California forum letters: Bee readers take on climate action plan, Roseville mask debate

Protect CA bears

“Citing wildfires, animal welfare activists petition California officials to stop bear hunting,” (sacbee.com, Jan. 21)

As a 32-year resident of Tahoe, I’m accustomed to living around bears. It’s par for the course to hear fond anecdotes about favorite local bears while promoting education in our community to ensure neighbors remain “bear aware” to prevent conflict. Our bears face unprecedented challenges: Whether it’s catastrophic wildfires, increased vehicle strikes, record drought or shortened hibernation times due to a warming climate, they’re being hit from all angles.

Our state agency has no clue how many bears are in the state or the impact these recent threats have had. Despite this, they still allow up to 1,700 bears to be killed by hunters every year. I urge the California Fish and Game Commission to heed a petition to pause bear hunting until the agency is able to adequately study our bears.

We absolutely need to collect quality science on the health of the population before we allow our bears to be killed for sport.

Fauna Tomlinson

Tahoe City

Empty promises

“After years of promises, Sacramento County is poised to bury climate action in bureaucracy,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 10)

Reading this editorial on the county Climate Action Plan made me outraged. Back in December 2020, when my supervisor, Phil Serna, and the rest of the Board of Supervisors declared a climate emergency, I felt represented, even encouraged. I expected the supervisors to act quickly and decisively, as that’s what leaders do in a crisis. What happened?

Elizabeth Barrett

Sacramento

Urgent action

“After years of promises, Sacramento County is poised to bury climate action in bureaucracy,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 10)

Climate change will affect everyone in Sacramento County and fall most heavily on low-income people and people of color who are already struggling. The Board of Supervisors should include these communities in this work by expanding the size of the advisory board, and county staff must develop a stronger Climate Action Plan.

The county must adequately fund and staff both. This is crucial for the future of the people of Sacramento County, and we need proper resources to reflect this urgency.

Christine Bailey

Gold River

Incentivize

“Regulators unveil wildfire safety plan. Will it fix rural California’s insurance crisis?” (sacbee.com, Feb. 15)

Working with communities to “harden” their properties against wildfire is a great idea. But if you take into consideration the fact that we couldn’t get everyone to wear an inexpensive mask to protect their community from a deadly pandemic, I’m afraid that getting those same folks to spend thousands of dollars “hardening” their property to protect their community from a devastating wildfire will be very difficult.

Suggestion: Offer generous incentives (extremely low-interest loans and/or rebates) at the outset so all those interested can take advantage. Also, make those who choose not to participate in the program liable to lawsuits from their neighbors if a fire that could have been mitigated destroys homes and property.

Katy Pridy

Carmichael

Insufficient

“Too extreme? Why UC researchers propose idea of cutting down 80% of Sierra trees,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 10)

The study’s conclusion that so much of our forests must go, plus present research that confirms a recurrent historic drought, makes clear that present agencies and currently committed resources are woefully insufficient. The west faces from climate change and human folly a disruption that arguably surpasses the danger levels of the ongoing COVID crisis.

Civilizations survive disease scourges but are less resilient to the loss of the environment and resources that sustain them. War preparedness metaphors are inadequate to call for what measures must emerge, extreme as they may be.

Spencer P. Le Gate

Sacramento

Rethinking water

“West megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 15)

It’s time to rethink the way water is allocated in our state. Currently, 80% of California’s developed water goes to a handful of agri-industrialists who pocket millions of dollars annually on water infrastructure built and maintained by taxpayer dollars.

One project currently in the pipeline is the proposed $5 billion Sites Reservoir in Colusa and Butte counties. It’s an off-stream project – water will be piped 14 miles from the Sacramento River and pumped into the reservoir. It’s projected to take 60% of Sacramento River flows in peak wet years and lesser amounts in dry years, reducing flows through the already imperiled Delta. We can’t keep wasting our taxpayer money on projects like Sites in a hotter, drier California.

Klara East

Sacramento

Shameful behavior

“Inside Roseville school board’s politically driven defiance of California’s mask mandate,” (sacbee.com, Feb. 16)

Opinion writer Hannah Holzer’s column describing audience behavior during a recent Roseville Joint Union High School District board meeting on mask mandates gives another example of the rapid breakdown of civility. People have significantly different opinions on this issue and are entitled to passionately express those opinions, but that does not entitle anyone to “ridicule an elementary-school-aged child for wearing a mask.”

The school board’s responsibility is to create a safe learning environment in schools. What did the board do to protect this child from ridicule? Adults who conduct themselves in such a manner should be ashamed of themselves.

A good rule of thumb in these situations would be: Are you engaged in behaviors you would want your child to model?

John Maltbie

El Dorado Hills