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Remarks by President Trump in a Briefing on Wildfires | McClellan Park, CA
THE PRESIDENT: So what's going to take the place of that generator? What - what are you going to do?
SHERIFF MIMS: We have to actually restart it in Southern California, Edison.
THE PRESIDENT: So you'll be able to fix it and restart it?
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: (Inaudible) process.
THE PRESIDENT: It's big damage? Big.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: Well, it was a hydroelectric plant that was - it wasn't directly damaged, but there was damage leading up to the facility.
THE PRESIDENT: I see.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: And so we're going to mitigate all that now.
THE PRESIDENT: I love hydro - hydroelectric. I love. I think it's great. You must like that. I love it. I love the hydroelectric. Go ahead. Please.
SHERIFF MIMS: So, so far, we've had over 300 structures that have burned, but we could've had many more, and I need to commend the efforts that CAL FIRE gave to us not only with pre-work by doing some tree mortality mitigation -
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
SHERIFF MIMS: - but during that fire, they were able to cut some breaks that allowed - (inaudible) law enforcement to evacuate over 20,000 people from these areas. And so they just did a great job, and I'm glad to report that, in Fresno County, we've had no loss of life.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
SHERIFF MIMS: And I will say that, in Fresno County, we understand that we need a strong partnership with our federal government. And we are ready, willing, and able to be your partner on this. We support -
THE PRESIDENT: And your state government. Right?
SHERIFF MIMS: Of course. Of course.
THE PRESIDENT: That's going good, right?
SHERIFF MIMS: Of course. We're getting what we need.
THE PRESIDENT: I have no doubt. Good.
SHERIFF MIMS: In fact -
THE PRESIDENT: We had to mention that. (Laughs.)
SHERIFF MIMS: (Laughs.) Of the areas that we've mitigated, I think, in Fresno County, we got five of those. So, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: So you're working well with everybody.
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Please.
MR. HAUPT: Thank you, Mr. President, for - is this on? Thank you, Mr. President, for being here and listening to a very rural community and county in California. I'm at the far extreme end of the state up there that they were pointing to.
My county continues to repeat the things that you saw in
Paradise when you were there, on a smaller scale. The town of Happy Camp, this year, is under the Slater fire that took off. And in a 24-hour period, we lost 258 structures in a very small town. Half of my population is displaced.
At this point in time, we have 158 homes completely destroyed.
THE PRESIDENT: Will that population come back?
MR. HAUPT: Sir, that's a tough question because these are very poor people anyway. And they're living through the downturn of the timber economy at this point, and there's very low employment in this area.
We are completely surrounded by federal timber at this point that needs some active forest management that would both improve the economic - the economy of the area, as well as even increase the water flow that is in shortage in California, in some of these places.
I've - you know, personally, I come to you as a forester, an elected official, and a past land manager for the U.S. Forest Serve, and firefighter.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. HAUPT: In this area, I've worked with the UC Berkeley and UC Davi- - and UC Merced on some studies of our forests in the northern region, which historically have been pretty asbestos-like - are carrying four times the density that they did in 1930. So we have both the increase in brush in the wildland interface, as well as the lack of management, producing these extreme densities.
And climate change is - climate change is - and I can't do much about that, because as a forester actively managing that forest, I can manipulate fuels and I can do that in a pretty short order.
I applaud you for the work you've done. I applaud you for the farm bill authorities. Our county just completed a master stewardship agreement with the U.S. Forest Service. And we have about a half million-acre project that's ready to go across all boundaries in our state and -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. HAUPT: - the four National Forests that you (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Gavin is working on that with me. And we - you know, you make money, too. You're cutting down trees. You're thinning it out and you're selling those trees for a lot of money. And it's really pretty good in a lot of ways.
And I guess the - one of the things are the cuts. The big - whether it's 50 yards or 100 yards - but the cuts to stop it from spreading. And that's always tough environmentally, but, you know, they can do it in a way that's pretty good. And I think now the environmentalists have come a long way after watch- - you know, watching this.
MR. HAUPT: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: The ones that really want to take care of a problem, they've come a long way.
So they'll be thinning it out then. You're working a plan to thin it out.
MR. HAUPT: That's what the plan is right now. I will say that, you know, we have excellent working relationships with CAL FIRE as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. HAUPT: And we need - we need to marry the state programs with the federal programs across boundaries and jurisdictional boundaries so that we're effective in moderating large-fire behavior.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: And, Mr. President, just to the Supervisor's point, that's exactly what the stewardship partnership that we advanced with your administrations do - will do in the next 20 years -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: - is we're sharing maps, we're sharing resources, we're prioritizing, we're doubling the number of acres - federally managed, state-managed. And I will say just, humbly, we got to double it still. Meaning the partnership was significant. It was the first in California's history with the U.S. government. But we're going to need to do a lot more in the extent -
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, I'm all for it.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: - we could provide (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: That's something I feel so strongly about. You can knock this down to nothing. You know, you go to Europe and different places in Europe - countries where they're forest countries - and they're very, very strong on management and they don't have a problem. They really don't have with, as they say, more explosive trees than we have in California.
So, thank you very much for your comments. But we're working on that very hard together. And I think we're totally in sync. I really think we're totally in sync.
