Los Angeles Mega-Fire the Tragic Consequence of Protecting Shrubs Before People
Mega-disaster was brought to California by insane choices based on pseudoscience and virtue-signalling.
Legal Insurrection readers will recall my post in which I estimate the millions of metric ton equivalents of carbon dioxide released as well note the destruction of wildlife habitat in the Greater Los Angeles area….which had many spectacular natural areas and parks before wind-swept fires began blazing through the region.
Fires that can be attributed to destructive policy choices based on pseudoscience and environmental virtue signaling.
However, when I wrote this post, I had no idea that eco-activist bureaucrats opted to nix fire safety procedures in the area in which the Palisades Fire stated in favor of a shrub.
In 2019, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) began replacing nearly 100-year-old power line poles cutting through Topanga State Park, when the project was halted within days by conservationists outraged that federally endangered Braunton’s milkvetch plants had been trampled during the process.
…But, after an amateur botanist hiking through the park during the work saw the harm done to some of the park’s Braunton’s milkvetch — a flowering shrub with only a few thousand specimens remaining in the wild — and complained, the project was completely halted, Courthouse News Service reported.
Instead of fire-hardening the park, the city — which the state said had undertaken the work without proper permitting — ended up paying $2 million in fines and was ordered by the California Coastal Commission to reverse the whole project and replant the rare herb.
That work saved about 200 Braunton’s milkvetch plants — almost all of which have now likely been torched in the wildfires that consumed Topanga Canyon, along with nearly 24,000 acres (37 square miles) of some of LA’s most sought-after real estate.
The LAWDP had crews and equipment there, and yet the whining of a virtue-signalling “expert” stopped fire prevention.
I am beyond angry now, and there are no words that can adequately express my rage.
My coverage of the Great Los Angeles Fire is driven by my experience with the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego. It was a devastating wildfire that began in late October as part of the traditional Santa Ana season.
The Cedar Fire was the largest wildfire in California’s history at the time, burning 273,246 acres of land and began when a lost hunter lit a small fire in the Cleveland National Forest to signal for help. Fueled by dry brush and winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour, the fire quickly spread out of control.
It took over a week to contain the blaze. When it was over 15 people were killed, including one firefighter, and devastated communities known for their natural beauty: Ramona, Lakeside, Poway, Scripps Ranch, Alpine, and Julian.
Over 2,300 homes were destroyed…and one of them was almost mine.
I had traveled to Richmond to celebrate my son’s first Halloween of trick-or-treating with my best friend who lives there. On October 26th, I poured my morning coffee and opened up the Drudge Report (when it was worthwhile reading).
The featured image on the page was the I-15 sign adjacent to our condo complex. I instantly knew that was not good news.
I immediately called my husband, who informed me that they were under mandatory evacuation orders. I asked him to save my antique Egyptology books. Ben, being both more romantic and practical, grabbed the wedding album and the important identity and fiscal documentation.
Fortunately, my young son and I were safe in Richmond and had our essentials with us.
However, my husband was among the last to leave, and it took him hours to get to his mom’s home (which is normally a 20 minute trip). In the end, a back patio of our condo unit burned. The remainder of our unit was saved because one of our neighbors was crazy enough to stay behind with a garden hose and the winds subsided shortly after hitting our area.
However. several adjacent units were destroyed.
You would think the Cedar Fire would have inspired California officials to take fire prevention activities more seriously. This includes clearing brush, no matter the species.
However, because one “expert” needed to virtue signal, one of the most beautiful communities in southern California lies in smoldering ruins.
Meanwhile, firefighters are clearing plants ahead of more winds in a move to prevent even more damage.
Firefighters are currently spending their time clearing dry brush away from PCH in Santa Monica.
With the Palisades fire only 2 miles away, it’s absolute madness that precious resources are still going to basic landscaping management. pic.twitter.com/AE5DNMjqGT
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 14, 2025
And, in one of the greatest ironies ever, it turns out Braunton’s milkvetch is fire-adapted and requires disturbance for propagation. The plant’s seeds persist in the soil bank for years, germinating after fires. The shrub acts as a pioneer species in recently disturbed areas.
Therefore, it is the least endangered species in the Los Angeles region at the present time. I hope that botanist feels good now.
Leftists: it was impossible to stop the fire!
Also Leftists: we gotta save the Braunton’s milkvetch shrub at all costs! Screw your fire prevention project! pic.twitter.com/BQsEcult8j
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) January 14, 2025
Blog space is limited, and many other bad choices led to this disaster.
My heart goes out to my niece, whose family (which includes an infant) was forced to evacuate. My heart breaks for those who died or who now have family and friends among the dead. I am concerned about the retirees and those relying on the equity they had built up, which has now gone up in smoke.
Our family stayed in San Diego after the Cedar Fire because we hoped that important lessons would be learned and this type of fire would never threaten us again.
Now I am on edge. Santa Ana winds are blowing here. Several small brush fires occurred today (though they appear contained). And I no longer trust our state agencies, our leaders, or our press.
I was wrong to hope. So now my husband and I are evaluating where we will relocate as soon as possible. I have to believe that thousands of others in California are watching this inferno and the response who have reached the same conclusion.
This mega-disaster was brought to California by insane choices based on pseudoscience and virtue-signalling.
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Comments
And years and years of practice. California had to work really hard to make such a complete mess of things. This has been a master class in societal destruction … and California is only getting warmed up.
