[Lysée Mitri, kcra - & Others]
EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. — Former Gov. Jerry Brown invited fire experts and scientists to his home to come up with an action plan aimed at better managing forests to prevent devastating megafires that have become the new norm in California.
The Dixie Fire, which sparked in July, became the state’s second-largest on record, burning more than 900,000 acres across five counties.
“You see these big fires and you say, ‘Wow, we’re in a new ballgame here,’ and we have to act in that manner. We have to act differently,” Brown said.
He convened a group in late September at his ranch in the Venado district of west Colusa County to draft what they have called the Venado Declaration.
The declaration states that $5 billion was spent in 2020 to suppress fires in California. So, it proposes spending that much a year of public and private money on preemptive measures.
“We have to do it over many, many years from here on out. So, this is not a one-off,” Brown said.
“The peer-reviewed science all suggests active forest management, engaging in a variety of tools in the toolbox, prescribed fire and forest thinning,” said Ken Pimlott, who served as Cal Fire director under Brown.
[Ken Pimlott ran for El Dorado County Supervisor District 2 in 2020 losing to George Turnboo in a close contest. Publisher]
On top of saving forests, Pimlott said the effort is about reducing impacts to water quality and air quality. He noted the air quality from wildfires that affects not only California, but also the general western United States and as far away as New York.
This year, the former Cal Fire leader experienced a wildfire for the first time as a resident instead of as a first responder. He lives in El Dorado County near where the Caldor Fire started.
“Although not actually evacuated, we were very close to the evacuation zone and predicted wind shifts were a threat every day in the early part of the fire,” Pimlott said.
The Caldor Fire burned through Grizzly Flats and prompted unprecedented evacuations in South Lake Tahoe. The last time evacuations in the city happened was in 2007 for the Angora Fire. While that fire did burn through hundreds of homes in South Lake Tahoe, its threat of burning lasted roughly a couple days while the Caldor Fire never actually burned a home in South Lake Tahoe despite it being a lingering threat for much longer.
The Caldor Fire rounds out the top 15 of the state’s largest fires. Moreover, it was the eighth biggest on record and has all burned within the last four years.
“We’re not going to get rid of fire in California,” said […]
Watch Video Here: https://www.kcra.com/article/jerry-brown-fire-experts-venado-declaration-address-fire-crisis/38216147#