We're going to see you in a few minutes for the award ceremony. So thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END 11:56 A.M. PDT
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SHERIFF MIMS: We have to actually restart it in Southern California, Edison.
THE PRESIDENT: So you'll be able to fix it and restart it?
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: (Inaudible) process.
THE PRESIDENT: It's big damage? Big.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: Well, it was a hydroelectric plant that was - it wasn't directly damaged, but there was damage leading up to the facility.
THE PRESIDENT: I see.
MR. GHILARDUCCI: And so we're going to mitigate all that now.
THE PRESIDENT: I love hydro - hydroelectric. I love. I think it's great. You must like that. I love it. I love the hydroelectric. Go ahead. Please.
SHERIFF MIMS: So, so far, we've had over 300 structures that have burned, but we could've had many more, and I need to commend the efforts that CAL FIRE gave to us not only with pre-work by doing some tree mortality mitigation -
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
SHERIFF MIMS: - but during that fire, they were able to cut some breaks that allowed - (inaudible) law enforcement to evacuate over 20,000 people from these areas. And so they just did a great job, and I'm glad to report that, in Fresno County, we've had no loss of life.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
SHERIFF MIMS: And I will say that, in Fresno County, we understand that we need a strong partnership with our federal government. And we are ready, willing, and able to be your partner on this. We support -
THE PRESIDENT: And your state government. Right?
SHERIFF MIMS: Of course. Of course.
THE PRESIDENT: That's going good, right?
SHERIFF MIMS: Of course. We're getting what we need.
THE PRESIDENT: I have no doubt. Good.
SHERIFF MIMS: In fact -
THE PRESIDENT: We had to mention that. (Laughs.)
SHERIFF MIMS: (Laughs.) Of the areas that we've mitigated, I think, in Fresno County, we got five of those. So, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: So you're working well with everybody.
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
SHERIFF MIMS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Please.
MR. HAUPT: Thank you, Mr. President, for - is this on? Thank you, Mr. President, for being here and listening to a very rural community and county in California. I'm at the far extreme end of the state up there that they were pointing to.
My county continues to repeat the things that you saw in
Paradise when you were there, on a smaller scale. The town of Happy Camp, this year, is under the Slater fire that took off. And in a 24-hour period, we lost 258 structures in a very small town. Half of my population is displaced.
At this point in time, we have 158 homes completely destroyed.
THE PRESIDENT: Will that population come back?
MR. HAUPT: Sir, that's a tough question because these are very poor people anyway. And they're living through the downturn of the timber economy at this point, and there's very low employment in this area.
We are completely surrounded by federal timber at this point that needs some active forest management that would both improve the economic - the economy of the area, as well as even increase the water flow that is in shortage in California, in some of these places.
I've - you know, personally, I come to you as a forester, an elected official, and a past land manager for the U.S. Forest Serve, and firefighter.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. HAUPT: In this area, I've worked with the UC Berkeley and UC Davi- - and UC Merced on some studies of our forests in the northern region, which historically have been pretty asbestos-like - are carrying four times the density that they did in 1930. So we have both the increase in brush in the wildland interface, as well as the lack of management, producing these extreme densities.
And climate change is - climate change is - and I can't do much about that, because as a forester actively managing that forest, I can manipulate fuels and I can do that in a pretty short order.
I applaud you for the work you've done. I applaud you for the farm bill authorities. Our county just completed a master stewardship agreement with the U.S. Forest Service. And we have about a half million-acre project that's ready to go across all boundaries in our state and -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. HAUPT: - the four National Forests that you (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Gavin is working on that with me. And we - you know, you make money, too. You're cutting down trees. You're thinning it out and you're selling those trees for a lot of money. And it's really pretty good in a lot of ways.
And I guess the - one of the things are the cuts. The big - whether it's 50 yards or 100 yards - but the cuts to stop it from spreading. And that's always tough environmentally, but, you know, they can do it in a way that's pretty good. And I think now the environmentalists have come a long way after watch- - you know, watching this.
MR. HAUPT: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: The ones that really want to take care of a problem, they've come a long way.
So they'll be thinning it out then. You're working a plan to thin it out.
MR. HAUPT: That's what the plan is right now. I will say that, you know, we have excellent working relationships with CAL FIRE as well.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. HAUPT: And we need - we need to marry the state programs with the federal programs across boundaries and jurisdictional boundaries so that we're effective in moderating large-fire behavior.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: And, Mr. President, just to the Supervisor's point, that's exactly what the stewardship partnership that we advanced with your administrations do - will do in the next 20 years -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: - is we're sharing maps, we're sharing resources, we're prioritizing, we're doubling the number of acres - federally managed, state-managed. And I will say just, humbly, we got to double it still. Meaning the partnership was significant. It was the first in California's history with the U.S. government. But we're going to need to do a lot more in the extent -
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, I'm all for it.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM: - we could provide (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: That's something I feel so strongly about. You can knock this down to nothing. You know, you go to Europe and different places in Europe - countries where they're forest countries - and they're very, very strong on management and they don't have a problem. They really don't have with, as they say, more explosive trees than we have in California.
So, thank you very much for your comments. But we're working on that very hard together. And I think we're totally in sync. I really think we're totally in sync.
We're going to see you in a few minutes for the award ceremony. So thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END 11:56 A.M. PDT
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