From the ashes: US Capitol tree from California stands as a reminder of wildfire, drought policy
This year’s United States Capitol Christmas Tree, adorned with colorful ornaments handcrafted by children across California, stands 84-feet tall behind the halls of the Congress.
The white fir, fondly called Sugar Bear, came from part of Six Rivers National Forest in the congressional district held by California Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.
While it stands as a monument to diversity as “The People’s Tree” in Washington D.C., Sugar Bear left brethren behind in a state that has been marred by wildfires and drought. The tree serves as a reminder to Congress about the impacts of climate change, wildfires and drought — and stalled legislation that might fund methods to mitigate those issues, members of California’s delegation mentioned.
“This year’s tree is a symbol of the beauty and the importance of our nation’s public lands,” Huffman said. “And it’s a reminder of our responsibility to conserve public lands so that everyone, including future generations, can continue to enjoy them.”
Prolonged drought in California could threaten access to clean groundwater for farming communities and has forced conservation efforts. Cal Fire estimates that wildfires burned more than 3 million acres this year. A couple of fires are still ongoing.
President Joe Biden said that West’s wildfires were a “blinking code red” for the U.S. to address climate change while touring California in September. The president has made combating climate change one of his main agendas.
Several members of California’s congressional delegation bemoaned the effects of wildfires and drought on the state at the tree’s lighting this month.
“California’s forests, as Nancy Pelosi and other members here certainly know, face many challenges – most notably, persistent drought and wildfires,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at the lighting. “I hope that this Congress and the Biden administration will really focus on those things and that we’ll be able to do something about it.”
A few days later, Feinstein and former Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott published an opinion piece titled “How Congress can help reduce the West’s wildfire problem” in the Los Angeles Daily News. Feinstein and Pimlott suggested five areas for policies that Congress should implement to deal with fires in the short term:
▪ Reform forest management practices, including by combining small, disparate fuel-reduction projects into large-scale regional ones.
▪ Put power lines underground, insulate energy towers, improve power shut-off practices and reinforce homes and other buildings.
▪ Raise salaries for federal firefighters and make more positions permanent rather than seasonal.
▪ Invest in more training for federal firefighters, particularly for controlled burns.
▪ Adapt the biomass industry and timber-use initiatives to build an economy for small timber removal.
“We fully support robust actions to get climate change under control; that’s the only way we’ll ultimately decrease the rates of catastrophic wildfire,” they wrote. “Until that happens, we need to direct our attention toward strategies that will have quicker results.”
Their suggestions are on the table through the Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act and Wildfire Emergency Act, among other measures.
Some legislation to address wildfires, drought and climate issues are part of Biden’s sweeping spending package that the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have been fighting over for months.
The Build Back Better Act, which recently passed the House but needs to pass the Senate before going to the president’s desk for a signature, would provide funding for wildfire prevention, drought relief, conservation efforts, climate change research and other environmental initiatives. Biden intended $15 billion of the $1.75 trillion act go toward making forests less combustible nationwide over the next decade.
California received billions in funding for wildfire and drought issues over the next decade through congressional spending packages that passed this fall. The state got $84 million to protect against wildfires and $3.5 billion for water projects over the next five years as part of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that passed last month, according to estimates released by California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
Though the tree might be bipartisan, as it comes from a forest shared by Huffman and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, climate change initiatives are not. Most Republicans want to address wildfires and drought, but many disagree about what some of the funding should target.
LaMalfa said that many residents from his district — where almost 1.7 million acres burned this summer — were still struggling to rebuild from major wildfires over the years.
“Proper forest management practices would reduce the damage that is done by wildfires and help keep our water and air supplies clean, our towns and wildlife habitats safer,” he said.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
