Chaparral Wisdom

Those we once thought valued the natural world
are targeting all of wild California

To Governor Newsom, Senator Stern, and the Democratic Party in California,

If Senate BIll 1370 becomes law, it will codify one of the final pieces in the movement in California that views nature and wild through an anthropocentric lens. The paradigm justifies the clearance of habitat, the logging of forests, and the demonization of shrubland ecosystems through a well crafted, but false narrative. According to this narrative, based on models without data, magical thinking about prehistoric fire use, and confirmation bias, nature is seen as overgrown and in need of immediate mitigation. The dream is to create artificial landscapes pleasing to our needs – park-like forests, chaparral broken up into widely spaced clumps, expansive rangelands unencumbered by shrubs and trees, and no so-called “bad” fire.

Yes, there are many, most in fact, who claim with an abundance of rhetoric, that data or opinions contrary to this dream are false. Objective, scientific debate is often shut down with ad hominem characterizations, or worse. And the very idea of wilderness becomes diminished by identity politics.

During such a time is when the ability to question becomes even more crucial. During such a time is when laws created by more enlightened people are so important. During such a time is when the power of the individual needs protection. CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) was created for such a time.

It makes perfect sense why the governor wants to eliminate CEQA protections and why many are in favor of such action. Democracy can be so annoying.

Senator Stern (the bill’s sponsor) and the California Legislature have an opportunity to to say no to this nonsense, to support the environment, and to step away from the mob.

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The current legislative session is ending this week.
Please write your representative opposing the bill.

SB 1370 has new, horrible amendments via the governor’s office. If we let him, Newsom will set the stage for eliminating as much Wild Nature in California as Cal Fire, misguided non-profits, and the timber industry can get away with. They seek to replace Wild with artificial, park-like landscapes through clearing, logging, and herbicide.

So, please, send a follow up note (or your first one) to your representatives today or tomorrow to kill this bill. The legislature adjourns this Friday.

Much of the work we have done over the past 20 years will be undone by SB 1370. It authorizes massive, landscape scale clearance of chaparral across California – clearance that will be nearly impossible to stop.

It is vital we shout out one more time. Vital. This is our last chance.

Please do three things to reemphasize your opposition to SB 1370 (with reasons listed below):

1. Send a follow up comment (or your first one) to your State Assembly and Senate reps.
   Find your Reps contact info here
2. Post your comment to the bill’s authors AND ask them to withdraw their bill at the Comments to Authors tab. You’ll need to register first, but it’s easy to do.
3. Call your Rep’s Sacramento offices.

The new information you can include in your follow up note.
Please do not cut and paste.
Use our own words

1. SB 1370 contradicts the state’s own wildfire task force. The bill’s goal of “Accelerating landscape-scale vegetative fuel treatment,” contradicts the findings of the Governor’s own Task Force on Forest Resilience and Wildfire which states:

“What Doesn’t Work
– WIDESPREAD BRUSH CLEARING:
In the absence of extreme wind, strategically-based fuel breaks can be highly effective at reducing fire risk, but more widespread chaparral clearing can also cause damage by completely removing native vegetation, impacting habitat and increasing the risk of spreading more flammable non-native species, which can also indirectly
increase fire risk.“

2. Exempts landscape level clearance from environmental protection laws. The bill gives near dictatorial power to the California Board of Forestry (through what is called a CRP – Certified Regulatory Program) to allow massive landscape scale habitat clearance projects in chaparral and sage scrub AND to exempt such projects from nearly every environmental protection law including the California Endangered Species Act, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the California Coastal Act.

3. The public is shut out. There is no requirement for public hearings for the individual projects. In addition, there is no requirement to provide notice to the local community immediately surrounding the proposed treatment project. SB 1370 vests enforcement responsibility in the Attorney General or District Attorney and only at the request of governmental agencies and boards. While a citizen or environmental group could challenge a project under the Code of Civil Procedure there is no explicit provision to allow such a thing as the public enjoys under CEQA. A court very well may interpret such provisions as barring citizen suits.  We have already pointed out to the Attorney General numerous vegetation treatment projects that violate the Cal Vegetation Treatment Program (VTP) – despite the document being deficient under CEQA, and have yet to see any willingness of the Attorney General to intervene, let alone prosecute.

Other points

1. SB 1370 creates expedited permitting for large habitat clearance and logging projects that removes our ability to question Cal Fire and other entities that have a record of doing clearance projects that fail to follow the science and, as a consequence, can increase the flammability of the landscape, damage the ecological health of wildlands, and reduce biodiversity. This “streamlining” process of project approval takes the environmental safety guardrails off Cal Fire and associated agencies, allowing serious mistakes to move forward without question. Such an approach has been responsible for many other industrial and land management disasters in our nation’s history.
   
   2. Extensive clearance projects will increase the conversion of chaparral and sage scrub to non-native weedlands, causing increased flammability, threats to our communities, and loss of habitat. Nearly all wildfires ignite in grassy fuel.

*Some of the environmental laws that would be waived for large habitat clearance and logging projects include: California Endangered Species Act, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Water Code permits and waste discharge requirements, the California Coastal Act and Coastal Commission’s administrative regulations, Obstruction of Streams, Smoke Management Guidelines for Prescribed Burning, and state agency consultation requirements.

Statement by state environmental groups opposing SB 1370.

Become more familiar with the science and what is at risk on our “Fuel” Treatments and Prescribed Fire pages.

The current bill and its status can be viewed here. Warning – behind the scenes amendments will not appear here until they are official.

Photo below: Grinding machines, prescribed fire, and herbicides are equal opportunity killers of life in the chaparral.