almost all of the land in the Western US that has been encouraged to overgrow is held by a government. the fires on the coast will be nothing compared to the soon-inevitable mega-fire that will reset the Federal land holdings in the Sierra range if more of the Sierra range had been allocated for productive use, we probably would not be in this situation. the Federal government is an absentee landlord
Where I live in Colorado, we see active preventive measures on pubic, government owned lands as opposed to very little mitigation on large swaths of private lands.
In the Sierra range the government is now funding a very expensive clear-cutting campaign to try to rid the forest of the 60 million estimated dead trees that have created a perpetual autumn-like landscape of golden trees. If the forests been subjected to well-regulated and sustainable harvesting, not only would the trees have been cut down as needed, but the state of California would have collected tax receipts. Instead, clear cutting is now a cost to government.