Owl in America || January 14, 2025
Notes from an American environmentalist
“Owl in America” is a series of letters chronicling the Trump years from the perspective of an environmental lawyer. The first administration brought chaos to the framework of laws that protect America’s public lands and wildlife, only some of which was repaired during Biden’s term. It remains to be seen whether the increased preparedness of incoming policy-makers will result in increased efficacy at dismantling the executive agencies that administer these lands and protections. These notes will document that transformation.
Misinformation, disinformation, and flawed assumptions about the Los Angeles fires, who’s to blame, and where we should go from here.
The L.A. fires rage on, and the winds have picked back up today. Gusts of 72 miles an hour were recorded this morning. New fires have broken out in heavily populated Riverside County, east of L.A., triggering evacuations. The winds are not expected to die back down for two days. My heart is filled with grief for lost lives and sorrow for the hard road ahead for Angelenos—and honestly, for all of us.
I listed Susan Tweit’s suggestions for sending aid in my previous post. I’ll add a couple more resources to consider at the bottom of this one. As always, feel free to offer more suggestions for sending aid to Los Angeles in the comments.
It has to be said that our incoming presidential administration has made a mockery of public officials’ role in times of great national disaster: to bring aid, solace, and solutions. Instead, former president Trump, his allied politicians, and the talking heads in right-wing media have fomented a cauldron of outright, vicious lies and misdirected blame.
Most of it will have been hard to avoid for anyone following the news, but to get the flavor, here is a recent piece written by a self-proclaimed “voice for working collar America, the stories behind the folks who build, feed, and clothe a nation. It’s not about blue collar or white collar, it’s about a hardworking traditional ethos and a practical self-reliance rooted in reality, community, and common sense.”
The piece neatly encapsulates most of the coded and not-so-coded narratives being spread by the type of voices that have taken this nightmare opportunity to disparage immigrants, minorities, the homeless, Californians, women, endangered wildlife, Democrats, liberals, or any other group they’d like to smear. It’s an infuriating slog to read, but it’s a handy one-stop shop for all the nonsense: Why Los Angeles Is Burning: Rural California tried to warn you (PDF attached below)
So, to provide what clarity I can, I’ll share a few words on the misinformation and disinformation flooding the conversation.
Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong.
Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts.
I’ve paraphrased the statements below. Not all of these statements have been made by right-wing figures, media, or climate deniers; some of them are being passed around by well-intentioned liberals, environmentalists, and climate believers.
Disinformation: Surplus river water flowing out to the ocean over 300 miles north at San Francisco’s Golden Gate could have been diverted to Los Angeles for use in fighting fires, but for state and federal laws requiring river flows sufficient to protect the endangered delta smelt (a tiny fish). Because of this fish, the fire hydrants in Los Angeles were soon empty when the fires broke out.
No. The delta smelt is impacted by water flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 300 miles away in northern California. Some water from that area is pumped down the length of California to be distributed across the entire Southern California region, which includes the vast Inland Empire and urban development spreading 100 miles south to San Diego.
The city of Los Angeles itself gets about a quarter of its water from local sources or from its dedicated pipeline from the Owens Valley in far Eastern California. It purchases the remainder from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which, as its name implies, serves the sprawling megalopolis that is the Los Angeles to San Diego corridor that stretches far inland and includes about 20 million humans. Of that, less than a third comes from northern California. So, Los Angeles only gets roughly one-fifth of its water supply from the northern delta where the beleaguered smelt reside.
The reservoirs supplying L.A.’s fire hydrants were full when the fires began. The immense rate of the initial outbreak meant that firefighters drew down the reservoirs quickly. In Pacific Palisades, for example, the first night of the fires:
The system relies on three nearby water tanks located downhill from the site, which each holds 1 million gallons. With all the pumping to stop the fires, the tanks needed time to be refilled to restore pressure so the water could continue flowing uphill. High winds prevented helicopters from dropping water from the air, which only increased the pressure on the water tanks in the Palisades area. (Inside Climate News)
The water that some call “wasted” because it flows out to the ocean from northern California’s rivers serves other purposes besides providing delta smelt habitat: it also keeps the delta’s water fresh enough to serve as the drinking water source for other humans. Diverting even more to Southern California could result in undrinkable brackish water for many northern Californians.
