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California burn bosses set controlled forest fires. Should they be safe from lawsuits?
Sacramento Bee 1 hr ago Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler, The Sacramento Bee
Apr. 22 Across California, property owners and their burn bosses are setting fires. When the weather is cool, calm and wet enough, these planned forest fires are designed to clear overgrown vegetation that could accelerate a wildfire in dry months.
They do this knowing they risk financial ruin from a lawsuit if something goes wrong.
Now, Native American tribes, ranchers, timber companies and conservation groups are teaming up to reduce those liability risks in a battle that pits them against the state s powerful trial lawyers and insurance industries.
Newsom’s budget includes $1 billion in new funds to promote forest health and community resilience. And he has authorized hiring almost 1,400 new firefighters for the state’s top fire management agency, a new commitment necessary to what lawmakers and experts say is the state’s new reality.
“Fire season is all year round,” said state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D), whose San Diego-area district was ravaged by fires in 2003 and 2007. “We have to make up for lost time and certainly how drastic things seem to be moving in the direction that’s making it harder for California.”
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Living With Fire: What California Can Learn From Native Burns
Officials are beginning to reimagine fire and land management, drawing upon Native American tradition and perspectives that were long outlawed.
By Megan Botel
Ed Kashi/VII
The tribe’s spiritual leader, Keith Turner, begins burn day with a ceremony, blessing each member of the group with cleansing white sage.
MARIPOSA, Calif. ― Rain falls on the 300-year-old oaks on a cold midwinter morning as a group of nearly 60 gathers here on what was once southern Sierra Miwok land.
Some have returned year after year. Others are here for the first time, eager to learn what California’s oldest residents have long known about land management after the most destructive fire season in the state’s recorded history.
Saving CA from Wildfires by Burning It Is One Solution
California and the West are just months removed from one of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history. Climate change is ramping up the hazards, and a dry winter suggests another tough year is coming. by Dale Kasler and Nicole Blanchard, The Sacramento Bee / February 25, 2021 CALISTOGA, CA - SEPTEMBER 29: Firefighters watch the Glass Fire slowly creep across a clearing along Silverado Trail (CA-29) on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 in Calistoga, CA. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) TNS
(TNS) - On a crisp, breezy February morning near Lake Tahoe, a crew of five firefighters descended on a snow-covered, heavily-forested park straddling the California- Nevada border.