Newsom Diverted Taxpayer Funds That Could Have Stopped Palisades Fires

restaurants; $599,000 for another to help renovate land for use as a Native American summer camp; $166,000 to one that will pay for “[t]ribal staff and members” to observe spotted owl nests; $746,000 to one supporting a tribe’s “food sovereignty” and “Fire-Centered Climate Action Plan”; and $521,000 to one that will help a tribe maintain “close kinship” with plants, animals, and “other natural relatives such as water and fire.”

In 2022, California projected that tribes, “cultural fire practitioners,” and others would conduct 25,000 acres of prescribed burning annually by 2025.

The state has not released any data on the tribes’ progress, and some tribal leaders apparently insist on keeping the fires small.