Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blames California wildfires on 'radical environmental groups' for bringing lawsuits to stop land management practices such as forest thinning

  • Zinke spoke to reporters about the deadliest wildfires in state history on Tuesday
  • He decried lawsuits brought by 'radical environmental groups that would rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree or thin the forest'  
  • He also noted other factors, such as hotter temperatures, historic drought conditions, and a number of dead and dying trees were also to blame
  • Center for Biological Diversity lands director Randi Spivak said: 'When Zinke says it is due to extreme environmentalists he has no basis in fact'
  • Remains of 79 victims have been recovered since the Camp Fire erupted on November 8

Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke cast blame for the deadliest wildfires in California history on environmentalists who have sought to stop forest management practices, such as forest thinning.

In a teleconference on Tuesday Zinke said 'radical environmental groups that would rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree or thin the forest' have brought 'lawsuit after lawsuit' to stop forest management. 

'Yes, I do lay it on the feet,' of environmentalists, he said just after remarking: 'It's not time to finger point.'

Zinke also noted other factors, such as hotter temperatures, historic drought conditions, and a number of dead and dying trees were also to blame.

Remains of 79 victims have so far been recovered since the Camp Fire erupted on November 8 and largely obliterated the town of Paradise, a community of nearly 27,000 people.

Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke (above) blamed the California wildfires  on 'radical environmentalist groups' who've sued the federal government over forest management

Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke (above) blamed the California wildfires on 'radical environmentalist groups' who've sued the federal government over forest management

As Interior Secretary Zinke oversees the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service - putting him in charge of the vast majority of federally-owned land in the US.  

He shares land management duties with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who has made similar remarks about the misguided efforts of 'well-meaning environmentalists'. 

One of the groups that has sued the government over forest practices is the Center for Biological Diversity. 

The group's lands director Randi Spivak said there have been just 38 lawsuits over the federal government's 576 forest management decisions involving California from 2009 to 2017.

'When Zinke says it is due to extreme environmentalists he has no basis in fact,' Spivak said. 

She said climate change and increased development of forest zones prone to wildfires caused the destruction.

At least 79 people were killed after fires broke out across the state earlier this month

At least 79 people were killed after fires broke out across the state earlier this month

Zinke is seen center during a visit to the devastated town of Paradise in Northern California 

Zinke is seen center during a visit to the devastated town of Paradise in Northern California 

Zinke first blamed environmentalists in an interview on Breitbart News after visiting communities hit by the California wildfires.

Another environmentalist said blaming green groups was easier than curbing emissions linked to higher temperatures and droughts. 

'The only radicals here are Trump administration officials who are exploiting a climate tragedy to try to benefit their friends in the timber industry,' said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice.

Over the weekend when President Donald Trump visited California he said Finland's President Sauli Niinisto had recently told him the country rarely has wildfires because 'they spend a lot of time raking and cleaning and doing things' to clear the forest floor.

Niinisto has said raking did not come up in his conversation with Trump.

Perdue said forest management practices need to be sped up, and he hoped that US agencies could get more authority to do so under a farm bill being debated.

'There are things we can do, we need the authority to do that,' he said. 

The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service would like to expand the so-called 'good neighbor authority' it has with US states to Native American tribes, counties and other partnerships to protect homes and lives through cooperative agreements or contracts, Perdue said.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service would also like to expand categorical exclusions that allow forest thinning in areas damaged by insects or diseases to prevent fires, he added.

But Perdue said it could take years for authorities to catch up on forest management, such as thinning out the fuel of dead trees and dry underbrush, and improving emergency roads.   

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (above) has made similar remarks about the wildfires being stoked by misguided efforts of 'well-meaning environmentalists'

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (above) has made similar remarks about the wildfires being stoked by misguided efforts of 'well-meaning environmentalists'

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