to the editor: Los Angeles County's decision to bulldoze, chainsaw, and burn mature chaparral in the Santa Monica Mountains in the name of fire prevention is counterproductive and harmful (“Man, machine and lamb: Inside the plan to prevent the next fire disaster in Southern California” October 14).
Counterproductive because old chaparral and sage scrub are less flammable than the conspicuous invasive and non-native weeds that will inevitably replace these native shrubs and herbaceous plants once this intervention is carried out, exacerbating fire risk. And harmful because the plants themselves, which have intrinsic value and absorb carbon, will be destroyed, and wildlife will be killed or forced to move into threatened and shrinking habitats.
Why is the state using valuable public dollars to increase our risk, exacerbate climate change, and dominate and destroy nature?
Tessa Charnofsky, Western Hills
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to the editor: Thank you for reporting on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy granting more than $3 million from our taxes to shred what little remains of our native habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains. This ill-conceived project, supported by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, has been rushed through without giving the scientific community and the public a chance to weigh in. As Dan Cooper points out, we can't believe that paving (or logging) the entire system provides a viable solution.
Removal of invasive grasses with grazing goats: good. Creating massive fuel cuts: a waste of time and money.
Snowdy Dodson, Van Nuys