Decades of deliberate bad policy choices led to this. IMO, what it comes down to is a set of misplaced priorities by CA leaders and a naive acceptance of this by the public. Nobody deserves the catastrophe unfolding in CA, not if they voted for this stupidity and not if they voted against it. IMO the.decades long series of one bad policy idea after another with poor outcomes but often at a distance or not directly impacting them got folks used to the bad policies and ‘the world didn’t end’ so they carried on with their lives…until now when the cascade effect of all those decades of bad policies have turned into catastrophe.
I’ll repost my comment from the earlier fire thread here.
You cannot look at the layout of these fires and believe that they were caused by anything but arson. There are too many, too far apart.
I was nervous because a small fire had started just 2 miles from my house the other day, but fortunately it was contained at less than 2 acres.
Previous comment:
The media isn’t doing a very good job of separating it, but there are actually TWO DIFFERENT major fires, in completely different spots. One in Palisades, that’s the one on the news, according to the fire app I look at, that’s now covered 23,713 acres and is still burning.
But there is a SECOND major fire centered in Eaton, a good ~25 miles away that has consumed 14,117 acres and is ALSO still burning.
And there was a THIRD ‘minor’ fire in Hurst, that ‘only’ consumed 799 acres (but is basically stopped at this point), which is ALSO a good 20 or so miles away from either of the others!
Not to mention about 10 different tiny minor fires that were stopped before consuming more than 1-2 acres or so.
The weather is windy and dry but cold. Its been in the 50’s to low 60’s here the whole time. Nature does not spark fire when its 60 degrees outside. MAYBE you could claim that MAYBE it was wind shoving stuff into power lines, but the idea that it’s ‘climate change’ starting the fires is lunacy.
Homeless nutcases or looters are out there intentionally setting all of these fires. The left has just been desperate to not admit this fact, but now its so bad, and their ‘climate change’ nonsense has just made them look WORSE, that now they’re actually starting to blame the actual cause of arson because that’s the only way left to try and deflect the blame, ‘oh we COULDN’T have been prepared for arsonists!’
Incidentally if you want to look at the current fire map I’ve been looking at this site to make sure it doesn’t get close to my house:
https://app.watchduty.org/i/40398
I believe that will center it pretty close to the fire locations just zoom out a bit and you can see all of it.
“their ‘climate change’ nonsense has just made them look WORSE, that now they’re actually starting to blame the actual cause of arson because that’s the only way left to try and deflect the blame, ‘oh we COULDN’T have been prepared for arsonists!’”
That’ll work for only as long as it takes them to catch the arsonists, and discover to their political horror that Soros DAs let them back on the street several times previously.
And oh, by the way, there is a very simple solution to most of this nonsense whining about powerlines and fires (that’s NOT what’s causing it, but still).
Bury the freaking power lines in any so-called ‘high risk’ areas. You don’t need to do the whole state, just the ‘high-risk’ areas that you claim are starting fires.
Anytime shrubbery is involved it always takes me back to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Working in that vein, Gavin Newsom does bear many similarities to the Black Knight … well the bastard child of the Black Knight ad Brave SIr Robin, maybe.
And (dismayingly) state-wide recall efforts being “mere flesh wounds.”
The vile, stupid, evil, incompetent and callous Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks in Commiefornia and elsewhere in the U.S. make the apparatchiks of the Soviet Union look adept and savvy, by comparison.
“Protecting shrubs before people”
It reminds me of the way the White House has been protecting Joe Biden.
You can be outraged all you want but you cannot be surprised.
The depth of depravity here can be well explained by reading Merchants of Despair which will unnerve and anger you in equal measure.
CA one party rule dem super majority making all the wrong decisions. Its going to get worse before it gets better. If it ever gets better at all. Leftists have inability to learn from their mistakes. Leftists will blame anybody but themselves, and double down on their failed policies. There will be no “course correction”. Lost decade.
My family and I survived the Cedar fire in October 2003.
That was crazy because it kept changing directions around the county.
At the time it was one of the biggest fires in California. Now it’s down the lust to #11.
Should have been grooming the shrubs instead of the kids.
I was horrified by accounts of the Paradise fire, which left 85 people dead, and which I believe happened north of LA in a mountainous area. This is the fire blamed on the power company, which went broke afterwards from suits and penalties. So, when a power company tries to implement the lessons from that fire by replacing wooden power poles with metal ones, and regrading roads to keep fire away from the roads (because fire burns oxygen, which car engines need to function, so cars driving too close to a fire will come to a stop), to find out that power company was PUNISHED for implementing fire safety procedures is just incredible. This fire was not an accident. It seems to be the direct result of bizarre leadership, and maybe a voting electorate which is way too involved with recreational drugs. Just a guess. But these voters lack the ability for any realistic assessment. They are pie in the sky dreamers who have voted over and over for incompetence.
What perplexes me is that if I were a Climate Change nut and believing it would cause more frequent and more fierce fires I would say, “Well what do we have to do to prevent them from being catastrophic?” Not only was nothing done, but actions taken appear to be the opposite of prudent, like cutting fire department budgets, keeping a reservoir empty for a long period and the referenced blocking of burying power lines. Politically, they should be destroyed for an incompetent response to their own rhetoric.
Gaia is such a bitch.
The eco-weenies who worship her move heaven and earth to save her precious weed, and in return she pulls her globular warmening trigger to kill them all.
The “amateur botanist” isn’t much more than a flower admirer if he didn’t know about the seed bank and fire adaptation of the plant he was worried about or maybe he just didn’t care. I remember spending a great deal of time on such things in botany classes out west. Redwood are another plant that suffered through fire suppression methods until it was discovered they did quite well and in fact needed fire on a periodic basis to thrive.
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