California is burning and it's time to rethink policies

[Karen Margrave]

The Carr Fire in Redding, CA (Shasta Trinity National Forest) has devoured over 155,000 acres and is still burning, destroying over 1000 homes (one of which was my firefighter grandsons), and killing 8 people. The River and Ranch fires are burning out of control In Lake and Mendocino Counties; and have burned 255,000 acres, and that's just 2 of the approximately 20 fires burning as I write this. The Santa Rosa fire destroyed 5000 homes. 

When will Governor Brown,and the Feds, rather than blaming global warming, change the policies governing the management of forests? When there was logging in the forests (I'm not talking about clear cutting), removing the dead trees and underbrush, etc. there weren't so many catastrophic fires. Yes, the drought definitely contributes to the conditions. However; if you look at Oregon, there are huge forests, but nowhere near the catastrophic fires. Oregon manages their forests. They clear out dead trees and brush, and have more logging. At the same time, Oregon doesn't get any more rain than most of CA, so why the differences

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? Have you been affected by, or know anyone affected by the wild fires in CA that are happening now, or have happened in the past? 

[Dylan Vargas]

@Karen Margrave California and Oregon should be booming Timber states. Same thing happened in Tahoe a few years back. If you have ever seen a properly managed forest you will understand why its so important to cut the trees. Not clear cutting as you mentioned. The machinery is stunning to say the least. The machines (skidder) they have available now can produce massive amounts of cut timber daily. The issue would be getting people back into the industry and training people to run the equipment. I would love for this industry to thrive again with modern conservation policies in place.