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CA Rep Tom McClintock's piece in The WSJ explains fire history in CA. Fire is natural part of 'the hot furnace.' These cycles are long-term (hundreds of years) events. Since Europeans have been in CA changes in grazing, logging, fire prevention subdued some fires. Policy changes limiting these added fuel. When mother nature hits big: volcanoes, tsunamis, fires, pandemics, earthquakes, there is little man can do.

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That’s a good article. I grew up in Santa Barbara county and backpacked as a kid all over the Sierra Mountains. I remember seeing old and new signs of forest fires all over where we hiked. Not so many signs in the coastal mountain ranges. But, McClintock is right about how long fire has been a part of the ecosystem there. It’s amazing to think the Lodgepole pine evolved so that its pine cones open up and release their seeds during a fire. I don’t think we can prevent damage from disasters, like fires and earthquakes, but they can be minimized.

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