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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmail from John Thomas – Farm Bill Will Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says Schuman, Amy From: Menchaca, Clarissa Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2019 4:22 PM To: Schuman,Amy Subject: FW: Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says ' WSIU Correspondence. CLarbksa,Me4whaccv Associate Clerk of the Board Butte County Administration 25 County Center Drive, Suite 200, Oroville, CA 95965 T: 530.552.33081 F: 530.538.7120 Twitter 1 Facebook 1 YouTube 1 Pinterest From:John Thomas<solimarfishjohn@gmail.com> Sent:Saturday, December 15, 2018 6:37 PM To: Clerk of the Board <clerkoftheboard@buttecounty.net> Subject: Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says 1 WSIU http://news.wsiu.org/post/farm-bill-would-help-reduce-wildfire-risk-perdue-says#stream/0 Hello: Your Board of Commissioners need to know that there is no money in the current, just signed, farm bill to exclusively fight fire on the part of the USFS, which is part of USDA, which is the agency funded by the Farm Bill. In fact, 80% or more of the Farm Bill will pay for social welfare costs. The remaining 20%will got to farmers, to the crop insurance subsidy program, and maybe 6% of that almost$900 Billion will go to "conservation", which is CRP on farms, water and energy conservation programs, and of course, the USFS yearly budget. Not added to that bill was a work requirement for Food Stamps (SNAP) for people over child rearing age, or single without children. To get 60 votes in the Senate, you had to have ten Democrats. Actually, every Democrat voted for the Farm Bill. 9 Republicans did not, including Sen Grassley from Iowa. Also, there was no language in the bill to reduce the serial litigation against fuel removal by the NGO's of the left side of aisle, who are in fact a working part of the now Democrat majority in the next Congress. When a Republican is elected President, there is a new regime at Interior and at USDA. So some overtly political types have to go work elsewhere. They find jobs in the Congress, working on the committees of oversight of the agencies they once worked for. And some will take jobs at the NGOs of the environment. So if you want change in how fuels are managed on the 45% of CA that is Federal in ownership, you have to understand that you are up against the three pronged defense by a like minded and trained set of permanent personnel. The musical chairs between congressional committee staff positions when Democrats are in the majority, from NGOs of the environment are legion. If there is a 2020 change in party in the White House, you will see a lot of NGO employees become "under secretary of x,y,z" in USDA and USDI, and EPA. They will have been "ladies and x gentlemen in waiting" at the NGOs, supported by Equal Access to Justice Act reparations for winning just one point in any litigation against Federal land managers. My lifetime in the timber industry and some lobby work in D.C. found me seeing the same people in different jobs with any change in the party in control of the Administrative or Congressional branches of government. Why I am saying is that you will notice, someday, that the USFS will have new folks from the left on the job with a Democrat Party in the White House, and they will not cut a tree, remove a truck load of fuel except for a staged photo op for a candidate for office. There was zero language in the"new" Farm Bill to address serial litigation as a road block to meaningful fuels management on almost half of California land, or land in any state with USFS ownerships. And the port city voters support that. They want to visit the "old growth forests" for they are like a green cathedral where solitude and peace can be gained at someone else's expense. So the questions will be what can you do to prevent this from happening again? and the answer will be hmm, ah, uh, we can form strategic partnerships with the stakeholders and try to gain an outcome that will have wide acceptance. Translated: we will spend money and time and nothing will be done to reduce fuels. The people in San Diego, LA, and SF won't support cutting one tree. Thank you for your time. I wish I could be more positive, but nothing has changed except fires have more fuel and thus are larger each year, and there is no majority that would allow removing enough fuel to make a difference. We do live in a democracy where the majority of votes are in the hands of a tyrannical urban majority. In 64 AD, a fire in Rome did damage to about 12,000 mud and wattle homes, insula, in a Mediterranean