As California plunges into yet another wildfire season, Democratic leaders are once again pointing fingers at Donald Trump—this time claiming his budget cuts endangered the state’s ability to fight fires. But forestry experts and decades of evidence say the real arsonists wear suits in Sacramento and Washington.

Democrats Blame Trump, But Experts Say Look in the Mirror

Governor Gavin Newsom is accusing Trump of slashing the U.S. Forest Service budget and workforce by over 60% and 30% respectively. He even suggested the former president was “playing politics with people’s lives.” But long-time wildfire expert Bob Zybach says it isn’t Trump that’s to blame—it’s 30 years of bureaucratic sabotage.

According to Zybach, forest management policies rooted in the Clinton-era 1994 Northwest Forest Plan have led to the catastrophic conditions California faces today. That plan, meant to protect the northern spotted owl, banned logging across 7.4 million acres of Pacific Coast forest, slashing timber harvests by up to 90%.

“In the 1970s and ’80s, California and Oregon didn’t have these fires,” Zybach told the Daily Caller. “Then we put in the Clinton plan… I was on the cover of Evergreen magazine in 1994 saying if we do this, we’re going to have catastrophic wildfires. I was right.”

A Legal Web of Delays and Dead Ends

Environmental lawsuits have paralyzed forest thinning efforts, critics say. Federal rules like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have turned even basic fire prevention efforts into a years-long legal slog. Nick Smith of the American Forest Resource Council noted that “NEPA alone typically adds three-and-a-half years of planning to thin one forest stand.”

Worse, those lawsuits are often rewarded. Under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), environmental groups can sue the government and then get taxpayer-funded legal fees when they win—or even partially win. The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the most prolific litigants, has raked in at least $4 million through EAJA since 2001.

“These lawsuits stop forest treatment projects in their tracks,” said Zybach. “They delay, delay, delay—then sue when a fire breaks out and blame everyone else.”

Deadly Results on the Ground

The tragic fire that destroyed Berry Creek in 2020 is a grim illustration of what happens when lawsuits trump land management. Sixteen people died as the North Complex Fire tore through 180,000 acres in a single day. All the while, forest thinning plans were trapped in the CEQA review process, never seeing the light of day.

Even Governor Newsom has had to declare emergency powers to bypass CEQA regulations and complete basic fuel-clearing tasks—an ironic move for someone blaming Trump for alleged environmental negligence.

A Pattern of Deflection

Newsom isn’t alone in the blame game. California Sen. Alex Padilla claimed Trump’s “flagrantly illegal” cuts would “jeopardize” wildfire readiness, echoing similar attacks from The New York Times and LA Times. But the hard data tells a different story: before the year 2000, California had 45 major fires over an entire century. Since then, 35 have erupted in just 25 years, with 2020 alone incinerating 4.3 million acres.

The conclusion from experts? Forests are overloaded with fuel. Trees are too densely packed. And legal red tape keeps anyone from clearing the tinderbox before it ignites.

The Bottom Line

Environmentalists wanted untouched wilderness, and they got it—along with millions of acres of dead wood, dry underbrush, and fire-prone terrain. When it burns, they blame Trump. But the regulations they championed, and the lawsuits they filed, are the real reasons California is going up in smoke.

As Nick Smith summed it up: “Until Democrats are willing to stand up to the anti-forestry lobby and make real changes, we won’t be able to manage these forests at the scale required to stop this.”