Protect Nature Vote NO on Prop 4 on November 5, 2024
Proposition 4 will fund Cal Fire's master plan to clear hundreds of thousands of acres of chaparral across the State of California - $1.5 billion worth to grind up, burn, and spray herbicides on California's most characteristic native ecosystem, or as the State now views all of Nature, "fuel."
Please help us stop this madness by voting NO on Prop 4 in the upcoming election. We are fighting Cal Fire's plan in court. This is your opportunity as an individual to fight it at the ballot box.
Disguised as being used for "forest health" and "wildfire protection," $1.5 billion is tucked into the $10 billion bond that includes a number of environmental goals in an attempt to bribe the public into supporting it. Another $1.2 billion is designated for "restoration" of natural areas, which in Cal Fire's Orwellian view of Nature means even more habitat clearance, logging, and herbicide use.
The analysis of the proposition by the state suggests that some of the bond money "could" be used to purchase land to be set aside - a cynical play on gaining the support of land conservancies. However, the question that needs to be asked is, "What good does it do to borrow billions to acquire or expand natural areas when Cal Fire or State Parks will only end up destroying the habitat through their clearance projects?"
We've lost enough Nature. It's time to say no more. Let's protect what's left.
Please, vote NO on Prop 4.
Please help us stop this madness by voting NO on Prop 4 in the upcoming election. We are fighting Cal Fire's plan in court. This is your opportunity as an individual to fight it at the ballot box.
Disguised as being used for "forest health" and "wildfire protection," $1.5 billion is tucked into the $10 billion bond that includes a number of environmental goals in an attempt to bribe the public into supporting it. Another $1.2 billion is designated for "restoration" of natural areas, which in Cal Fire's Orwellian view of Nature means even more habitat clearance, logging, and herbicide use.
The analysis of the proposition by the state suggests that some of the bond money "could" be used to purchase land to be set aside - a cynical play on gaining the support of land conservancies. However, the question that needs to be asked is, "What good does it do to borrow billions to acquire or expand natural areas when Cal Fire or State Parks will only end up destroying the habitat through their clearance projects?"
We've lost enough Nature. It's time to say no more. Let's protect what's left.
Please, vote NO on Prop 4.
Additional Information on Proposition 4
Why are some conservation groups asking you to support Proposition 4? Most likely, they either don't understand that billions of dollars will be allocated for logging and habitat clearance, or they have been seduced into believing the fire suppression fallacy that Nature is sick and must be cleared out. Worse, some may be turning a blind eye because funds are being allocated in Prop 4 for favored projects.
Yes, there's money in Prop 4 that will be used for good things. But what the state is asking for us to do is to sell out Nature on a landscape level, masking the truth with shiny objects.
Although some see this as the reality of politics, we reject that position, as did John Muir and many other strong environmental leaders in the past. The same type of compromise allowed Glen Canyon on the Colorado River and Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite to be dammed. Those places are now lost, as are all the beautiful life forms that depended on them. For what? To satisfy the selfish desires of powerful men long since gone.
Prop 4 will help facilitate what is arguably the biggest threat to Nature in California outside of climate change - Cal Fire's goal of clearing, logging, and spraying with herbicide 10 million acres of native habitat, leading to type conversion, the spread of invasive species, increased fire risk, and a significant reduction in biodiversity.
The impacts of facilitating such destruction will long outlast any positive conservation projects being funded by the proposition.
It comes down to a matter of personal values. Untrammeled Nature has more value than any human-centric "managed" landscape. This also means the destruction of one wild landscape to save another is unacceptable. We know this goes against what many politically focused groups like the Nature Conservancy or some smaller conservancies say. But it is important to know that these same groups will be benefiting from Prop 4 funds to support their bureaucracies in trade for clearing some of their “conserved” land.
Below are a few more specific details about bond measure itself that may help explain the confusion out there.
Yes, there's money in Prop 4 that will be used for good things. But what the state is asking for us to do is to sell out Nature on a landscape level, masking the truth with shiny objects.
