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A program to protect a plant called Braunton’s milkvetch (scientific name Astragalus brauntonii) may have had an effect on fire safety in the exact same area where the Palisades fire started.
Wordpress ^ | January 15, 2025 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

Posted on 01/15/2025 2:49:49 AM PST by grundle

This is from the New York Times:

Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/palisades-fire-cause-ignition-point-site.html

Archive: https://archive.ph/Fv8d4

This Is Where the Palisades Fire Started

In the hills above Pacific Palisades, there is crime scene tape and scattered debris, clues to what may have caused the initial fire that eventually raged through thousands of structures.

By Thomas Fuller, Mike Baker, Blacki Migliozzi, K.K. Rebecca Lai, and Jonathan Wolfe

January 13, 2025

Along the trail near where the Palisades fire began, The Times found bits of power-line debris, including what appeared to be part of a lightning arrester device. But the nearest overhead power line was about a third of a mile to the north. That line, which curves down from the trail and into the neighborhood,was extensively damaged from fire, but witness photographs show it was still intact soon after the fire began.

The poles along that route have a tumultuous recent history. Many of them date from the 1930s, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power initiated a project in 2019 to replace some of them with stronger metal structures.

The project stalled after environmental regulators said the department had damaged 183 small bushes known as Braunton’s milkvetch, an endangered species.

The department agreed in 2020 to pay a fine, and won approval to resume work, saying the project was “essential in regards to our wildfire mitigation plan.” But the project does not appear to have proceeded.

The Times’s review of the ridgetop showed many damaged and fallen utility poles along the trail heading north — an area that was consumed by fire, but not until a day after the blaze began.

And here is the wikipedia article on that plant species:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astragalus_brauntonii

As a person with an amateur interest in the subject of risk analysis, I find this to to be quite fascinating.

It’s typical for most government policies to have both benefits and risks.

When we consider adopting a new government policy, it’s wise to take into account both the benefits and the risks.

This specific issue is something that may end up being taught in various college courses in the future.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: california; environmentalism; fire; forestfires; forestmanagement; palisades; plant; riskanalysis; weed

1 posted on 01/15/2025 2:49:49 AM PST by grundle
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To: grundle

This is the dawning of the age of Astragalus, the age of Astragalussss, Astragalusssssssssss, Astragalusssssss....


2 posted on 01/15/2025 3:08:21 AM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: grundle

The modern pagans gladly will kill off humans in the name of mother nature.


3 posted on 01/15/2025 3:09:25 AM PST by riverrunner
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To: grundle

Geez, you think the flora and fauna in CA might have changed a bit in the past ten million years? The Universe is not static and neither is CA, except for the idiot class as they remain to run the state into ashes.


4 posted on 01/15/2025 4:04:10 AM PST by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
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To: chajin
When the loon is in the Big House
And stupider aligns with stars
Then unease will engulf our planet
and flames will leave us charred.
5 posted on 01/15/2025 4:18:39 AM PST by BipolarBob (are glass coffins the future? remains to be seen.)
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To: grundle

While I am against wanton destruction of the environment my concern ends when protecting the environment endangers humans.

The size of California is 163,696 square miles, most of it empty!

There are places within California so remote I doubt any human (including “native Americans”) ever set foot”.

If there is a rare and endanger species then perhaps it should be transplanted to an area that is not in the way of human needs such as water reservoir, or dams for power.

The balance between the environment and humans should not be 100% on the environment. As we can see by the fire that by not clearing the undergrowth and brush and managing the wood land the fire has destroyed the very thing the environmentalist with to preserve.

While on the subject there is no reason that refineries for the fuel we need can not be built, or coal or oil fired power generation plants can not be built near the cities that need clean, cheap energy.


6 posted on 01/15/2025 4:19:17 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN (My opinions are the result of 80 years of life, you may not like them but who cares.)
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To: grundle

How many endangered species and plants have windmills and solar cells destroyed?


7 posted on 01/15/2025 4:22:55 AM PST by AZJeep
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To: grundle
This plant, like many chaparral species, is fire-adapted and requires wildfire or other disturbance to propagate. The beanlike seeds require scarification to break down their tough seed coats before they can germinate. The seeds persist for years in the soil until fire allows them to sprout, with populations of the plant springing up in an area that has been recently swept by wildfire.

It is a pioneer species, one of the first to grow in a disturbed area and one that is soon crowded out by plant species that appear later in ecological succession. Wildfire suppression in the hills and mountains surrounding Los Angeles prevent the plant from reproducing.

8 posted on 01/15/2025 4:39:35 AM PST by Theophilus (covfefe)
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To: grundle

yeah at least heavyset lesbians protecting obscure plants and spending eleventy gabillion dollars on cleaning up the street poop of homeless illegals is no longer chic. The way things are going, California will be led by a guy with a very funny mustache


9 posted on 01/15/2025 4:45:54 AM PST by Strict9
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To: Theophilus

So this plant uses a buried seed strategy. Therefor preventing disturbance prevents it from germinating.

Plants with a buried seed strategy respond to disturbance (e.g. windthrow) by germinating. Completion of the project by the power company would likely have resulted in an increase in the population of the plant.


10 posted on 01/15/2025 5:00:10 AM PST by Fraxinus (My opinion, worth what you paid.)
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To: Theophilus

You would think the pagan disciples of Darwin would allow the plant to become extinct.

Would the earth stop spinning if the delta smelt and this little plant didn’t exist?

EC


11 posted on 01/15/2025 5:08:23 AM PST by Ex-Con777
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To: grundle
The project stalled after environmental regulators said the department had damaged 183 small bushes known as Braunton’s milkvetch, an endangered species.

In their alleged efforts to *save* endangered species by *protecting* their habitat, it looks like they destroyed far more habitat by the fire than any amount would have been protected by reasonable means.

12 posted on 01/15/2025 5:25:02 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: quantim

I thought all these leftists believed in evolution.

Don’t they think the planet and plant life is evolving? They’re so obsessed with keeping things static, that they don’t allow for nature to take its course.


13 posted on 01/15/2025 5:26:32 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: AZJeep

With the amount of land both take up, that could be *lots*.


14 posted on 01/15/2025 5:28:18 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: grundle

And, this is why we cannot have nice things.

The treehuggers are like poisonous little bugs destroying your crops.


15 posted on 01/15/2025 5:29:37 AM PST by bobbo666
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To: CIB-173RDABN
There are places within California so remote I doubt any human (including “native Americans”) ever set foot”.

Except for gold prospectors and pot growers...

16 posted on 01/15/2025 5:37:37 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: Fraxinus

I’d bet you’re right!


17 posted on 01/15/2025 5:50:05 AM PST by Theophilus (covfefe)
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To: Ex-Con777

The pious pagans believe they are the benevolent sustainers of life. Nothing may go extinct but California’s homeowners.


18 posted on 01/15/2025 5:53:46 AM PST by Theophilus (covfefe)
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To: metmom

And they are “evolving” too...hopefully out of existence


19 posted on 01/15/2025 7:39:22 AM PST by goodnesswins (Don’t be REALITY PHOBIC!)
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