Raking leaves

    “I was watching the firemen the other day and they were raking areas, they were raking areas where the fire was right over there."

                                       Donald Trump, on the California fires

Don't laugh.  

Sure, he's an ignorant know-it-all, but instead of scoffing, let's use this to deal with a real problem.

Donald Trump is getting mocked for this comment, said first on Fox News to Chris Wallace and then repeated in California when he commented that they don't have a big forest fire problems in Finland. 

"He thinks this is Central Park," one commenter said. 

"He thinks California is Finland. Duh!," another one said. 

People eager to mock Trump have their opportunity. His comments do imply a fundamental misunderstanding of the realities of managing federal forests versus suburban back yards. And, to state the obvious, Finland is cooler and wetter then California.

But the better path is to take Trump seriously and encourage him to keep doubling down. Thank you, Mr. Trump, you are a genius. You are exactly right. 

Many Americans are so accustomed to thinking that whatever Trump says must be wrong that they are blinded to this opportunity. Trump just said--admitted--that our federal forests are under-managed and that we should do something about it. Good. Let's appropriate some money and hire some maintenance crews now. Let's go to work.

In fact there are two related problems. 

The first is the now-well-known "forest urban interface." California and southern Oregon are in the Mediterranean Climate Zone, producing dense scrub oak and brush, underlaid with grass. The vegetation is very flammable in the dry summers and early falls. Many landowners like it untended, which is easiest, free, and saves water. There is the moral value that it preserves wildlife, and the aesthetic sensibility that it is natural and therefore good and beautiful as it is. The idea is to avoid moving to an area and then trying to change the landscape into some lush green Martha Stewart Connecticut. 

Natural is a fire hazard, when there are people around to start fires, and when wooden homes and cars with gas tanks and propane barbecue tanks are next to other homes. Homeowners are advised to create a "defensible space." Many do not. 

Under the scrub oak and brush

Trump is actually correct. Suburban landowners can and should reduce fire hazards by cutting grass, raking up dry material, thinning brush, and creating fire breaks. Fire marshals and local governments have a role here with ordinances to reduce hazards.

Forest management.  This is where Trump is most easily mocked. The notion of raking leaves out of the millions of acres of timbered forest lands is laughable, but the concept of managing significant areas of our forests to reduce forest fires is good public policy. Currently the federal forests have areas that would immediately benefit from thinning, and Trump is the executive in charge of those forests. Of course, we aren't going to hire crews to rake out all the forests and turn them into Central Park. Federal forest lands have multiple overlapping and conflicting goals, but one of those goals is public safety and reducing fire hazards, and we have Trump on record saying that under-management of forests is a problem. 

He is right, they are under-managed. They have been starved for resources to do that work. Let's hold him to doing something about it. If appropriating money and signing legislation to reduce excessive fuel loading in targeted areas works to make Trump look smart, then it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

It is going to start raining, finally, in Southern Oregon beginning this Wednesday. Let's hire a few thousand people and put them to work. The marijuana harvest is wrapping up and there are people available.