David J. Silva: If liberals allowed forest thinning, then forests wouldn’t burn

Gov. Jerry Brown recently stated that we should expect these enormous forest fires that we have experienced in the last few years to be the “new normal for California.” Hundreds of thousands of acres of forests have burned, along with thousands of homes and business’s. In this year alone, more than 50 people have died because of forest fires.

The smoke has polluted our air and caused severe health problems for millions of people including me. Billions of dollars in assets have been lost and the cost of fighting the fires is enormous. Why is this happening to California, because our state is run by the environmentalists who refuse to allow dead trees and brush to be cleaned out. They insist that our forests be kept “pristine” and “natural” regardless of the cost in devastated forests, destroyed property and worst of all, lost lives.

I wish every person in California would drive through the our burned forests and by people’s homes that have been destroyed and you should go to the graves of those who died, including firefighters who lost their lives fighting the fires. You will see just how “pristine” and “natural” our forests look. It is time to rescue California from the environmentalists.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 10:18 AM with the headline "David J. Silva: If liberals allowed forest thinning, then forests wouldn’t burn."