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"content": "\u003cp>California lawmakers late Friday approved a massive increase in fines for water scofflaws after ranchers intentionally defied state orders and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">pumped water from the drought-plagued Shasta River for eight days\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, state officials imposed the maximum fine allowed under law — \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">$4,000, or roughly $50 per rancher\u003c/a>, causing outrage among tribes and conservationists. The river provides vital habitat for salmon, and California was experiencing \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/Water-Year-2023-wrap-up-brochure_01.pdf\">its driest three-year stretch (PDF)\u003c/a> on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB460\">The new legislation\u003c/a>, which is now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, would double daily fines for water rights holders who commit minor violations. Those violating curtailment orders could face fines of up to $10,000 per day — a 20-fold increase — plus $2,500 for every acre-foot of water taken. Had it been in place at the time, the Siskiyou County ranchers could have faced total fines exceeding $1.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As climate change intensifies droughts, “people are going to be, unfortunately, put in situations where they might feel that they need to take water, regardless of what the curtailment order is,” said Analise Rivero of California Trout, a conservation group and sponsor of the bill. Now, she said, “they will think twice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation sailed through its final votes with little controversy, which is notable given that the state’s complex, gold-rush era system governing water rights often pits farmers and other water users against environmentalists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab460\">Assembly Bill 460\u003c/a> was introduced in 2023 after CalMatters reported extensively \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">on the standoff with Siskiyou County ranchers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">the penalties imposed by the State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/a> It cleared the Senate \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB460\">in a 38 to 2 vote\u003c/a> with no debate, before heading back to the Assembly, which approved the amendments with a final vote tally of 65 to 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is “to make sure that we’re all playing by the rules — that we don’t have a tragedy of the commons, where some are taking more and others have none,” \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/rebecca-bauer-kahan-165035\">Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan\u003c/a>, a Democrat from San Ramon who authored the bill, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/258020?t=1823&f=9096f931d64bfc5ce45986f7a3e6edd6\">said at a June hearing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s powerful farm organization did not oppose the legislation after Bauer-Kahan removed provisions that would have allowed state officials to intervene more swiftly to halt “irreparable injury” to rivers, ecosystems and other water users. Opponents said those expanded powers could ensnare law-abiding water users.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the changes, all the opposition from growers, irrigation districts, major urban water agencies and even San Francisco Mayor London Breed fell away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final version is what the bill should have been all along, said Alexandra Biering, the California Farm Bureau’s senior policy advocate: a strong deterrent to taking water illegally. “We have no problem with increased penalties,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://www.pcl.org/media/2022/02/Updating-California-Water-Laws-to-Address-with-Drought-and-Climate-Change.pdf\">water watchers (PDF)\u003c/a> and regulators have long bemoaned the state’s limited powers to police its water rights system, which establishes priority among users of finite supply of water from rivers and streams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials say a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01357-z\">lack of resources \u003c/a>to monitor streams for illegal diversions and unclear information about who has rights to the water complicate enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Knowing who’s allowed to take what and how much, and trying to administer that, can be very difficult,” said Yvonne West, director of the water board’s office of enforcement. “It’s time consuming. It is usually very investigative and labor intensive, and there are some ambiguities in the law that we can spend a lot of time arguing over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill aims to address some of the enforcement gaps laid bare in the Shasta Valley two years ago. With thirsty cattle, drying stock ponds and bills from buying water and hay mounting, a rural water association serving about 80 farmers and ranchers bucked state curtailment orders meant to protect flows in the Shasta River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We said, ‘To hell with it,’” \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">Jim Scala, board president of the Shasta River Water Association at the time\u003c/a>, told CalMatters in August 2022. “We’re starting the pumps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flows in the river dropped for about a week — plummeting \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/acl_complaint_actions/2022/shasta-river-water-assoc-aclc.pdf\">by nearly two-thirds in a single day (PDF)\u003c/a>, which wildlife officials and Tribes feared would jeopardize salmon in the Shasta River and the bigger Klamath River that it feeds. The water board \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/cease_desist_actions/2022/srwa-draft-cdo.pdf\">warned the ranchers to stop the diversions (PDF)\u003c/a>, then \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">imposed the maximum fine\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/acl_complaint_actions/2022/shasta-river-water-assoc-aclc.pdf\">$500 per day for eight days, or $4,000 (PDF)\u003c/a> divided among about 80 ranchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For tribes and conservationists, the fine didn’t fit the crime. “We’re trying to protect the culture and the livelihood of people downstream,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/images/docs/elections/Kenneth_Brink_candidate_statement_2022.pdf\">Kenneth Brink (PDF)\u003c/a>, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/258020?t=1672&f=9096f931d64bfc5ce45986f7a3e6edd6\">said at the June Senate hearing\u003c/a>. “The salmon is a big part of our culture and our ceremonies, it’s not just a fish that swims up the river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only if the violation had continued after a finalized cease and desist order — which requires a 20-day waiting period and the opportunity for a hearing — could the board have raised the fines to $10,000 a day. By then, the pumps had long been turned off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11996464,science_1992194,news_11979392\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the ranchers told CalMatters \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">at the time that\u003c/a>, weighing the threat to his cattle and the expenses of ranching without enough water, violating the drought order “was the cheapest way I could have got by … When you’re to a point where you have no other choice, you do what you have to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California’s far north, some farmers and ranchers relying on the Shasta River and the neighboring Scott River for irrigating crops \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drought/scott_shasta_rivers/\">still face water curtailments\u003c/a> under \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/12/klamath-basin-tribes-ranchers-water-salmon/\">emergency measures approved in December\u003c/a>. The rules are aimed at protecting their imperiled fish, such as salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions on water pumping are a bigger concern than the increased fines, said Siskiyou County Farm Bureau President \u003ca href=\"http://www.siskiyoucountyfarmbureau.org/team\">Ryan Walker\u003c/a>. “Whether it’s $500 or $10,000, it’s the underlying curtailment that’s grossly unfair. The penalty is simply something that goes along with it,” Walker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growers and ranchers need the river’s water for irrigation of crops during a critical time in the season, he said. “It really could have made the difference between a profitable and nonprofitable year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill represents the last of a trio of bills that emerged after the most recent drought tackling California’s water priority system One clarifying the state’s authority to \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb389\">investigate longstanding water rights claims\u003c/a> was approved, while \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/04/california-water-rights-battle-legislature/\">another\u003c/a>, which would have \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab1337\">expanded the state’s powers to restrict pumping\u003c/a> from rivers and streams, stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s water watchers are celebrating the cooperation that smoothed the passage of Bauer-Kahan’s bill. But they say more needs to be done to bolster policing of the state’s most precious resource.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History has shown that the board’s current tools are not sufficient,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.pacific.edu/campus-directory/jennifer-harder\">Jennifer Harder\u003c/a>, a professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. “But I’m very encouraged by the water users and the environmental interests coming together and hope that they can build on that relationship in future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Ranchers who defied a state water order were only fined about $50 each. Under new legislation headed to the governor, some daily fines for water scofflaws can increase 20-fold.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California lawmakers late Friday approved a massive increase in fines for water scofflaws after ranchers intentionally defied state orders and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">pumped water from the drought-plagued Shasta River for eight days\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, state officials imposed the maximum fine allowed under law — \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">$4,000, or roughly $50 per rancher\u003c/a>, causing outrage among tribes and conservationists. The river provides vital habitat for salmon, and California was experiencing \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/Water-Year-2023-wrap-up-brochure_01.pdf\">its driest three-year stretch (PDF)\u003c/a> on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB460\">The new legislation\u003c/a>, which is now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, would double daily fines for water rights holders who commit minor violations. Those violating curtailment orders could face fines of up to $10,000 per day — a 20-fold increase — plus $2,500 for every acre-foot of water taken. Had it been in place at the time, the Siskiyou County ranchers could have faced total fines exceeding $1.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As climate change intensifies droughts, “people are going to be, unfortunately, put in situations where they might feel that they need to take water, regardless of what the curtailment order is,” said Analise Rivero of California Trout, a conservation group and sponsor of the bill. Now, she said, “they will think twice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation sailed through its final votes with little controversy, which is notable given that the state’s complex, gold-rush era system governing water rights often pits farmers and other water users against environmentalists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab460\">Assembly Bill 460\u003c/a> was introduced in 2023 after CalMatters reported extensively \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">on the standoff with Siskiyou County ranchers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">the penalties imposed by the State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/a> It cleared the Senate \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB460\">in a 38 to 2 vote\u003c/a> with no debate, before heading back to the Assembly, which approved the amendments with a final vote tally of 65 to 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is “to make sure that we’re all playing by the rules — that we don’t have a tragedy of the commons, where some are taking more and others have none,” \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/rebecca-bauer-kahan-165035\">Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan\u003c/a>, a Democrat from San Ramon who authored the bill, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/258020?t=1823&f=9096f931d64bfc5ce45986f7a3e6edd6\">said at a June hearing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s powerful farm organization did not oppose the legislation after Bauer-Kahan removed provisions that would have allowed state officials to intervene more swiftly to halt “irreparable injury” to rivers, ecosystems and other water users. Opponents said those expanded powers could ensnare law-abiding water users.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the changes, all the opposition from growers, irrigation districts, major urban water agencies and even San Francisco Mayor London Breed fell away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final version is what the bill should have been all along, said Alexandra Biering, the California Farm Bureau’s senior policy advocate: a strong deterrent to taking water illegally. “We have no problem with increased penalties,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://www.pcl.org/media/2022/02/Updating-California-Water-Laws-to-Address-with-Drought-and-Climate-Change.pdf\">water watchers (PDF)\u003c/a> and regulators have long bemoaned the state’s limited powers to police its water rights system, which establishes priority among users of finite supply of water from rivers and streams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials say a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01357-z\">lack of resources \u003c/a>to monitor streams for illegal diversions and unclear information about who has rights to the water complicate enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Knowing who’s allowed to take what and how much, and trying to administer that, can be very difficult,” said Yvonne West, director of the water board’s office of enforcement. “It’s time consuming. It is usually very investigative and labor intensive, and there are some ambiguities in the law that we can spend a lot of time arguing over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill aims to address some of the enforcement gaps laid bare in the Shasta Valley two years ago. With thirsty cattle, drying stock ponds and bills from buying water and hay mounting, a rural water association serving about 80 farmers and ranchers bucked state curtailment orders meant to protect flows in the Shasta River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We said, ‘To hell with it,’” \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/08/shasta-river-water-standoff/\">Jim Scala, board president of the Shasta River Water Association at the time\u003c/a>, told CalMatters in August 2022. “We’re starting the pumps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flows in the river dropped for about a week — plummeting \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/acl_complaint_actions/2022/shasta-river-water-assoc-aclc.pdf\">by nearly two-thirds in a single day (PDF)\u003c/a>, which wildlife officials and Tribes feared would jeopardize salmon in the Shasta River and the bigger Klamath River that it feeds. The water board \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/cease_desist_actions/2022/srwa-draft-cdo.pdf\">warned the ranchers to stop the diversions (PDF)\u003c/a>, then \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">imposed the maximum fine\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/enforcement/compliance/acl_complaint_actions/2022/shasta-river-water-assoc-aclc.pdf\">$500 per day for eight days, or $4,000 (PDF)\u003c/a> divided among about 80 ranchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For tribes and conservationists, the fine didn’t fit the crime. “We’re trying to protect the culture and the livelihood of people downstream,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/images/docs/elections/Kenneth_Brink_candidate_statement_2022.pdf\">Kenneth Brink (PDF)\u003c/a>, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/258020?t=1672&f=9096f931d64bfc5ce45986f7a3e6edd6\">said at the June Senate hearing\u003c/a>. “The salmon is a big part of our culture and our ceremonies, it’s not just a fish that swims up the river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only if the violation had continued after a finalized cease and desist order — which requires a 20-day waiting period and the opportunity for a hearing — could the board have raised the fines to $10,000 a day. By then, the pumps had long been turned off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the ranchers told CalMatters \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">at the time that\u003c/a>, weighing the threat to his cattle and the expenses of ranching without enough water, violating the drought order “was the cheapest way I could have got by … When you’re to a point where you have no other choice, you do what you have to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California’s far north, some farmers and ranchers relying on the Shasta River and the neighboring Scott River for irrigating crops \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drought/scott_shasta_rivers/\">still face water curtailments\u003c/a> under \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/12/klamath-basin-tribes-ranchers-water-salmon/\">emergency measures approved in December\u003c/a>. The rules are aimed at protecting their imperiled fish, such as salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions on water pumping are a bigger concern than the increased fines, said Siskiyou County Farm Bureau President \u003ca href=\"http://www.siskiyoucountyfarmbureau.org/team\">Ryan Walker\u003c/a>. “Whether it’s $500 or $10,000, it’s the underlying curtailment that’s grossly unfair. The penalty is simply something that goes along with it,” Walker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growers and ranchers need the river’s water for irrigation of crops during a