Trump is "a risk to firefighters"

Trump is vociferous in his criticism of California's leaders for failing to keep their forests floors clean.  In his ignorance he claims that failure to clean up the thousands of square miles of forest is the reason for the state's wildfires.  Trump, of course, takes no responsibility for his contributions to global warming or the fact that many of California's wildfires start in national forests, where the US government is responsible for forest management.  

One critical tool in the management of fuel loads (flammable material) in forests and grasslands is the use of controlled burns to reduce those fuel load.  This is a widely used technique, but the US Department of the Interior has lost a key asset in its program of controlled burns.  Of course, Trump is oblivious to the fact that his own policies have grounded Interior's fleet of airborne drones that are invaluable tools in the controlled burn program as well as critical to fire detection and surveillance. 

As wildfires grow in size and frequency, more resources are needed to keep them in check. But experts say a Trump administration directive halting the purchase of new drones jeopardizes the rise of cutting-edge technology, curtailing the ability to manage wildfires and potentially putting more lives in danger.

In October 2019, the US Department of the Interior grounded its fleet of more than 800 drones and put a freeze on buying new ones due to concerns of Chinese spying. Many of the devices were used in wildfire fighting and prevention, including starting prescribed burns, a key tool in controlling wildfire. The interior department carries out more than 10,000 drone flights a year on average, according to federal documents.

This year, a shortage of drones has made it more difficult to contain fires raging across the western United States, insiders at the interior department said in an internal memo obtained by the Financial Times.

As wildfires increase in size and number, the department’s fleet of drones must “expand to meet the demand of preventative measures mandated for the reduction of wildfire via vegetation reduction”, the leaked memo, written by members of the department’s Office of Aviation Services, said.

Trump's petulent war against TicTok may upset teenagers and K-Pop fans, but his indiscriminant bludgeoning of Chinese built technology in many other applications is harming our country and, in this case, putting American lives at risk.