Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service are recipients of an award they likely don't want. Both agencies are among those to be given the California Golden Fleece Award by an Oakland-based think tank for "projects that swindle taxpayers or break the public trust."
The "dishonor" from the Independent Institute is in recognition of what the organization calls a "failure of a group of agencies...to heed earlier warnings" about dangerous wildfire conditions in California that led to the devastating wildfires of 2017 and 2018.
An explanation for why the award was handed out in this case-- and recommended remedies-- is contained in a new Golden Fleece briefing titled California Wildfires: Key Recommendations to Prevent Future Disasters.
Independent Institute Senior Fellow and Ph.D. Lawrence McQuillan says, "The actions needed to get ahead of the widlfire problem require a broad cultural change to embrace innovation, technology, a focus on prevention, and vastly more local control and independent action."