LETTER: Wildfires, Florida and California

Your Sept. 3 editorial makes some invalid comparisons when comparing California forests with Florida forests. First, California forests are in mountainous terrain that allows the flames to spread uphill rapidly. Florida terrain is flat, allowing fires to spread horizontally only. In normal years, California averages a little more than 22 inches of rain each year. Most of California is in exceptional drought while portions are in extreme drought. Florida averages 40 to 80 inches of rain annually and Florida isn’t experiencing exceptional drought, anywhere.

To suggest that California should have controlled burns to clear forests does not seem realistic. All the current fires started as small fires. Small, controlled burns would, and have, gotten completely out of control. Another point: Only about 1 percent of California forests are state-owned.