Endangered species like Brauntons Milkvetch should be saved with captive breeding programs. They should never be used as an excuse to stop fire mitigation, dams, reservoirs, power plants, housing, etc.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
January 16, 2025
Endangered species like Brauntons Milkvetch should be saved with captive breeding programs.
They should never be used as an excuse to stop fire mitigation, dams, reservoirs, power plants, housing, etc.
From the New York Times: https://archive.ph/Fv8d4
From the Los Angeles Times: https://archive.ph/zgpOj
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1880005121146564916
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1880005121146564916
Endangered plants bulldozed in Topanga State Park
Archive: https://archive.ph/zgpOj
Endangered plants bulldozed in Topanga State Park
By Louis Sahagún
August 1, 2019
Crews for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently bulldozed hundreds of federally endangered plants in Topanga State Park, and both state and city authorities have launched investigations into DWP’s actions, part of a wildfire prevention project aimed at replacing 200 aging wooden power poles with steel ones.
Sometime in July, DWP crews used bulldozers to clear and widen a graded road as part of a wildfire prevention project stretching from Pacific Palisades to Lake Encino. The California Public Utilities Commission has identified this area — which includes some of Southern California’s most expensive coastal real estate — as having an “elevated fire risk.” By installing steel poles, DWP hopes to make the power lines more resistant to high winds and fire.
“This project will help ensure power reliability and safety, while helping reduce wildfire threats,” DWP said in a statement Thursday. “These wooden poles were installed between 1933 and 1955 and are now past their useful service life.”
But in doing the work, say state authorities, the crews potentially destroyed hundreds of Braunton’s milk vetch plants, an endangered species whose remaining numbers have dwindled to less than 3,000 in the wild.
The city utility had been alerted to the presence of the endangered plants on July 7 via an email sent by David Pluenneke, an amateur botanist and avid hiker. It thanked him for calling the issue to their attention, according to documents obtained by The Times.
This Is Where the Palisades Fire Started
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/palisades-fire-cause-ignition-point-site.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/Fv8d4
This Is Where the Palisades Fire Started
In the hills above Pacific Palisades, there is crime scene tape and scattered debris, clues to what may have caused the initial fire that eventually raged through thousands of structures.
By Thomas Fuller, Mike Baker, Blacki Migliozzi, K.K. Rebecca Lai, and Jonathan Wolfe
January 13, 2025
Along the trail near where the Palisades fire began, The Times found bits of power-line debris, including what appeared to be part of a lightning arrester device. But the nearest overhead power line was about a third of a mile to the north. That line, which curves down from the trail and into the neighborhood,was extensively damaged from fire, but witness photographs show it was still intact soon after the fire began.
The poles along that route have a tumultuous recent history. Many of them date from the 1930s, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power initiated a project in 2019 to replace some of them with stronger metal structures.
The project stalled after environmental regulators said the department had damaged 183 small bushes known as Braunton’s milkvetch, an endangered species.
The department agreed in 2020 to pay a fine, and won approval to resume work, saying the project was “essential in regards to our wildfire mitigation plan.” But the project does not appear to have proceeded.
The Times’s review of the ridgetop showed many damaged and fallen utility poles along the trail heading north — an area that was consumed by fire, but not until a day after the blaze began.
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