climate, and to several hundred"domi", which were what we might call "McMansions" today. There were few fire fighters as government had determined that a fire fighting group posed a threat as they were a large, organized group that could and did pose a threat to governance as it was. 200,000 persons were displaced. Fighting a fire like that was mostly a process of tearing down insula in the path of the fire, to rob it of fuel. 2000 years ago man knew to stop a fire; you removed fuel. So in a way, the tragedy of Paradise was just another in an ever present potential of conflagration from having too much fuel and too many people living in a fuel laden environment. The sad thing is that 3000 miles away where our governance flows from, there is no present political will to remove as much of the danger as possible. And in the new budget, no will to expedite actions or diminish legal blockades. So we, as a country, spend our treasure and time to diminish the elected President because that is what is important. You get the governments you elect. And their Farm Bill which finances the USFS. Even with a Blue State majority, rural California is getting no help and a platter of burnt biscuits. Good luck. You will need it. Sincerely, John Thomas, Jr. 246 B st' Independence, OR 97351 2 Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says I WSIU Page 1 of 5 WSIU Q n P r ¢ (http://www.wsiu.org/) "'— PUBLIC BROADCASTING Donate(http://www.wsiu.org/donate-now) LOADING... Morning Edition(/programs/morning-edition) Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says By EDITOR . NOV 21,2018 Tweet(http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinyurl.com%2Fvxazzzvw&text=Farm% 20BIII%20Would%20Helo%20Reduce%20Wildfire%20Risk%2C%20Perdue%20Says) f Share(http://facebook_com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fvxazzzvw&t=Farm%20BilI% 20Would%20Heln%20Reduce%20Wildfire%20Risk%2C%20Perdue%20Says) ▪ Google+(https://olus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fyxazzzyw) r Email(mailto:?subject=Farm%20BilI%20WouId%20Helo%20Reduce%20Wildfire%2ORisk%2C%20Perdue% 20Says&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fvxazzzvw) Listen 5:21 Copyright 2018 N PR.To see more,visit https://www.npr.org. STEVE 1NSKEEP, HOST: What can the federal government do to reduce the risk from wildfires?This has become a much more pointed question after fire destroyed much of a town in northern California. California, like other western states, has enormous amounts of federal forest and grassland. A farm bill now before Congress offers an opportunity to adjust. It authorizes actions by the Department of Agriculture,which includes the U.S. Forest Service which manages enormous amounts of federal land.Sonny Perdue is secretary of agriculture, and he's on the line. Mr. Secretary,welcome to the program. https://news.wsiu.org/post/farm-bill-would-help-reduce-wildfire-risk-perdue-says 3/1/2019 Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says I WSIU Page 2 of 5 SONNY PERDUE: Good morning,Steve. INSKEEP:Thanks for joining us. I want to clarify a point of fact at the very beginning. President Trump said the other day when visiting California that the farm bill has $500 million for forest management. It's now reported that you've told reporters that the administration is not asking for extra money. Is there extra money in the farm bill? PERDUE: Well,there will be extra money in the farm bill. I think it's really a cross communication there.The farm bill authorizes extra money for that.The -what I was referring to was last spring when the Congress gave us authorization to stop the fire borrowing where we had been borrowing money from our operational account to suppress fires because fires -forest-wildland and forest fires have never been considered a disaster, treated like hurricanes or floods.And now that - beginning in 2020,we'll be able to. INSKEEP: Oh,and you're saying that the problem was that the Forest Service was having to borrow from other parts of their- borrow from park spending or other kinds of forest management or other parts of the Department of Agriculture in order to pay for emergencies, and you've managed to get out of that. PERDUE: That's exactly right.And Congress secured that this past spring. But it only takes effect in the fiscal year 2020,which begins next October 1. INSKEEP: OK. So is this farm bill going to fundamentally adjust the way that you approach the problem of wildfire? PERDUE: Well,we hope that it will. If it gives us the authority to do what are common-sense measures in defensible spaces, protecting the urban-rural-forest interface there,structures and loss of life,we can prioritize