Please cut down all your trees, and replace them with pavement or drainage rock. At your own expense.

Photo above - if you lived here, you'd be in California's "Zone Zero", and legally obligated to cut down all those trees at your own expense to help mitigate the risk of wildfires.

Some brainiacs in California were probably patting themselves on the back after they invented a way to stop bushfires, without spending a dime. “Let’s pass a law forcing everyone to cut down all their own trees and shrubs, and replace them with hardscaping.” (see link below)

Whoever created “Earth Day” is probably rolling over in their grave right now. The Arbor Day people too. What do you do if you own an orchard?

How much does it cost to take down a tree? It depends– in California probably 5 times as much as in Florida, Texas, or Montana. A friend of mine 20 miles north of NYC paid $20,000 to have a tree removed AFTER it fell on his screened porch. And another $100,000 to rebuild the unheated 12 X 12 porch. Because . . . New York . . .

Human nature being what it is, lots of California people might wait until the last second to remove their zone zero trees and shrubs. And then get charged a premium by the contractors for coming late to the party.

The concrete, gravel, and asphalt guys are going to win the lottery too. And whoever has to “remediate” the storm drains to handle all the new rainwater runoff. That stuff was formerly absorbed by the soil and imbibed by thirsty trees at those locations. This is possibly the greatest economic stimulus program a state could devise, no?

All of this, of course, is a tacit admission that California’s government has no clear plan to address the century old high voltage transmission wires which keep sparking in the wilderness. Or suburban arson, which was hugely implicated in last year’s fires. Or modernized firefighting capabilities (they had to call in aircraft used to fight forest fires just to extinguish an EV which burst into flames after a collision recently.) And the good news is: Taxes are NOT going up to prevent or extinguish fires.

No . .. I do not expect there to be additional mandates for Tesla EV concrete mixers and battery powered chainsaws. But you can never tell. This is California . . .

I'm just sayin' . . .



Letters to the Editor: 'Zone zero' proponents need to address the inevitable costs to homeowners