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According to former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, claims that climate change is responsible for the smoke coating of parts of the East Coast from wildfires do not tell the whole story.
Smoke from wildfires in Canada reached as far as South Carolina, throwing a thick haze that caused air quality in New York City and Washington, D.C. to plummet. Many environmentalists and liberal politicians, such as President Biden and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, blamed climate change.
“To be fair, if you look at these issues in the United States and Canada over time, it’s possible that the climate is changing,” Bernhardt told Fox News. “At the same time, you can say that forest management practices in many places have greatly contributed to a much higher fuel load, and fuel loads are a major driver of catastrophic wildfires.”
“Those factors are not necessarily mutually exclusive,” the former cabinet secretary of the Trump administration added.
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Bernhardt said climate change has been a factor in extending the fire season. Scientists have also said that climate change has worsened conditions that can lead to wildfires, such as heat and drought.
But poor forest management, such as leaving old vegetation and undergrowth behind, also contributes significantly, according to Bernhardt.
“If you don’t use methods to clean up some of that excess product, it literally sits there like a tinderbox for a match,” he said. “In this case, what we’re seeing from Canada … are fires that are largely caused by lightning, striking with an element of a very, very high fuel load.”
Former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said New York City has “got a bit of a taste” of air quality problems due to smoking in wildfires. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
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While Bernhardt said that both climate change and forest management can play a role in wildfires, current and former political figures are often solely to blame.
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, tweeted that the wildfires in the Big Apple showed “how unprepared we are for the climate crisis,” ending her post with a hashtag for the Green New Deal.
Meanwhile, Bernhardt’s predecessor and fellow Trump administration alumnus Rep. Ryan Zinke that he had “zero sympathy for DC politicians complaining about the smoke”.
“Whether you’re a climate change activist or a denier, it doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility to manage our forests,” the Montanta Republican tweeted. “And if you don’t manage our forests, this is what happens. So welcome to Montana, Washington DC”
Bernhardt similarly said “this experience on the East Coast is really a wake-up call to the people in Congress and others” that wildfire smoke regularly has a serious impact on air quality in the western United States.
“Washington, D.C. and New York just got a taste,” Bernhardt, a Colorado native, told Fox News.
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Trees charred by a wildfire several years ago still line Rocky Mountain National Park. (Ethan Barton/Fox News Digital)
The former interior minister suggested several ways to reduce the burden on forest fuel, such as better cooperation between government and private forest owners to create firebreaks – holes in vegetation or other combustible material.
Better timber management would also reduce overall forest density.
“You can see very significant differences between privately managed forests that benefit from these practices and federal and state lands that don’t,” Bernhardt said. “The consequences of catastrophic fire are so different and so important.”
He also recommended switching firefighters from seasonal workers to year-round workers so they could spend more time using controlled burns or other methods of reducing fuel loads.
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Bernhardt recently published a book, “You Report to Me,” detailing some of his experiences in the Trump administration. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
In May, Bernhardt published a book, “You Report to Me,” in which he chronicled some of his experiences in the Trump administration and highlighted how officials far outnumber political appointees. In some cases, he saw career bureaucrats take steps to oppose government policies.
But Bernhardt said he saw the opposite when it came to former President Trump’s emphasis on improving forest management, even as the CEO was criticized for his position.
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“I actually had a career officer who had worked on cleanup and reduction of fuel loads in a national park,” the former interior minister said. “He sent me a series of photos of the work they had done.”
Bernhardt said he showed those images to Trump.
“The reality is that most people who work on these lands have a very good idea of what the true impact of catastrophic wildfires is and the causes and the need to address the fuel load,” Bernhardt said.
Ethan Barton is a producer/reporter for Digital Originals. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @ethanrbarton.
