Over the weekend, we brought you the meta-story that a fire chief was quoted speculating that the cause of the massive Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park might have been illegal marijuana farmers. Now, the same newspaper that came up with that story has a followup quoting Ray Mooney, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, as saying they now do know the exact cause of the fire.
According to Mooney, it was a hunter with a campfire, except that no campfires were allowed during that time due to (surprise!) fire danger. So the hunter might be on the hook for a portion of the estimated $81 million it has cost so far to fight the fire, not counting possible criminal penalties.
But while the hunter apparently did start the Yosemite fire, there’s absolutely no evidence that “illegal marijuana farmers” had anything to do with it, or that the hunter had anything to do with marijuana farming. All that “blame the marijuana farmers” seems to have been an idea of fire chief Todd McNeal, according to this story in the LA Times.
Jerry Snyder, another U.S. Forest Service spokesman, also specifically denied McNeal’s illegal marijuana grow theory in this separate coverage.
Tags: california, farming, federal government, media, outdoor growing.
By:
Charles Carmichael. Permalink: 
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