critical time in the season, he said. “It really could have made the difference between a profitable and nonprofitable year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill represents the last of a trio of bills that emerged after the most recent drought tackling California’s water priority system One clarifying the state’s authority to \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb389\">investigate longstanding water rights claims\u003c/a> was approved, while \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/04/california-water-rights-battle-legislature/\">another\u003c/a>, which would have \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab1337\">expanded the state’s powers to restrict pumping\u003c/a> from rivers and streams, stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s water watchers are celebrating the cooperation that smoothed the passage of Bauer-Kahan’s bill. But they say more needs to be done to bolster policing of the state’s most precious resource.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History has shown that the board’s current tools are not sufficient,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.pacific.edu/campus-directory/jennifer-harder\">Jennifer Harder\u003c/a>, a professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. “But I’m very encouraged by the water users and the environmental interests coming together and hope that they can build on that relationship in future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Lynda Hopkins made an out-of-the-blue call to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County\u003c/a> property owner, she didn’t think there was much hope of stopping the logging project planned on his land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins, a Sonoma County supervisor, said it was an “11th-hour” effort to see if the owner would be open to selling their family’s nearly 400-acre expanse of land, mostly covered in redwood trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To my shock, the property owner actually said yes,” Hopkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began a patchwork effort from community organizers, county leaders and a nonprofit partner to purchase the land for preservation. The $6 million deal is expected to be finalized next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, county officials voted to approve the funds needed to purchase the land known as the Russian River Redwoods. The land will be transferred to the Russian River Sanitation District, which will, according to a press release, ensure its “natural resources are conserved forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001756\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12001756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-800x1199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-800x1199.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-1020x1528.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonoma County’s purchase of 394 acres along the Russian River, home to the county’s tallest redwood, has been approved, paving the way for protection and future research and public use. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Save the Redwoods League)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some trace the work of community advocates to protect the redwoods to one tree, one of the the tallest in Sonoma County, that sits on the property: the Clar Tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s magnificent, and it’s hard to describe something that’s so immense,” Hopkins said. “You feel so small when you stand in front of it. The trunk is so huge. It’s almost like an ecosystem unto itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the nearly 2,000-year-old Clar Tree was not at risk of being cut down in the timber harvest, community members were worried about how the loss of surrounding trees would affect its ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Redwoods are a communal species,” Hopkins said. “Their roots actually link together under the ground. And when it comes to strong wind events, it’s actually the collective strength of the redwood forest, not the strength of individual trees, that actually enables that forest to survive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The surrounding forest also became important to community activists, who formed the Guerneville Forest Coalition to try to preserve the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guerneville was previously partly a logging town. There is an old nickname for Guerneville called Stumptown. But things changed in the 21st century,” Ed Yates, the GFC attorney, said. “The Guerneville area was no longer Stumptown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1068\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Tuesday, county officials voted to approve the funds needed to purchase the land known as the Russian River Redwoods. The land will be transferred to the Russian River Sanitation District, which will, according to a press release, ensure its “natural resources are conserved forever.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Save the Redwoods League)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said that the coalition was concerned with maintaining the area’s natural beauty, preserving its biodiversity and protecting its ability to sequester carbon. When the owner of the Russian River Redwoods filed a timber harvest plan in 2020 and was eventually approved to begin logging in 2022, GFC initiated legal action to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins made her call and learned that a sale was on the table — if it could be completed within months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That short window didn’t give the county’s Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, which can make purchases to protect natural resources, time to go through the lengthy approval process to complete the transaction, so a nonprofit partner stepped in to make an interim purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11953504 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS40604_GettyImages-177068762-qut-1020x681.