<story><title>Forest Service officials close all California national forests</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-30/officials-to-close-all-california-national-forests-a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gorwell</author><text>Can anyone explain this?&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;So early on, Newsom identified some key wildfire prevention projects, and that includes things like forest thinning and prescribed burns, and they were meant to protect some of the most vulnerable communities in California. And he claimed 90,000 acres were treated, but we found that&amp;#x27;s not true. The state&amp;#x27;s own data shows that, in reality, it was less than 12,000 acres, so just a fraction of what Newsom claimed. And looking at the bigger picture, not just those specific projects, we also found that the state&amp;#x27;s fire prevention work overall dropped by half last year, which was the worst wildfire season on record for California. And during that time, Newsom also slashed about $150 million from the state&amp;#x27;s wildfire prevention budget.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;1010382535&amp;#x2F;gavin-newsom-misled-public-about-wildfire-prevention-work-report-says&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;1010382535&amp;#x2F;gavin-newsom-misle...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dbcurtis</author><text>I have one piece of anectdata.  I own some property in the Sierra foothills, and a couple of years ago spent considerable time talking to the California Department Forestry (CDF) fire chief for the area about clearing a fire break through it.  It was part of a huge project.  We agreed on the path, had the legal paperwork signed... and then...&lt;p&gt;COVID, and then,&lt;p&gt;100% of local crews were dispatched to fight last year&amp;#x27;s fires, and then,&lt;p&gt;still COVID, and now,&lt;p&gt;even yet more worse fires...&lt;p&gt;The fire prevention projects are what they work on when they are not fighting actual fires.  And they aren&amp;#x27;t exactly over-staffed to begin with.&lt;p&gt;There simply hasn&amp;#x27;t been any staff to work on the big fire prevention projects.  If there is anybody out there that thinks Newsom and the CDF are behind plan and need to move faster, I have several shovels I can loan out so that you can help.  Heck, you can borrow my chain saw.</text></comment>
<story><title>Forest Service officials close all California national forests</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-30/officials-to-close-all-california-national-forests-a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gorwell</author><text>Can anyone explain this?&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;So early on, Newsom identified some key wildfire prevention projects, and that includes things like forest thinning and prescribed burns, and they were meant to protect some of the most vulnerable communities in California. And he claimed 90,000 acres were treated, but we found that&amp;#x27;s not true. The state&amp;#x27;s own data shows that, in reality, it was less than 12,000 acres, so just a fraction of what Newsom claimed. And looking at the bigger picture, not just those specific projects, we also found that the state&amp;#x27;s fire prevention work overall dropped by half last year, which was the worst wildfire season on record for California. And during that time, Newsom also slashed about $150 million from the state&amp;#x27;s wildfire prevention budget.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;1010382535&amp;#x2F;gavin-newsom-misled-public-about-wildfire-prevention-work-report-says&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;1010382535&amp;#x2F;gavin-newsom-misle...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anigbrowl</author><text>Explain what part of it? In that article, the California fire chief took responsibility for communicating the wrong information to the governor&amp;#x27;s office. I&amp;#x27;m gonna guess the pandemic had something to do with last year&amp;#x27;s shortfall, but this really needs more indepth research that can dig through a few years&amp;#x27; worth of records.</text></comment>