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. ||||| 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 Donald Trump woke up in Paris on Saturday in the mood to make threats toward California as it deals with deadly wildfires in Northern California and hundreds of smoldering homes in Southern California. In an angry tweet, the president threatened to pull federal funding for the state if nothing is done to "remedy" the situation. 
 
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 There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018 
 
 Trump was in Paris to take part in a commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. But his mind was still on the disaster unfolding out west in the U.S. 
 
 Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 On Sunday, California Gov. Jerry Brown's office fired back, calling the president's tweet "inane and uninformed." 
 
 "Our focus is on the Californians impacted by these fires and the first responders and firefighters working around the clock to save lives and property — not on the president’s inane and uninformed tweets," Evan Westrup, the governor's press secretary, told ABC News. 
 
 At least 25 people have been killed this week as flames from the wildfires engulfed their vehicles, homes and neighborhoods in Northern California, authorities said. 
 
 There were more than 100 people missing in the region but by Saturday officials added that at least 70 people who were reported missing were located and are now safe. 
 
 Brown requested a presidential major disaster declaration to "bolster the ongoing emergency response and help residents recover from devastating fires burning in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties," his office announced on Sunday. 
 
 The president approved an emergency declaration for the state on Friday — but warned he may not do the same in the future. Emergency declarations provide municipalities with air support, relief supplies and evacuation transport. 
 
 Fire officials said Trump's statements, and remedies, were incorrect. 
 
 One leading California fire official on Saturday called Trump's comments "a shameful attack on California." 
 
 "The president’s assertion that California’s forest management policies are to blame for catastrophic wildfire is dangerously wrong," California Professional Firefighters President Brian K. Rice said in a statement on Saturday. 
 
 "Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography," he continued in the statement. "Moreover, nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and another two-thirds under private control. It is the federal government that has chosen to divert resources away from forest management, not California." 
 
 "Natural disasters are not “red” or “blue” – they destroy regardless of party," Rice concluded. "Right now, families are in mourning, thousands have lost homes, and a quarter-million Americans have been forced to flee. At this desperate time, we would encourage the president to offer support in word and deed, instead of recrimination and blame." 
 
 On Saturday evening, Trump changed course, tweeting support for the firefighters, the homeowners and the tragic victims of the west coast wildfires. 
 
 "God bless them all," the president tweeted. 
 
 More than 4,000 are fighting the Camp and Woolsey Fires in California that have burned over 170,000 acres. Our hearts are with those fighting the fires, the 52,000 who have evacuated, and the families of the 11 who have died. The destruction is catastrophic. God Bless them all. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018 
 
 These California fires are expanding very, very quickly (in some cases 80-100 acres a minute). If people don’t evacuate quickly, they risk being overtaken by the fire. Please listen to evacuation orders from State and local officials! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018 
 
 But on Sunday he tweeted about mismanagement again, writing, "With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!" 
 
 With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2018 
 
 Trump has made similar false claims about fire science and government resource allocation in the past, and fire officials have pushed back. 
 
 In August he tweeted, "California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!" 
 
 "We have plenty of water to fight these fires," Deputy Cal Fire Chief Scott McLean said in a statement in August. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Trump administration announced it would override the Endangered Species Act to provide extra water -- not needed by the fire crews. 
 
 He also criticized California's handling of forest fires at an Oct. 17 Cabinet meeting. During an exchange with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Trump called California "a mess" and "disgraceful." 
 
 "I say to the governor, or whoever is going to be the governor, of California: You better get your act together," Trump said. "Because California, we're just not going to continue to pay the kind of money that we're paying because of fires that should never be to the extent [they are]." 
 
 NASA via AP 
 
 Trump has long feuded with Brown, a Democrat, who is set to be replaced by fellow Trump antagonist Gavin Newsom. The Democrat was elected to the office last week. Newsom was previously married to former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who now dates Donald Trump Jr. 
 
 "It's costing our country hundreds of billions of dollars because of incompetence in California," Trump said in that Cabinet meeting. 
 
 It's unclear where Trump was getting the figure of "hundreds of billions of dollars." Cal Fire's operating budget for 2018-19 is $2.3 billion. 
 
 Fire Management Assistance Grants, authorized through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), refund as much as 75 percent of firefighting costs for departments. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also provided $212 million to the state of California in 2017. 
 
 Trump's tweet ironically comes while he is in Paris, the namesake of the Paris Climate Agreement, under which nearly 200 countries agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions in order to combat climate change. The agreement was signed by the U.S. during Barack Obama's administration, but Trump pulled the country out of the agreement in June 2017. 
 
 Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Michael Mann, an atmospheric science professor at Penn State University, told PBS' "NewsHour" in August that he believes climate change is contributing to the increased seriousness of wildfires. 
 
 "We're not saying that climate change is literally causing the events to occur," he said. "What we can conclude with a great deal of confidence now is that climate change is making these events more extreme." 
 
 ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.
– 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."