PLACER CO., 7/5/25 – Gov. Gavin Newsom has a plan to protect forestlands across the state from wildfire.
Now, all President Donald Trump has to do is sign it.
Newsom on Tuesday called on Trump to invest more federal funding towards wildfire prevention efforts, unveiling a model executive order he sent to the White House that would require the federal government to match state and local investments.
“The state can only do so much,” Newsom said. “The Trump administration needs to step up, and they need to fund these efforts — not just here in California — but throughout the Western United States. Lives and property are on the line.”
Newsom’s request of Trump, dubbed “Make America Rake Again,” is a cheeky reference to when Trump said the state should “rake the forest floors” to prevent wildfires during his 2019 visit after the devastating Camp Fire.
The call also comes a month after the Trump administration took over the California National Guard and sent troops to Los Angeles to respond to protests in opposition to recent immigration enforcement, which Newsom called “nothing more than theater.”
Part of Newsom’s ask was to return those troops to firefighting duties.
In California, 57% of forestland is owned by the U.S. government, but only 3% is owned by the state, according to Newsom.
The state has set aside an “unprecedented” amount of funding of more than $4 billion for wildfire protection and forest resilience for fiscal year 2024-2025, compared to the over $7 billion allotted by the federal government for 238 million acres nationwide, Newsom said.
Anale Burlew, chief deputy director of operations for Cal Fire, said more than 3,200 wildfires have happened since the start of the year, but they often are not heard of because of prevention strategies already in place.
“That’s the key. Keep these fires small. Don’t let them be newsworthy because those prevention measures are already in place,” she said.
But Burlew said continuing to do so requires everyone to pitch in.
“It’s a shared mission between local, state, tribal, the federal government, communities and every individual,” she said. “Together, we can reduce the risk and protect California.”
Newsom has helped put the state in deep debt. Where’d all that COVID money disappear to? Keep voting for the Democrats, and watch the state economy wither away, farms shut down, and more people leaving. Newsom cant even govern this state but he can fly to South Carolina this week. He never apologized to Danielle Bologna after her husband and son were shot to death by an illegal alien the city of San Francisco under Newsom as Mayor gave aid and comfort to. Nothing matters to Newsom except Newsom.
The “prevention strategies already in place” in California are in large part focused on stripping forests of potential fuel, relying heavily on strategies such as forest thinning. But techniques like forest thinning can actually increase the intensity of future wildfires by stripping forests of their natural moisture and biodiversity when overused or used aggressively. So as our climate warms and wildfires in California and the Western US become more fierce and destructive, it is imperative that we rely not only on methods that remove fuel load, such as the forest thinning that Governor Newsom loves so much, but also on tactics such as community resilience and home hardening. Proactively “hardening” structures and neighborhoods against the effects of wildfire will not address the root causes of increasingly severe wildfire (intensified by climate change), but neither will forest thinning. However, “hardening” communities will protect the lives and livelihoods of Californians (and others affected by wildfires) in a way that forest thinning cannot. Governor Newsom should allocate more state funding (and federal funding, if his demand is successful) to community hardening initiatives.