For the record:3:38 p.m. Nov. 25, 2025: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the Cal Fire program in dispute. It is the California Vegetation Treatment Program, not the Vegetation Management Program.
In a case that calls into question plant clearing techniques that have become fundamental to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, the San Diego Superior Court has ordered the agency to amend a program to reduce wildfire risk across the state because it could make things worse.
The years-long legal action filed by the California Chaparral Institute and Endangered Habitats League against the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection within Cal Fire, highlights deep rifts between ecologists’ and firefighters’ approaches to solving California’s wildfire crisis…