Chapter 17


Laura Contreras 

    I believe that wildfires should be put out by firefighters. There are many ways in which the government can control or prevent a fire like digging trenches, remove dead trees before a heatwave or burn out the dry grass before a heatwave so they have control over the fire. These are just some examples that I think are better to do.  The International Association of Fire and Rescue Services (CTIF) published an article in 2018, "Many believe dead trees should be completely removed from the California forests, especially partially burned trees from previous forest fires, as dry wood and other vegetation may be more susceptible to catching on fire during droughts"(CTIF) For me what the article says is right, and are the principal causes of the fires in California, but who's the responsible? The book mentions that the main responsibility is on the state governor. "Part of every governor's responsibilities is to handle state emergencies. When massive wildfires ravaged parts of Southern California in 2007." (Sidlow pg. 398). 

    They're a controversy in this topic because some people blame the state and other people blame the federal government. In one tweet from 2018, President Trump mentioned, "There is no reason for this massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forest. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!" (Donald J. Trump) Even if the president were right, it would just be one factor of many. Another really huge one that has risen over these past few years is the record-breaking drought due to the changing climate here in California. As the article mentions, " Firefighters and researchers alike claim that forest management is only one component in mitigating the impacts of wildfires, particularly in California, as the state deals with record-breaking drought and other impacts from the changing climate."(CTIF) While some believe is a federal problem the president Trump does not think the same. I think that the president should not be blaming the state of Californi since the majority of the forest is federal land. This is just an example of how the federal and state governments have different opinions and they continuously argue about different situations. 

    I think that the federal government should be more involved with the local government. One example of what I mean is when the problems in education were very delicate in the United States so the president George W. Bush pass the No Child Left Behind(NCLB) Act in 200. As the book says, "The federal government thus became involved to an even greater extent in an area (education) that traditionally had been overseen by state and local governments." (Sidlow. pg 402) Even this topic is controversial we see how the government tried to take action that the state government did not take. I believe that both the state and federal governmentsa should have one common purpose.

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