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Science  /  Antecedent

The L.A. Fires Expose the Problem With Conservation Policy

For more than a century, conservation policy has focused on economic development and wisely using natural resources.

Fires continue to burn outside of Los Angeles and they have become a partisan football. President Donald Trump has blamed California governor Gavin Newsom for the devastation, making inaccurate accusations about poor water management and federal environmental protections of endangered species. But, to the President's credit, he also included the failures of American forest conservation practices in his bill of horribles supposedly responsible for the fires. Though his claim that these practices failed to prevent the fires was misleading, he was right about one thing: forest conservation practices are central to the ongoing battle between humans and nature in Southern California.

Despite its importance, this topic has received little attention in the coverage of the fires. But it’s crucial to understanding the destruction of the fires — and crafting policies to prevent future disasters. In the late 19th century, progressive politicians and bureaucrats began focusing on conservation. They saw it as a way to boost the economy and businesses, develop rural areas, and wisely use America’s natural resources. For more than a century those have remained the core principles of American conservation policy. Yet, as the L.A. fires expose, that’s no longer tenable in a world confronting climate change.

Conservation gained traction in the U.S. during the late 19th century as Americans — and the Western world more broadly — looked to address the consequences of industrial growth through what became known as progressivism. Progressivism became a popular (at first mostly local and state-driven) movement propagated by middle-class professionals and “experts” that soon permeated both major political parties. The reformers driving this movement believed in human progress, scientific management, the use of government power for the public good, and replacing political patronage with the hiring of experts.

Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who ascended to the Presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, cemented the role of these ideas in running the federal government. He used the executive branch to greatly expand the government and lay the foundation for the modern state.