Even if some official were to succeed in ordering the state water engineers to '“open the tap” in northern California as Trump has suggested, the water couldn’t go to L.A. It is legally spoken for by the farmers of the Central Valley, who are next in line for priority water rights after the in-stream flows required by state and federal law.
Disinformation: The L.A. fires occurred because environmentalists and/or corrupt state officials have prevented overgrown forests from being thinned, burned, raked, what have you.
No. Los Angeles is a Mediterranean chaparral—dry scrub—ecosystem (what’s left of it). Some sort of thinning and/or burning and/or raking in the forests of the Sierra Nevada hundreds of miles to the north would not have prevented these fires.
California is a very long and very large state so it’s easy to forget that it can more properly be thought of as encompassing two regions: it’s part of the desert Southwest along with Arizona and southern Nevada and New Mexico, and it’s part of the Pacific Northwest along with Oregon and Washington. Generalities from the wetter, forested northern portion of the state cannot be applied to the chaparral-and-desert southern part.
Even otherwise thoughtful and spot-on pieces about the wildfire have stated that some form of increased forest or vegetation management could have prevented these fires from being so destructive. I suppose we will eventually understand that when western wildfires are driven by hurricane-force dry winds, there is no prior “management”—nor any human action—that can stop them.
Fire scientist Jon Keeley says, “Nobody talks about trying to stop earthquakes. Wildfires require the same kind of approach.”
We learned this truth in the 2020 Labor Day fires that burned a million acres in Oregon after being driven down the western slope of the Cascade mountains by a hot, eastern windstorm. We learned this in the horrific 2022 destruction of the town of Greenville, California, which the Dixie Fire burned to rubble in 30 minutes: gale-force winds drove the flames directly through forests “treated” with years of thinning, fuel breaks, and prescribed burning projects that completely surrounded the town yet completely failed to stop the fire. We are learning this lesson again in L.A. now, and I hope we will remember it this time.
Furthermore, Los Angeles is, broadly speaking, a chaparral ecosystem surrounded by desert. In California, 80% of buildings lost to fire each year are within chaparral/scrub or grasslands. This percentage is likely to increase for 2025, with the ongoing, terrible loss of structures in L.A.’s chaparral landscape. Statements about fuels in forests are inapplicable to fires in the vast majority of the state.
Prescribed burning in the shrubby hillsides where the fires started would also have had no impact. UCLA fire scientist Jon Keeley, who also works for the U.S. Geological Survey, notes that:
[W]hen you get to Southern California and chaparral, it’s totally different. Fires, first off, were never very frequent there. And with more people in the landscape starting more and more fires, we have no unusual fuel accumulation. And so doing prescription burning isn’t going to change the fuel structure.
Plus, when you have [hot, dry] Santa Ana winds, it doesn’t matter what the fuel structure looks like. It doesn’t matter if you have done prescription burning. When you have these high winds, even if they run into a prescribed burn, the embers are just blown right over that burned area and ignite on the other side. (Mother Jones)
In 2017, the Eagle Creek Fire broke out in Oregon’s Columbia Gorge, started by a teen with fireworks. Like the L.A. fires, it was spread at high speed by high winds through a drought-stricken landscape. Sparks from the fire on the Oregon side were driven across the Columbia River, over a mile wide at that point, to ignite fires on the Washington side. It’s laughable to imagine that any sort of human effort to thin forests or create a firebreak could function better than a mile-wide river, yet people continue to push that narrative.
There’s a nuance here that should be understood, while keeping in mind that the recent fires that have grown massively and decimated entire towns, including those in L.A., were driven by windstorms. In the situation of a slow-moving, non-wind-driven fire, some forest management around homes situated in forests can help (again, this refers to homes in forests, not to homes built in grasslands or scrub, like Los Angeles).
