California wildfires

Wildfires are a common occurrence in the state of California each fire season, which reaches its highest point during mid to late part of the summer during the dry season in the state. Wildfires begin in rural areas, often where forests and grasslands are located, but can spread to suburban or urban areas if not contained, causing property damage or loss of life.

History

In recent decades, and particularly since the 1990s, California wildfires have become an increased problem in the state. According to Grist, "Drought, disease, and insects have left 100 million dead trees browning across California, and in some places, 90 percent of the trees have died."

Causes

The worsening of these wildfires has been blamed variously on global warming and on illogical environmental policies. President Trump 'blamed the wildfires on "years" of poor forest management in California'

Forbes Magazine reported:

• California’s deadliest year of wildfires has been decades in the making, with overlapping environmental rules, both state and federal, making fuel load reductions in forests and coastal chaparral nearly impossible ...

Grist asserted:

• All this dry wood can stoke small blazes into uncontrollable infernos that ravage towns and choke the region with smoke.

CNBC reported:

• 'According to the California Forestry Association, tree density in the Sierra Nevada is too high when compared with the region’s historical rates, creating an elevated fire hazard.' California timber industry may be a ‘piece of the puzzle’ to help reduce state’s raging wildfires

National Geographic has identified increased population, which has led to construction in the state's wilderness, as a reason for increased damage done from fires.

Proposed Solutions

• "This issue could be solved by what are known as prescribed fires, or controlled burns. ... Burning supplemented by thinning generally is seen as the most effective combination in preventing severe wildfires"

Prisoner firefighters

After the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata (2011) declared California's prisons so overcrowded they violated prisoners' Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment, California Attorney General Kamala Harris fought federal court supervision. When California failed to fully implement the court's order to reduce overcrowding, and was ordered to implement new parole programs, the Attorney General appealed the decision, and in court filings Harris's office argued that if California were forced to release these inmates early, prisons would lose an important source of slave labor. Prisoners in California earn between 8 and 37 cents per hour in maintenance and kitchen jobs; prisoners fighting California wildfires receive $1 per hour.

See Also

• Environmental laws
• Controlled burns