists?

I know it's speculation on the fire's cause but a class action suit has been filed.

Could have spared Pleasure, er, Paradise.