California's governor, Gavin Newsom, has dramatically overblown the state’s achievements in key elements of wildfire suppression, repeatedly overstating how many acres of the state were treated with fuel breaks and hazardous tree removal.
Newsom claimed that 90,000 acres protecting the most vulnerable communities had been treated, the data showed only a fraction – roughly 11,400 acres – was actually completed. Newsom slashed roughly $150m from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.
The clearest and probably biggest discrepancy related to 35 priority projects that were identified early on by the Newsom administration. When he came into office one of the first things he did was ask Cal Fire for recommendations on how to get the problem under control. One of the main recommendations was 35 projects for fuel reduction – things like thinning and prescribed burns – that will protect 200 of the most vulnerable communities in California. In early 2020, Newsom came out and said “mission accomplished".
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