For fires that are not wind-driven, fuel breaks or thinned areas around forested towns or neighborhoods can slow the spread or reduce the intensity (but with wind-driven fires, all bets are off). If there are enough firefighters on scene (always a big ‘if’), slowing and cooling the flames can give them an opportunity to control the blaze before it spreads into town. Supporting smart forest management near human habitation makes sense; thinning in the backcountry or in old-growth forests does not. That nuance is important to tease out, but unfortunately, few take the opportunity.
Partial misinformation: The L.A. wildfires were caused by climate change.
Yes and no. Yes, in that every extreme weather event these days is more extreme because there’s more heat energy in the atmosphere now. Yes, in that droughts are more severe and/or longer-lasting, such that this one has extended through the normally wet winter. No, in that this type of fire is a natural part of the southern California climate regime.
Misinformation: There is something we can do to stop wildfires.
No. They have always come, and they will always come. When they are driven by windstorms, we cannot stop them with all the resources at our disposal; might just as well try to stop the wind. We have enough data now (actually, we’ve had it for a long time) to know where we can expect winds to interact with topography to bring fires down from the hills. We know humans will start fires and there is no way to stop them. It’s what we do.
A clear-eyed bottom line
My takeaway is this: we knowingly choose to build flammable structures directly in the path of well-known, enduring fire superhighways. Climate change has made extreme weather more likely; this time, a lengthy drought lined up with a high-wind event and human-caused ignitions to bring about a heartbreaking disaster. Humans set fires everywhere they go (I’ve written about why this is so) and humans almost certainly started the L.A. fires. In the future, humans will go on starting fires, the land will become ever more droughty, and the hot, dry Santa Ana winds will continue their ancient dance from the ridges down to the ocean. All of these will happen at the same time again, and more big fires will come.
Much talk of forest thinning, prescribed burning, diverting more water from wetter parts of the state—and all talk of having white males in charge of fire departments instead of literally anyone else—these are distractions and false solutions that divert badly-needed resources from where they can actually do some good: helping people in fire-prone places to harden their homes against the eventuality of uncontrollable wildfire, and helping those who want to rebuild to do so out of fire’s path.
As a society, our tendency to assign blame externally rather than engage in reality has prevented us from being able to learn from our mistakes and change our behavior. Talk of rebuilding Pacific Palisades has already begun; I suppose we’ll see where that leads us.
A Clarity Curriculum
The following sources address various facets of the bad information going around and when considered as a whole, can give readers a fairly well-rounded understanding of the causes and consequences of—and rational responses to—the Los Angeles fires and western wildfire in general. Taken together, they also leave the reader with a sense of hope: fire is inevitable, loss of human life and property are not. We just need to make smarter choices.
Well worth a cup of coffee and an hour or two of reading time. If you only have time for a little bit, I’d suggest prioritizing the first two.
Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts | Stephen Pyne and Jack Cohen are wildland fire experts who clarify fire’s cultural and scientific roles. They urge that our understanding and relationship to fire must change if we are to prevent these inevitable wildfires from being so destructive.
What We’re Missing About the Cause of the LA Wildfires | UCLA fire scientist Jon Keeley explains the role of infrastructure, power lines, climate, and vegetation management in the intensity of the Los Angeles blazes.
Los Angeles burns: What you need to know | Climate scientist Andrew Dressler clarifies which aspects of the L.A. fires can be attributed to climate change. At one point, he does appear to imply that some sort of fuels/vegetation management could have played a role in reducing harm; it likely could not have, in this case. Fire ecology is not his area of expertise so that part can be left to the previous source, Jon Keeley.
Misinformation Spreads Like Wildfire Online While LA Neighborhoods Burn | This piece explains the truth behind the loss of water pressure in some 200 Los Angeles fire hydrants the first night of the fires, and clarifies how L.A. gets its water and why the delta smelt is not to blame.
