The native landscape is chaparral, not forest—and clearing out the brush could make fires even worse. When the Palisades Fire started near a hiking trail in Los Angeles on January 7—quickly spreading to more than 200 acres in 20 minutes,

Legislation to reduce the impact of increasingly devastating forest fires on US federal land passed the House of Representatives on Thursday as firefighters battled to tame the latest in a series of blazes threatening southern California.

Advisers to California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week monitoring new White House advance staffers’ social media accounts, hoping for clues for where President Donald Trump might be headed when he lands in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to talk about the wildfire damage.

But as Trump touches down in Los Angeles on Friday to view the latest damage, forest management remains a political vulnerability for Newsom that Republicans have capitalized on s