California’s wildfire can make us feel helpless. Prop. 30 offers a way to fight back
25 October 2022
Published by: https://www.sacbee.com
USA – As a firefighter for three decades, I have witnessed firsthand the sense of helplessness that Californians feel when our communities are threatened by wildfire, most recently by the Mosquito and Caldor fires. But we don’t have to feel helpless: We can reduce fire risk and improve suppression.
Californians can fight back against the climatic forces that have created an era of megafires fueled by drought, extreme heat and ultra-dry vegetation. We can do so by targeting resources and committing to a plan to make our landscapes more resilient.
Research by the nonprofit Wildfire Conservancy shows that enhanced prevention and suppression programs could significantly reduce overall fire risk in California, making the state’s communities safer and its air healthier. To make that happen, Californians must invest.
Voters are being asked to make just such an investment this fall by approving Proposition 30. This ballot measure would implement a small income-tax surcharge of 1.75% on the wealthiest taxpayers, those with income in excess of $2 million a year. That would generate up to $1 billion a year for wildfire response and prevention.
The additional revenue would allow the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) to increase staffing by more than a third and expand vegetation treatment to make landscapes more resilient by 60%. Research shows that those two factors together would result in a 30% to 50% increase in fire suppression effectiveness, which would reduce the annual losses in California by more than 300,000 acres. That would take California back to lower levels of fire losses not seen since the 1980s.
Under the right conditions, as firefighters know, fires can be controlled and extinguished before they get out of hand. It is CalFire’s goal to keep wildfires under 10 acres, and it achieves that goal 95% of the time.
Preventing a fire from expanding catastrophically requires a fully staffed initial response and conditions that enable firefighters to engage safely. Vegetation that has been thinned or scoured by controlled burns keeps wildfires from burning explosively, creating opportunities for firefighters to respond effectively.
As the Wildfire Conservancy notes in its analysis of the added protection Prop. 30 would provide, “The window of opportunity that firefighters have to contain a wildfire is small. Fire is merciless and fast. Missing this window of opportunity has often proved disastrous.”
Another objective of Prop. 30 is to help California speed its transition to zero-emission transportation by providing consumer incentives to purchase battery-electric and hydrogen-fueled cars and trucks. That transition is essential if our society is to meet the imperative of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change and catastrophic wildfires are intertwined. Hotter temperatures and heat-scorched vegetation create the conditions that spawn such fires, which in turn emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases that exacerbate high-risk climate conditions. We can’t reverse the changes that have created these conditions, but we can break the cycle by limiting the acreage that burns each year.
Californians can fight back against the wildfires that destroy our communities, scorch our landscapes and foul our air. We don’t have to resign ourselves to a future in which wildfire overwhelms us year after year. We can invest in policies that have been shown to lower the risks. You can start by joining me in voting yes on Prop. 30.
Tim Edwards is a firefighter and the president of CalFire Local 2008.