those. Heretofore,we've been really litigated into paralysis about being able to do the common-sense thinning and underbrush cleaning that needs to happen to prevent these amazing, awesome forest fires. INSKEEP:You're talking about controlled burns or removing dead wood,the sort of thing that reduces the fuel load, as fire experts say. Is that right? PERDUE:That is exactly right,Steve. INSKEEP:And why are lawsuits preventing you from doing that?What kind of lawsuits? https://n.ews.wsiu.org/post/farm-bill-would-help-reduce-wildfire-risk-perdue-says 3/1/2019 Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says I WSIU Page 3 of 5 PERDUE:Well, again,there's been litigation for years. It just hasn't occurred. It's been in litigation for years of people who fear that we wanted to clear-cut forests, and thinning works effectively well. If you clean the forest floor of fuel load,you don't have these raging forest fires that just go where you cannot contain them.They may burn for a short period of time, but they're easily contained. Otherwise,when you have this underbrush in there -as well as a well-managed forest,a well-groomed forest is much more pleasurable for recreation, hiking,water quality and other things. It allows people to enjoy the public lands that they own. INSKEEP: I know the administration has blamed environmental groups for those lawsuits, but when I've been in the West and interviewing people who live near federal lands, I get the impression that it's also sometimes just the neighbors who don't want the interference in their daily lives. Is that actually the case? PERDUE:Well, it's like a lot of things in life.We don't want interference until these emergencies and disasters happen,and then we want people to come.And people move into these beautiful areas there for the peace and the tranquility,and,frankly,the space there. But they don't realize that they are in danger.And when these forest fires come just in California this recently- about the danger they're in as far as their homes and their lives being consumed. I NSKEEP: One other thing, Mr. Secretary.A couple of years ago, I got a chance to interview Robert Bonnie,who was then a top Agriculture Department official. He oversaw the U.S. Forest Service during the Obama administration. He named two big problems. One of them is fuel loads,which is what you and I have been talking about.The other is climate change. What is the role of climate change here?And how, if at all, does the legislation address that? PERDUE:Well,we know that our forest fires in the last few years have gotten hotter.The humidity's gotten lower.Whether that's a cyclical change,we also-there are also data and history,Steve,that show back in the '30s there were huge major forest fires that make these look small even today. So we do know that we're back-to-back record years, and whether it's permanent climate change or a cycle of low humidity and hot air and wind currents,then it remains to be seen. INSKEEP:Well, I mean, let's be frank. It's probably a cycle of some kind because things go up and down, but scientists have made it clear the cycles are going to get worse and worse. Do you assume things will be worse over time as you budget for this? https://news.wsiu.org/post/farm-bill-would-help-reduce-wildfire-risk-perdue-says 3/1/2019 Farm Bill Would Help Reduce Wildfire Risk, Perdue Says ' WSIU Page 4 of 5 PERDUE:Well, I think we need to do what we need to do and part of that is doing what we've asked Congress to allow us to do regarding reducing the fuel load.And that's one of the things that we can do. Other things regarding precision agriculture and reducing our carbon footprint in agriculture are the kind of things that we're doing already. INSKEEP: OK, Mr. Secretary,thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it. PERDUE:Thank you,glad to talk with you all this morning. INSKEEP: Sonny Perdue is the United States secretary of agriculture.Transcript provided by NPR,Copyright NPR. 0 Tweet(http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fvxazzzvw&text=Farm% 20Bi I l 20WouId%20HeIp%20Reduce%20W ildfire%20Risk%2C%20Perdue%20Says) O Share(http://facebook.com/sharer.oho?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fvxazzzyw&t=Farm%20Bill% 20Would%20He l p%20Reduce%20W ildfire%20Risk%2C%2OPerdue%20Says) ▪ Google+(https://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tinvurl.com%2Fvxazzzvw) 0 Email(mailto:?subject=Farm%20Bi11%20Would%20Help%20Reduce%20Wildfire%20Risk%2C%2OPerdue% 20Says&bodv=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.t i nvu rl.com%2Fvxazzzvw) Support Provided By: (.-... 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