Although some see this as the reality of politics, we reject that position, as did John Muir and many other strong environmental leaders in the past. The same type of compromise allowed Glen Canyon on the Colorado River and Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite to be dammed. Those places are now lost, as are all the beautiful life forms that depended on them. For what? To satisfy the selfish desires of powerful men long since gone.
Prop 4 will help facilitate what is arguably the biggest threat to Nature in California outside of climate change - Cal Fire's goal of clearing, logging, and spraying with herbicide 10 million acres of native habitat, leading to type conversion, the spread of invasive species, increased fire risk, and a significant reduction in biodiversity.
The impacts of facilitating such destruction will long outlast any positive conservation projects being funded by the proposition.
It comes down to a matter of personal values. Untrammeled Nature has more value than any human-centric "managed" landscape. This also means the destruction of one wild landscape to save another is unacceptable. We know this goes against what many politically focused groups like the Nature Conservancy or some smaller conservancies say. But it is important to know that these same groups will be benefiting from Prop 4 funds to support their bureaucracies in trade for clearing some of their “conserved” land.
Below are a few more specific details about bond measure itself that may help explain the confusion out there.
The massive prescribed burns and habitat clearance projects that will be funded by Proposition 4 are not the friendly, "natural" projects Cal Fire and some conservation groups claim. They kill. Some of the devastating costs are shown in the photos above, taken after the December, 2023, Cal Fire prescribed burn at Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur.
PROP 4 = Herbicide, Burning, Logging, and Crushing Nature
The writers of the bond measure use Orwellian euphemisms like "forest health and fire resilience," "restoration of natural ecosystem functions", and "chaparral restoration" to mask what the $1.5 billion will actually be used to fund (Pgs. 83-85 in your Voter Info Guide - Section 91500).
Based on Cal Fire's Vegetation Treatment Program (VTP), and what Cal Fire is currently doing, what these euphemisms really mean is logging, grinding up native habitat with masticators, and spraying of herbicides to clear whatever natural habitat is deemed "fuel." Their target - 10 million acres. A large percentage of their targeted landscape is covered by chaparral. Much of the $1.5 billion in Prop 4 will be used to fund that clearance effort. Some of the additional $1.2 billion in Section 93500 will be used in similar ways for undefined "ecosystem health" and "restoration" of rangeland (i.e. native shrublands to weedy grasslands) projects.
Many of us have been fighting Cal Fire's effort to domesticate Nature for over 20 years. You can read about our fight, and why we are in court fighting Cal Fire now, on our Cal Fire page.
How will all this translate on the ground?
A devastating example is the ecological damage California State Parks and Cal Fire have caused to Rancho Cuyamaca State Park. They are attempting to do the same thing at Tomales Bay State Park now. You can see the impact at Cuyamaca on our web page here.
Adding more fire to the landscape in the form of prescribed fire, which the Prop 4 will fund, can eliminate native chaparral habitat, one of the primary targets of Cal Fire's VTP. Cal Fire see natural stands of dense, biodiverse old-growth chaparral as "decadent" and in need of removal. They are currently calling for landscape-scale clearance operations to do so.
A good explanation of the damage such prescribed fire "treatments" can cause can be found on Prescribed Fire page.
Nearly all the habitat clearance projects to be funded by Prop 4 are justified by the false notion that most of Nature is sick as a result of past fire suppression and needs to be cleaned out. While some forested systems have dodged some fires due to firefighting, the fire suppression fallacy is utilized to justify clearance projects regardless of ecosystem type. You can learn more about the Fire Suppression Fallacy here.
Will Prop 4 provide funds that will be used for positive things? Yes. But due to Cal Fire's influence in Sacramento, they have been able to include funding for their efforts to clear 10 million acres of habitat throughout the state, hoping to fool the public into thinking this is a purely environmental bond. Cal Fire is cynical enough to believe that ploy will work. We need to let them know we won’t fall for it.
Receiving money for favored projects, no matter how good they are, is to betray Nature across the entire state.