Mel Gibson on politics: what the evidence says · JRE #2254

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

In March 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide emergency proclamation on forest management, waiving certain environmental reviews to fast-track 35 priority fuel-reduction and forest-thinning projects intended to protect roughly 200 at-risk communities. State officials announced in January 2020 that 34 of 35 projects had been completed. However, a 2021 investigation by CapRadio (aired on NPR) found the Newsom administration overstated the scale of that work: officials claimed about 90,000 acres had been treated, while the state's own underlying data showed the real figure was closer to 11,000-12,000 acres, and statewide fire-prevention work overall had dropped by roughly half heading into California's worst wildfire season on record. PolitiFact and other outlets have also documented that state wildfire-prevention funding fluctuated significantly after 2019, rising during budget-surplus years and facing cuts during deficit years, even as Cal Fire's overall wildfire budget grew substantially over the decade. The claim that Newsom "didn't do anything" overstates the reality: concrete forest-management action was taken and largely completed, but independent reporting shows the administration significantly exaggerated the scale of results relative to what it publicly claimed.