Letters to the Editor: Plan to prevent fires with fuel breaks is ‘counterproductive and harmful’

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To the editor : The decision by Los Angeles County to bulldoze, chain-saw and burn mature chaparral in the Santa Monica Mountains in the name of fire prevention is counterproductive and harmful ( “Man, machine and mutton: Inside the plan to prevent the next SoCal fire disaster,” Oct. 14).

Counterproductive because old growth chaparral and sage scrub is less flammable than the flashy, invasive, non-native weeds that will inevitably replace these native shrubs and herbaceous plants once this intervention happens — exacerbating fire risk. And harmful because the plants themselves, which have intrinsic value and that absorb carbon, will be destroyed, and wildlife will be killed