I have visited Cali with dirt bikes. I’ve ridden in the Yuba river area, down by Mojave CA, Bishop, Yosemite.
What I’ve seen is active management of the land. It’s common for me to cross fire crews thinning out forests etc. Something we don’t have here in Washington State. The forests in Cali tend to have bigger trees, spaced out, with huge rocks and quite a bit of sand in the ground.
In Washington, we have massive amounts of underbrush...rain forest. And since 2009 we have seen unusually long dry summers. This has made massive amounts of kindling, just ready to burn.
I see that lightning is forecasted here in the Central Cascades from Southern Oregon to Northern Washington State on Thursday and Friday. That is going to be very, very bad.
Perhaps you have visited California, but you don’t live there. The only parts of California you where there is spacing between the trees with huge rocks and sand in the ground is in the Bishop side of the Sierras. For you to get a total picture of the situation you would have to have visited the western side of the Sierra ie Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon NPs, not to mention huge swaths of National Forest managed areas of Mammouth Mountain on the western side. Did you see the pictures of the 200+ campers that were rescued by Army Guard Chinook helicopters from Mammouth Pools?
There has been VERY little management of the forests due to the policies of the Sierra Club and the Air Pollution Control Boards. I own property right outside of Yosemite and have for 40 years. So I have seen a lot of undergrowth and prevention of prescribed burns. The policies and politics of California are ruled by the Sierra Club and their hated of the logging industry.
I lived in Grass Valley and Nevada City, if you have been to the Yuba river then you should know where that is. Those areas have been decimated by the bad management of CA and once again the control of the politicians by the Sierra Club as well.
Did you even notice the title of the thread? 150 million dead trees. There are whole mountainside of dead trees just waiting for a spark. I have been predicting this for the past 5-7 summers even before the bark beetle infestation even got started.
In Washington, you have the timber industry actively involved in managing your forest. The National Forest areas of Washington are most likely the locations you are referring to.
You are armchair quarterbacking about something that you have never seen or experienced.