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit that works to preserve redwood forests, agreed to lead a fundraising effort and closed on the property last September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That really took away a lot of the risk of the property immediately being harvested or sold to somebody else and gave us the time needed to put together the deal that you’re now seeing, where we’re spending a little over $6.1 million of local Sonoma County sales tax dollars to permanently conserve the property and its associated resources,” Misti Arias, the general manager of Sonoma County’s Agriculture and Open Space District, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Russian River County Sanitation District, managed by Sonoma Water, will become the owner of the land thanks to funding from the county’s Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, which will hold a conservation easement and recreation covenant to ensure that the property’s resources are conserved. The land will be made available for public use in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a beautiful place for hiking trails, and we have a mile of riverfront of the Russian River, so there’s opportunity to boat in, come in from a canoe or a kayak and then explore,” Hopkins told KQED. “The property is a tremendous asset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Lynda Hopkins made an out-of-the-blue call to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County\u003c/a> property owner, she didn’t think there was much hope of stopping the logging project planned on his land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins, a Sonoma County supervisor, said it was an “11th-hour” effort to see if the owner would be open to selling their family’s nearly 400-acre expanse of land, mostly covered in redwood trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To my shock, the property owner actually said yes,” Hopkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began a patchwork effort from community organizers, county leaders and a nonprofit partner to purchase the land for preservation. The $6 million deal is expected to be finalized next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, county officials voted to approve the funds needed to purchase the land known as the Russian River Redwoods. The land will be transferred to the Russian River Sanitation District, which will, according to a press release, ensure its “natural resources are conserved forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001756\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12001756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-800x1199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-800x1199.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-1020x1528.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-18-web.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonoma County’s purchase of 394 acres along the Russian River, home to the county’s tallest redwood, has been approved, paving the way for protection and future research and public use. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Save the Redwoods League)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some trace the work of community advocates to protect the redwoods to one tree, one of the the tallest in Sonoma County, that sits on the property: the Clar Tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s magnificent, and it’s hard to describe something that’s so immense,” Hopkins said. “You feel so small when you stand in front of it. The trunk is so huge. It’s almost like an ecosystem unto itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the nearly 2,000-year-old Clar Tree was not at risk of being cut down in the timber harvest, community members were worried about how the loss of surrounding trees would affect its ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Redwoods are a communal species,” Hopkins said. “Their roots actually link together under the ground. And when it comes to strong wind events, it’s actually the collective strength of the redwood forest, not the strength of individual trees, that actually enables that forest to survive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The surrounding forest also became important to community activists, who formed the Guerneville Forest Coalition to try to preserve the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guerneville was previously partly a logging town. There is an old nickname for Guerneville called Stumptown. But things changed in the 21st century,” Ed Yates, the GFC attorney, said. “The Guerneville area was no longer Stumptown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1068\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Russian-River-Redwoods-vivianchen-16-web-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Tuesday, county officials voted to approve the funds needed to purchase the land known as the Russian River Redwoods. The land will be transferred to the Russian River Sanitation District, which will, according to a press release, ensure its “natural resources are conserved forever.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Save the Redwoods League)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said that the coalition was concerned with maintaining the area’s natural beauty, preserving its biodiversity and protecting its ability to sequester carbon. When the owner of the Russian River Redwoods filed a timber harvest plan in 2020 and was eventually approved to begin logging in 2022, GFC initiated legal action to stop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins made her call and learned that a sale was on the table — if it could be completed within months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That short window didn’t give the county’s Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, which can make purchases to protect natural resources, time to go through the lengthy approval process to complete the transaction, so a nonprofit partner stepped in to make an interim purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit that works to preserve redwood forests, agreed to lead a fundraising effort and closed on the property last September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That really took away a lot of the risk of the property immediately being harvested or sold to somebody else and gave us the time needed to put together the deal that you’re now seeing, where we’re spending a little over $6.1 million of local Sonoma County sales tax dollars to permanently conserve the property and its associated resources,” Misti Arias, the general manager of Sonoma County’s Agriculture