Joe Mathews
The flames that leveled Pacific Palisades and Malibu are believed to have started in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (italics mine), managed by the National Park Service. (That’s you!).
The blaze that turned Altadena to ash burned through the Angeles National Forest, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the United States (you again!) Department of Agriculture.

Our state and its leaders must press you — for disaster aid and massive investments in public lands. If you won’t make those investments, then we must insist that you surrender ownership of all federal lands in California to state and local governments and institutions, immediately.
If you refuse these terms, California’s elected leaders should use every trick in the Congressional toolbox to force you to fork over. That should include attaching this transfer of public lands to every must-pass piece of Congressional legislation, including the debt limit.
If you won’t manage or turn over your land, you and California could be headed toward divorce. A new YouGov poll commissioned by the think tank Independent California Institute found 61% support among Californians for peaceful secession from the United States.
Edited versions of this column appeared in newspapers across the state. Read the original version on Zócalo Public Square.