In Praise of California | Economist Paul Krugman clears up how much California—which would be the world’s fifth largest economy if it were a nation, after the U.S., China, Germany, and Japan—contributes to the rest of the U.S. It’s a lot, and right-wing calls to tie federal disaster-relief funds to conditions placed on the state’s government are outright shameful given that California has more or less subsidized red states without complaint for a very long time.
Uninsurable Futures: Adapting to a constrained American dream | Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan writes about how insurance companies may serve as the “tip of the spear” that finally forces American politicians to get real about helping people and cities deal with increased wildfire and climate catastrophes.
Burning Down the American Dream: Lessons from the Los Angeles fires | An absolutely brilliant piece by psychotherapist Kathleen Sullivan about our American tendency, currently on full display, to project blame outwards and toward those perceived as weaker than us. She asks: “But can you and I take in the lessons of this fire? Can we look into our own lives and say, this isn’t working, my internalization of the story of progress and consumption has brought this on. I must stop. I must find another story about what it means to be a good citizen, a good steward, a person who cares for her homeland?”
In the Face of Disaster, A New Age of Solidarity | NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, calls for us to let these fires bring us into an era of honesty and accountability. When we get clear about what we’re facing, only then can we come together to actually face it, rather than hiding behind blame and self-delusion.
And finally, I want to recommend again this well-researched and beautifully informative film on the science of living with wildfire. It costs a few dollars to rent, but is so worth it for those with even a passing interest in this issue.
The Bark Academia publication has an updated post listing wildlife and pet rescue and rehabilitators working on behalf of animals in the path of the fires. You can find that list here.
Susan Tweit has compiled a list of helpers seeking aid to respond to an array of needs in the area.
And I’ll sign off with my heart in my throat, sending all my love south down the coast to California,
Rebecca
Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-14/southern-california-faces-particularly-dangerous-fire-weather
https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-disinformation
https://www.mwdh2o.com/securing-our-imported-supplies/
https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/las-drinking-water-quality-report/la-water-sources-2022
https://water.ca.gov/swp/
https://waterforla.lacounty.gov/journey/
https://mavensnotebook.com/2025/01/10/inside-climate-news-misinformation-spreads-like-wildfire-on-the-internet-while-la-neighborhoods-burn/
https://web.archive.org/web/20250114165205/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-11/fire-experts-asses-los-angeles-blazes-amid-changing-times
https://theconversation.com/how-santa-ana-winds-fueled-the-deadly-fires-in-southern-california-246965
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/some-thoughts-on-the-la-fires
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2025/01/los-angeles-palisades-eaton-fire-climate/
https://www.camaspostrecord.com/news/2017/sep/05/fire-jumps-columbia-river-prompts-evacuation-orders-in-skamania-county/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/05/greenville-california-mountain-town-destroyed-dixie-fire
*Inspired by historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.
You can reach me at fearlessgreen@substack.com
Wonderful post, Rebecca. Thanks for diving into the torrent of false narratives to bring some clarity to it all. One missing ingredient is the land itself. Prior to colonization, when the Tongva people tended the land, it was lush, with vast marshes, meadows and numerous oak forests. Beside cutting down the forests and covering the land in concrete, LA is notorious for water engineering that channelizes the water off the land out to the sea. There was likely a small water cycle there that provided hydration during the long dry summers typical of Mediterranean climates. The question is: can it be brought back?
There are other reasons 'climate change' has entered the discussion of these fires. LA's fire season has always been at the end of the summer--until the first rains start in November-December. We have had no meaningful rain since May, after two extremely wet winters. (Extremes).
These Santa Ana Winds were not the typical East-West reverse of the usual on-shore westerly winds.These winds came from the North/East. Most of Altadena is not hillside or 'indefensible' canyon land. It is a standard urban grid of single family homes on slight slope or flat surface, from 50-100 years old and these winds were extreme--beyond any I have witnessed in 75 years living in the area. LA gets wildfires, fueled by Santa Ana Winds--these fires were out of the ordinary.
I have lived in the same home for 45 years and never been evacuated until this fire. The destruction and loss of life are extreme. LA Times coverage has been disgusting, best coverage from LAist.com (local NPR radio Station)