and Open Space District, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Russian River County Sanitation District, managed by Sonoma Water, will become the owner of the land thanks to funding from the county’s Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, which will hold a conservation easement and recreation covenant to ensure that the property’s resources are conserved. The land will be made available for public use in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a beautiful place for hiking trails, and we have a mile of riverfront of the Russian River, so there’s opportunity to boat in, come in from a canoe or a kayak and then explore,” Hopkins told KQED. “The property is a tremendous asset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Everyone’s heard about the wonders of California’s coastal redwood trees. They can live for hundreds, even one or two thousand years, all while enduring West Coast fires, storms and pests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s an equally fascinating native California tree: the bishop pine. While it’s not a household name, the drought-tolerant, rocky, soil-loving plant has fashioned its own way of surviving the ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop pines are everything that redwoods are not. They get canker infections and snap like pencils. When their root balls are soggy, a strong breeze tips them over. In a wildfire? Woosh, they’re gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fragility of the bishop pine is arguably its strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest natural bishop pine forest in the world is in Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes. Just like the groves of their majestic cousins, the coastal redwoods, bishop pine forests can last for thousands of years. However, it’s because each individual bishop pine can quickly make space for the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The spread of pencil trees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bishop pines were once widespread throughout western North America. That was during the Tertiary period, over 2.5 million years ago. Now, their range is mostly limited to a sliver along California’s coast. And it’s shrinking still!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001161\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bishop Pine at Jepson Memorial Grove, along the Johnstone Trail, at Tomales Bay State Park on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One culprit is a fungal infection that causes bishop pines to grow cankers, which appear as large bulges in a tree’s branches and trunk. Cankers girdle a tree’s branches and trunk, causing them to bulge and leak resin. The girdle reduces the flow of nutrients, weakening the trunk so that it eventually snaps in two like a broken pencil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many snapped and fallen trees in Tomales Bay State Park, as well as in Inverness, a small unincorporated community nestled between the state park and Tomales Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cleaning up after the pines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To fully appreciate the largest and oldest remaining bishop pine forests, hikers can take the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. There, they’ll pass through the trees and other vegetation still coated in dew from the coastal fog and walk up the low hills to views of Tomales Bay glistening in the distance — views snatched between the trunks of bishop pines now a hundred feet tall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hiking the trail, it’s more or less a matter of time before one runs into local Emmanuel Serriere while he’s cleaning up the tangle of trunks and branches that happen when a massive tree falls and takes down unlucky neighbors with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serriere has cleared the Johnstone Trail of bishop pines and other trees for 14 years. It began when he retired next door and started walking the trail regularly. One day, the trail was blocked by a fallen tree. Instead of waiting for someone else to do something, he took his chainsaw and unblocked the trail himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emmanuel Serriere clears the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Serriere walks the trail almost daily for his own enjoyment, but he takes note of how to improve the experience for everyone: removing loose roots that he calls “widow makers;” filling in giant potholes left by mature root balls; and, of course, clearing fallen trunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state park works with multiple volunteers and staff to keep the Johnstone Trail open and safe for visitors, but Serriere is particularly active. He enjoys the labor, and more than that, he enjoys the experience of a pleasant hike, something he’s proud to share with fellow hikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serriere estimated that he’d removed over a hundred tree trunks from the Johnstone Trail. He often works with fellow volunteer Gerald Meral and coordinates with park rangers on particularly bad pile-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you’ll know a Serriere tree removal when you see one. The evidence remains on the slowly decomposing trunks lying next to the trail — literally on each cross-section, where Serriere has recorded in big fat Sharpie the date when he cleared that particular fallen tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tree lies fallen alongside the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. Emmanuel Serriere clears the trail as part of his maintenance work and dates the trunks with a permanent marker as a memento of his effort.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;font-weight: bold\">Suited to thrive\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, not all locals share Serriere’s disdain for the pesky bishop pines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Gaman, a professional forester who has studied the Tomales Bay bishop pine forest in detail, grows bishop pines on his property. Gaman said he likes that they’re indigenous and thrive under the right natural conditions. If they’re healthy enough, they can even overcome canker infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001350\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Gaman beside a bishop pine he grew from seed. