When President Trump sent his first tweet about the current California wildfires, which have killed nine people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, he chose the moment to zero in on water policy — leaving some scratching their heads. 
 
 “California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized,” he tweeted Sunday. “It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!” 
 
 California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018 
 
 Asked whether firefighters at the Carr and Mendocino Complex fires are short on water, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynette Round replied, “Not that I’m aware of. ... but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.” 
 
 But the tweet had LeRoy Westerling, a UC Merced professor specializing in wildfire and climatology, chuckling. 
 
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 “On the water side, it boggles the mind,” he said. “We do manage all of our rivers in California, and all the water is allocated many times over. So I’m not sure what he was recommending. 
 
 “Even if we eliminated all habitat for riparian species and fish, and allowed saltwater intrusion into the delta and set up a sprinkler system over the state, that wouldn’t compensate for greater moisture loss from climate change.” 
 
 Westerling said his version of a tweet explaining the severity of the wildfires would read: “Ongoing warming and accelerated climate change are driving unpredictable increases and extreme fire in California across a wide range of ecosystems.” 
 
 Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jonkauffman ||||| As wildfires continued to scorch California, President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a tweet that befuddled experts, wrongly blaming the state’s water diversions for making the blazes worse. 
 
 California’s environmental laws, he claimed, “aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!” 
 
 While decades-old state and federal forest management strategies have been cited as exacerbating California’s wildfires in recent years, experts Sunday were quick to refute Trump’s claim that water policy was to blame. 
 
 While California’s river water is tightly managed to account for drinking, agriculture and environmental needs, it is not being diverted into the ocean. And the problem is not that the state lacks the water to fight fires, but that years of drought have made forests and brush more flammable. 
 
 “On the water side, it boggles the mind,” UC Merced professor and wildfire specialist LeRoy Westerling told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We do manage all of our rivers in California, and all the water is allocated many times over. So I’m not sure what he was recommending. . . . Even if we eliminated all habitat for riparian species and fish, and allowed saltwater intrusion into the delta and set up a sprinkler system over the state, that wouldn’t compensate for greater moisture loss from climate change.” 
 
 Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Sunday approved a federal disaster declaration for the state. Nine people have been killed by the 18 wildfires currently burning across the state. The Mendocino Complex fire north of San Francisco has grown to the fifth-largest in state history, burning almost 400 square miles by Sunday. and threatening 15,000 homes. Meanwhile, the Ferguson fire entered Yosemite National Park, which remained largely closed to visitors, and the Carr fire near Redding claimed its seventh life, when a PG&E lineman crashed his vehicle while working with crews to fight the blaze. Overall, more than 470,000 acres have burned in the state, with more than 14,000 firefighters on the front lines. ||||| The latest fight between the Trump administration and California’s liberal politicians has been over water. 
 
 The Trump administration believes the state’s stringent environmental protection policies are hampering efforts by firefighters to fight the largest fire in state history. 
 
 In a tweet sent Monday, President Trump said water that can be used for fires in California is “foolishly” being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 “Think of California with plenty of Water - Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals,” Trump tweeted. 
 
 On Wednesday, the federal government officially stepped in. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ordered the National Marines Fisheries Service, which is under his jurisdiction, to take control of water use in California and override any efforts to protect endangered species. 
 
 "The protection of life and property takes precedence over any current agreements regarding the use of water in the areas of California affected by wildfires," Ross said in a statement. 
 
 The directive asks the federal agency to “make clear” that water can be used as necessary to fight the fires, even if they impact endangered species. 
 
 The National Marine Fisheries Service works with the state to protect the delta smelt and Chinook salmon, two fish species under threat because of California's drought, according to ABC News. The two agencies limit the amount the water taken from rivers to protect fish. 
 
 Several fires have consumed large swaths of California. One of them, the Mendocino Complex Fire, has become the largest in state history. 
 
 Water from ponds, lakes and reservoirs near the fires can be used to battle the blazes, whether it is scooped up by helicopter and dumped on the flames or drawn out by pumps and sprayed. 
 
 “American lives and property are at stake and swift action is needed,” Ross said. 
 
 But state fire officials say they don't need more water to fight the fires raging across the state. Neither federal nor state officials said if direct action was being taken in response. 
 
 Mike Mohler, deputy director for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said he doesn't know if the Trump administration had contacted any California state agencies before issuing Wednesday's directive. 
 
 Critics blasted the directive and Trump’s statement blaming environmental policies on why the fires can’t be tamed. 
 
 "Despite the president's tweet, there's zero connection between the fires and the amount of water that is available to fight them," Peter Gleick, founder of the Pacific Institute think tank, told the Washington Post. "And yet all of the sudden, now the federal agencies are starting to actually implement policies based on this completely false idea that will end up rolling back federal environmental protections. It's weaponizing an ignorant tweet from the president." 
 
 Gov. Jerry Brown has not commented. 
 
 Includes reporting by The Associated Press. ||||| President Trump Donald John TrumpSouth Korea urges Pyongyang to speed up denuclearization process More than a dozen arrested as protesters, counter-protesters clash in Berkeley Trump golfs with Graham at New Jersey club MORE appeared on Sunday to place blame for massive wildfires in California on the state's environmental laws, including its water and forest management policies, saying that such regulations have made the blazes "so much worse." 
 
 "California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized," Trump tweeted. "It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!" 
 
 California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018 
 
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 The president's tweet comes as California continues to face a series of wildfires that have destroyed buildings, homes and left several people dead. 
 
 California has seen a spate of highly destructive wildfires in recent years. Fueling those fires, in part, has been a buildup of vegetation in the state, along with long droughts that dried up that vegetation.
– President Trump on Sunday addressed the devastation wrought by the latest California wildfires, the Hill reports. "California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren't allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized," he tweeted. "It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!" But MarketWatch says his tweet "befuddled experts," noting that the state's water supply and how it's used isn't to blame for worsening blazes. For one, the water isn't being dumped into the Pacific, and firefighters do appear to have plenty of water, per a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection rep—but trees and brush have become more flammable due to the state's years-long drought. "We do manage all of our rivers in California, and all the water is allocated many times over," wildfire expert LeRoy Westerling tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "So I'm not sure what [Trump] was recommending. … It boggles the mind." Westerling points the blame for making the fires worse at "ongoing warming and accelerated climate change."