The devastating wind-driven wildfires that hit Southern California this week have some experts criticizing the impact of federal and state regulations on mitigation efforts.

Several wildfires are burning in the greater Los Angeles area, including the Palisades fire, which has destroyed approximately 1,000 structures in Pacific Palisades and Malibu as of Wednesday, and the Eaton fire near Altadena. At least five people have died in the wildfires.

More than 70,000 area residents are under evacuation orders as strong Santa Ana winds of up to 100 miles per hour continue to push the fires.

The Golden State struggles with damaging wildfires in both Southern California and Northern California in recent years have drawn scrutiny for federal and state regulations that critics say make it difficult to conduct mitigation activities, such as prescribed burns or treatments to remove hazardous trees and vegetation.

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Firefighters run as a brush fire burns near a neighborhood in Pacific Palisades, California, on January 7, 2025. (Photo by David Swanson/AFP) (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Chuck Devore, a former member of the California State Assembly and head of national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told FOX Business in an interview that federal and state regulations have hampered mitigation efforts. of wildfires, resulting in larger fuel loads that lead to more intense. forest fires

“The nature of the wildfire problem changes a little bit from north to south. . . . In both cases, you have the problem of air quality management districts that are federally and state-mandated to clean up the air. That makes it hard to have prescribed burns with the kind of frequency it needs to happen to be able to reduce the fuel load,” Devore said.

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People evacuate their homes as a fire burns in Pacific Palisades, California, on January 7, 2025. (DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

“In Northern California, as well as much of the Pacific Northwestyou have the issue of environmental regulations that came with the concern about the spotted owl that pretty much destroyed the domestic timber industry,” he explained. “When the timber companies came in and harvested, they cleared the undergrowth and replanted . Since that’s really stopped, what’s happened is you’ve got fire suppression combined with rapid forest growth and this huge fuel build-up that’s led to more fires in the north.”

“In Southern California, you have a problem of creating a defensible space around any structure, both residences and commercial structures,” Devore said. “Ideally it should be 100 feet, in many cases that’s mandatory and firefighters try to enforce it. But people forget that over time, you live in a place, you like the way the things, the bushes and trees start to encroach on your property and you don’t trim it like you should.”

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Elderly patients are quickly evacuated to emergency vehicles as embers and flames approach during the Eaton fire in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2025. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Joe Reddan, a registered professional forester in California and retired from the US Forest Service, told FOX Business that both federal and state policies can create “hurdles” for landowners.

“The California Environmental Quality Act it’s a pretty laborious process to get it done where you can actually put treatments on the ground,” Reddan said. “On the federal side of things, there’s the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the requirements that are included, including the federal Endangered Species Act, the Protection of Archaeological Resources, and a myriad of other federal laws and procedural laws that you must overcome.”

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The wildfires Southern California is battling are shown on a map (Fox News)

Reddan explained that the high fire threat at the wildland urban interface, a transition zone between unmanaged wildland and human communities where there is significant vegetation and fuel for wildfires, means landowners they have to be “very, very dedicated to managing that vegetation so that it’s not overgrown” and is easier to manage if a fire occurs.

“Southern California gets the Winds of Santa Anaand this is only an atmospheric phenomenon; you can’t avoid that, so what you have to do is mitigate the rest to protect your population and your assets: your homes, your businesses from these fires… If it was a wind-driven fire with little amount of fuel, there would still be housing losses and so on, but it would be much easier to manage than having overgrown vegetation that is released. a lot of energy,” Reddan explained.

Reddan noted that California has programs at the state and county level that aim to help homeowners and property owners in wildfire-prone areas create defensible space around their properties. However, he said the feeling among property owners that the worst won’t happen to them can lead to these programs being underutilized.

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“It’s a sociological problem, from my point of view. It’s that people get complacent, they get religion after they come to a Jesus meeting about this kind of thing, and then they get really complacent.”

“It’s hard to get people to put up 30% when California pays you 70%. People don’t see the benefit of that. ‘Oh, I’m not going to burn,’ and that kind of thing. . . . If you could solve that, you it would get more people willing to invest and do the work necessary to protect their assets,” he said.