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman showed me a dozen mature bishop pines around his yard that he planted from seed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One does not simply buy bishop pine seeds. Gaman collected the pine cones himself. Even his 5-year-old bishop pines had little cones on them. The hard part was getting the seeds out. Bishop pine cones are sealed shut with resin. The seeds stay locked in these closed cones until a fire melts the resin so the cones can finally pop open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001352\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001352\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bishop pine seedlings growing in Tom Gaman’s yard. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman extracted the seeds by roasting the cones in his oven, but wild bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce. Although wildfires often kill mature bishop pines, the heat also opens their cones, and the fiery winds distribute the seeds, which then regenerate into new trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since bishop pines require wildfire to produce, they happily increase the risk of wildfire as they age. The grove around the Johnstone Trail is full of dead trees, fallen branches, and dense mounds of dried needles. “Around here, you can walk through a bishop pine forest, and it hasn’t burned for so long that the litter can be a foot deep,” Gaman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This build-up of organic material stokes fears of an exceptionally big and fast-moving wildfire ripping through Inverness. Until that happens, though, the litter is actually a big problem for the bishop pines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Gaman holds his collection of extracted bishop pine seeds. The seeds are locked inside pine cones held shut with pitch. Gaman opens the cones by roasting them in his oven. Bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce in the wild. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman said that bishop pine seeds won’t germinate unless they’re down on what foresters call “bare mineral soil.” In 1939, a dozen years before Tomales Bay State Park opened, there was a big fire that cleared the land. The bishop pine forest we see today naturally sprung back after that wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the forest is 80 years old, and the dying bishop pines are being replaced by oak and bay. Without another wildfire, this indigenous bishop pine forest — the largest natural bishop pine grove in the world — will eventually disappear.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resilience of the forest, not the trees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gaman explained that it’s not because bishop pines are fragile. “There might be 40 generations of bishop pines in the life of one redwood tree,” Gaman said. “So bishop pines are resilient in that the young ones can burst onto the landscape after a fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beauty of bishop pines is that they make space for the next generation. While it’s a pain to clear fallen trees, it’s a chore that’s easier to appreciate after the full experience of hiking the Johnstone Trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001348\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001348\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emmanuel Serriere hikes through the bishop pine forest along the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After I watched Serriere clear a lower part of the trail, we hiked up to a ridge. First, he pointed out the fallen tree he’d cleared and marked with the trail’s highest altitude. Then he turned to the clearing that the dead tree exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, we got new babies,” Serriere exclaimed. “New bishop pines coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bishop pine, visible on the center-left, can be seen from Heart’s Desire Beach at Tomales Bay State Park on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "While not as famous as its cousin, the mighty redwood, the drought-tolerant, rocky soil-loving bishop pine has fashioned its own way of surviving the ages.",
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"title": "The World's Largest Bishop Pine Forest Is in Point Reyes | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Everyone’s heard about the wonders of California’s coastal redwood trees. They can live for hundreds, even one or two thousand years, all while enduring West Coast fires, storms and pests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s an equally fascinating native California tree: the bishop pine. While it’s not a household name, the drought-tolerant, rocky, soil-loving plant has fashioned its own way of surviving the ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop pines are everything that redwoods are not. They get canker infections and snap like pencils. When their root balls are soggy, a strong breeze tips them over. In a wildfire? Woosh, they’re gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fragility of the bishop pine is arguably its strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest natural bishop pine forest in the world is in Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes. Just like the groves of their majestic cousins, the coastal redwoods, bishop pine forests can last for thousands of years. However, it’s because each individual bishop pine can quickly make space for the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The spread of pencil trees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bishop pines were once widespread throughout western North America. That was during the Tertiary period, over 2.5 million years ago. Now, their range is mostly limited to a sliver along California’s coast. And it’s shrinking still!