Politics, special interest groups and the LA Fires

[putnam6]

I'm for some environmentalist causes but this is an example of when special interest groups go off the rails, with negative impacts.

First, we hear water can't be diverted because it will harm the smelt population, then not clearing brush for various reasons, and now this.

It shows how this crap adds up and bogs down the ability of our government agencies to act in all of our best interests.

All for an herb that uses "wildfires" to grow healthy and multiply 

Im very aware the removal of an animal or plant can have a wide range of consequences, look at the wolf being reintroduced back to Yellowstone, it's changed the topography and ecosystem for the better

Is Braunton’s milkvetch feeding an actual endangered rodent or is it as it seems, hyper-environmentalism running amuck in Cali

https://nypost.com/2025/01/14/us-news/ca...red-shrub/

In 2019, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) began replacing nearly 100-year-old power line poles cutting through Topanga State Park, when the project was halted within days by conservationists outraged that federally endangered Braunton’s milkvetch plants had been trampled during the process.

After an amateur botanist hiking through the park during the work saw the harm done to some of the park’s Braunton’s milkvetch — a flowering shrub with only a few thousand specimens remaining in the wild — and complained, the project was completely halted, Courthouse News Service reported.
Instead of fire-hardening the park, the city — which the state said had undertaken the work without proper permitting — ended up paying $2 million in fines and was ordered by the California Coastal Commission to reverse the whole project and replant the rare herb.
That work saved about 200 Braunton’s milkvetch plants — almost all of which have now likely been torched in the wildfires that consumed Topanga Canyon, along with nearly 24,000 acres (37 square miles) of some of LA’s most sought-after real estate.
 
At least eight people have died and 5,000 homes have been destroyed by the fire, which was still just 14% contained as of Monday.
It was not clear whether the steel poles were ever installed.
The good news for the milkvetch, however, is that they usually need wildfire to sprout — meaning dormant seeds now have a massive new habitat for a new crop of the rare shrub.

[putnam6]

I mean this is politicalizing the wild fires 

[putnam6]

The Los Angeles Fire Chief said one of the programs lost in the 17 million budget cut was

The LAFD used to have plenty of mechanics and resources immediately on call and on-demand to maintain, fix, and repair trucks and vehicles.

After Bass's budget cuts they do not have this obvious necessity in the fire-prone LA Basin

https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1879015966199128313




Checking on these numbers below IF TRUE how is this not complete incompetence

[xuenchen]

Something fishy about our Delta Smelt friends....


The Infamous Delta Smelt Fish Has Not Been Seen in Nearly a Decade – California Allowed Its Cities to Burn to the Ground Over a Fish That They Can’t Even Find Anymore


Dang things must be invisible! Must be a DARPA Project in progress! 

A 2021 report by Dan Bacher in the Sacramento News revealed that there have been NO DELTA SMELT seen in the wild since 2012.
They’re extinct.

For the seventh September in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has caught zero Delta smelt during its Fall Midwater Trawl Survey of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
 
The last time Delta smelt – an indicator species for the broader ecological health estuary – were found in CDFW’s September survey was in 2015. Only 5 were caught by state biologists at the time.
 
After that, the only year that Delta smelt were caught during the entire four-month survey was in 2016, when a total of 8 smelt were reported.
The final results of Fish and Wildlife’s four-month survey of pelagic (open water) fish species, conducted from September through mid-December, won’t be available until around the start of next year. The current September 2022 data is available here on the annual state surveys webpage.

[xuenchen]

See who can find lies they are using to combat unfavorable political exposures.....

See what is obviously biased deflections.....

California Fire Facts

[putnam6]

Something fishy about our Delta Smelt friends....


The Infamous Delta Smelt Fish Has Not Been Seen in Nearly a Decade – California Allowed Its Cities to Burn to the Ground Over a Fish That They Can’t Even Find Anymore


Dang things must be invisible! Must be a DARPA Project in progress! 

I heard it's the Delta Smelt or Ive heard it's an endangered Salamander 

It's ridiculous but it would seem the Democrats in Cali have learned all they need to do is scream environmental damage and concerns and the politicians bend to the noise.