The decline in the number of wildfires which was started under the Obama administration has continued under the Trump administration.
On the third night of the Republican National Convention, Scott Dane, executive director of the Associated Contract Loggers & Truckers of Minnesota, claimed that radical environmentalists were allowed to kill the forest under the Obama-Biden administration, which led to several wildfires across the country. In comparison, under President Trump, efficient forest management has led to a decrease in wildfires.
As per the National Interagency Fire Center data, 292,154 wildfires were reported under the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012. Between 2013-2016, 237,457 wildfires were reported. Therefore, a total of 529,611 wildfires were reported across the United States under the Obama administration. In comparison, under the Trump administration, 203,460 wildfires have been recorded from 2017 to July 2020.
Since Obama was in power for eight years, his cumulative data cannot be compared to Trump's data from 3.5 years. Furthermore, a decline in wildfires was observed during Obama's second term, where the number fell from 292,154 to 237,457. From this, we can conclude that the decrease in wildfires started under Obama's administration and has continued under Trump's administration. Moreover, an additional five months from Trump's administration, from July to December 2020, is yet to be calculated, we cannot determine what the final number of wildfires will be under the Trump administration.
Therefore, we conclude that it is misleading to state that wildfires declined during the Trump administration because the decline started during the Obama administration. And, the total number of wildfires under the Trump administration cannot be determined until 2021.
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