A WSJ opinion piece published Tuesday sheds some light on the reality of President Trump's remarks about the wildfires raging across California.
Albeit insensitive, the tweet points at a bigger picture - "gross mismanagement of the forests."
The piece, published by the WSJ editorial board goes on to state a big factor in wildfire contribution is an "overgrown government bureaucracy."
Around 57% of California forestland is owned by the federal government while majority of the rest of the land is regulated by the state.
With nearly 130 million trees dying in California forests between 2010 and 2017 due to drought and bark beetle infestations, the fallen dead trees added more combustible fuel to raging wildfires.
The cleanup of these trees has been hampered over the last 50 years because of laws like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, putting communities in dense forest areas at risk during fire seasons.
According to an April study by the National Science Foundation, thinning forests could also save Californians billions of gallons of water each year.
Read the full report at the Wall Street Journal.
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