California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been cleaning up the state’s forests since President Donald Trump told him to the last time he visited a big California wildfire in 2020. But as Trump touches down in Los Angeles on Friday to view the latest damage, forest management remains a political vulnerability for Newsom that Republicans have capitalized on since the wildfires started — and that Democrats have struggled to defend against. Trump’s repeated chastisements of Newsom to “manage your forests” echoes in-state Republicans’ longstanding argument that Newsom and Democrats aren’t doing enough to clear overgrown flammable brush and trees from the state’s forests. Some Republicans have taken up Trump’s idea of holding disaster aid hostage for policy concessions… Trump himself has repeated the familiar cudgel, telling Fox News, “Remember, I took criticism when I said, ‘You have to manage your forests.’ … Look at what happened in Los Angeles. It’s like a nuclear weapon went off.”

COLORADO — To create a society in balance with fire, we need to be able to imagine it. Unfortunately, for the last century, we’ve been saturated with news and stories about the worst aspects of fire. We need new stories about fire, stories that depict us as more than helpless victims or warriors against it. We need to see ourselves as stewards of the land so that we can coexist with fire. For the last four years, I poured my heart and soul into telling a story that demonstrates this. In 2020, the Cameron Peak Fire was racing uncontrollably towards communities in northern Colorado. When it reached the footprints of a prescribed burn and forest thinning treatment, a near miracle occurred. When I heard what happened, I knew that it needed to be shared far and wide. After four years of filming and editing, that film, Fireforest, is now freely available online.

Bruce Westerman

WASHINGTON — One of the first bills to pass the lower chamber of Congress in Donald Trump’s presidency, the Fix Our Forests Act would increase the pace and scale of forest management projects by speeding up environmental reviews, deterring frivolous lawsuits. It was reintroduced after passing the House of Representatives last September with overwhelming bipartisan support but did not make it through the Senate, and will need to compete for floor space in the upper chamber before it can be signed into law. It passed the House comfortably in a 279-141 vote but environmental groups said the bill had been “misleadingly” named and would open public lands to massive logging projects under the guise of preventing wildfires. …Robert Dewey, at Defenders of Wildlife said the bill would remove science from land management decisions and weaken protections for endangered species. 

NAHB Press Release: NAHB Commends House Passage of Forestry Bill

The Hill, by Rachel Frazin: Amid raging fires, House passes contentious forestry bill

Five Northwest conservation groups have joined the federal government in defending a program to kill barred owls in the Pacific Northwest to protect the threatened northern spotted owl. These environmental groups have joined the government’s side, in opposition to animal rights groups. Tom Wheeler of Arcata, a California-based conservation nonprofit EPIC, said that like animal rights groups, they also believe that individual lives of wild animals are precious, but, “We also hold that ecosystems are real and important and that species are real and important. And that the preservation of ecosystems and species are really important and worth protecting.” …Wheeler said it’s necessary to remove invasive barred owls from the region to give researchers more time to come up with a long-term solution to the growing threat of extinction for northern spotted owls. …The animals rights groups say the government is violating federal environmental law.