Author, Chuck Frank

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As of August 19, 2020 there were 367 wildfires burning in California sparked by massive rounds of lightening strikes.  One of the main areas of the state which are affected and still burning is the Sierra Nevada Mountain range that begins in the foothills and lies on a long strip that is on the East side of the State of California and then rises in elevation to 7,365 feet at Echo Summit on the way to Lake Tahoe and then finally  drifts over into the State of Nevada.  The Sierra Nevada Mountain range is a truly a marvel to see through all seasons while Lake Tahoe is the blue diamond of the world.

Through my years as a child and also a teen I spent many weeks fishing and swimming in these mountains and took more than one hike into Desolation Wilderness, a granite rock filled dream in an area filled with various lakes and steams that can only be seen by airplane or by hiking in.

After spending many years in these mountains since I was 8 years old, I never saw one major wildfire from 1950 on.  But then  fires began sweeping across America in the latter 80’s beginning with the Yellowstone Fire in 1988.  While not a victim of climate change, the Yellowstone fire was birthed out of a new Forest Service policy billed as “experimental environmentalism” that allowed forest fires to burn which were started by lighting.  With that, President Reagan abruptly canceled the policy yet many years later the Clinton administration picked it up again and began scaling back all of the logging in California and closed down the entrances to logging roads while also backfilling many of them with backhoes in order to “protect” the spotted owl and finally 1000 other species. Thus, not climate change but the inability to fight fires because of no access became the nightmare that has followed we the people ever since.  With fires being a major factor in various locations of the West and also the Sierras, the American people are still not out of the woods when it comes to thinning the overgrown forests which will take decades to fix and protect from wildfires.  Essentially, these infernos in California and other states were created though decades of forestry mismanagement that relied on theories while catering to environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and many others.

The question may arise…why has it taken so long to fix those federal and state agencies that are responsible for so many wildfires every year that could have been prevented through simple management practices such as bringing in logging contractors to thin the second growth forests.   It is because of past government corruption that was investigated years ago by a person that shared this true story.  His dad was asked to investigate the many areas of forestry mismanagement in the State of California.  He began at the very bottom and worked his way up to the top.  He found corruption everywhere and when he finally got to the California State legislature and the Governor he even found corruption there as well and was asked to then stop investigating.  Why was he asked to stop?  It is obvious.  Was there big lobby money going to various persons in the legislature who were connected in some way to either environmentalist organizations but also other players who fly under the radar?

I cannot believe that the smoke filled West which I am breathing at this very moment is still the result of Climate Change when all of the evidence points to forestry service corruption, negligence,  decades of improper leadership and politics, but all the while, millions of acres burn regularly and hundreds of millions of dollars are extracted from taxpayers for something that could have been prevented.

Misinformation is alive and well in the late great State of California and other parts of the lost West.

See the second edition of HOUSE OF LORDS:
THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY and the chapter titled,
“The Rising Inferno.”  Author Charles W. Frank
Available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Walmart