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001161\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-25-KQED-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bishop Pine at Jepson Memorial Grove, along the Johnstone Trail, at Tomales Bay State Park on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One culprit is a fungal infection that causes bishop pines to grow cankers, which appear as large bulges in a tree’s branches and trunk. Cankers girdle a tree’s branches and trunk, causing them to bulge and leak resin. The girdle reduces the flow of nutrients, weakening the trunk so that it eventually snaps in two like a broken pencil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many snapped and fallen trees in Tomales Bay State Park, as well as in Inverness, a small unincorporated community nestled between the state park and Tomales Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cleaning up after the pines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To fully appreciate the largest and oldest remaining bishop pine forests, hikers can take the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. There, they’ll pass through the trees and other vegetation still coated in dew from the coastal fog and walk up the low hills to views of Tomales Bay glistening in the distance — views snatched between the trunks of bishop pines now a hundred feet tall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hiking the trail, it’s more or less a matter of time before one runs into local Emmanuel Serriere while he’s cleaning up the tangle of trunks and branches that happen when a massive tree falls and takes down unlucky neighbors with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serriere has cleared the Johnstone Trail of bishop pines and other trees for 14 years. It began when he retired next door and started walking the trail regularly. One day, the trail was blocked by a fallen tree. Instead of waiting for someone else to do something, he took his chainsaw and unblocked the trail himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BCHAINSAW_EMMANUEL_DONE_POSING4-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emmanuel Serriere clears the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Serriere walks the trail almost daily for his own enjoyment, but he takes note of how to improve the experience for everyone: removing loose roots that he calls “widow makers;” filling in giant potholes left by mature root balls; and, of course, clearing fallen trunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state park works with multiple volunteers and staff to keep the Johnstone Trail open and safe for visitors, but Serriere is particularly active. He enjoys the labor, and more than that, he enjoys the experience of a pleasant hike, something he’s proud to share with fellow hikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serriere estimated that he’d removed over a hundred tree trunks from the Johnstone Trail. He often works with fellow volunteer Gerald Meral and coordinates with park rangers on particularly bad pile-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you’ll know a Serriere tree removal when you see one. The evidence remains on the slowly decomposing trunks lying next to the trail — literally on each cross-section, where Serriere has recorded in big fat Sharpie the date when he cleared that particular fallen tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ACHAINSAW_TRUNK_DATED-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tree lies fallen alongside the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. Emmanuel Serriere clears the trail as part of his maintenance work and dates the trunks with a permanent marker as a memento of his effort.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;font-weight: bold\">Suited to thrive\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, not all locals share Serriere’s disdain for the pesky bishop pines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Gaman, a professional forester who has studied the Tomales Bay bishop pine forest in detail, grows bishop pines on his property. Gaman said he likes that they’re indigenous and thrive under the right natural conditions. If they’re healthy enough, they can even overcome canker infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001350\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-WITH-BISHOP-PINE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Gaman beside a bishop pine he grew from seed. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman showed me a dozen mature bishop pines around his yard that he planted from seed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One does not simply buy bishop pine seeds. Gaman collected the pine cones himself. Even his 5-year-old bishop pines had little cones on them. The hard part was getting the seeds out. Bishop pine cones are sealed shut with resin. The seeds stay locked in these closed cones until a fire melts the resin so the cones can finally pop open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001352\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001352\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-BTOM-GAMANS-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDLINGS-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bishop pine seedlings growing in Tom Gaman’s yard. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman extracted the seeds by roasting the cones in his oven, but wild bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce. Although wildfires often kill mature bishop pines, the heat also opens their cones, and the fiery winds distribute the seeds, which then regenerate into new trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since bishop pines require wildfire to produce, they happily increase the risk of wildfire as they age. The grove around the Johnstone Trail is full of dead trees, fallen branches, and dense mounds of dried needles. “Around here, you can walk through a bishop pine forest, and it hasn’t burned for so long that the litter can be a foot deep,” Gaman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This build-up of organic material stokes fears of an exceptionally big and fast-moving wildfire ripping through Inverness. Until that happens, though, the litter is actually a big problem for the bishop pines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-ATOM-GAMAN-BISHOP-PINE-SEEDS-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Gaman holds his collection of extracted bishop pine seeds. The seeds are locked inside pine cones held shut with pitch. Gaman opens the cones by roasting them in his oven. Bishop pines rely on wildfires to reproduce in the wild. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaman said that bishop pine seeds won’t germinate unless they’re down on what foresters call “bare mineral soil.” In 1939, a dozen years before Tomales Bay State Park opened, there was a big fire that cleared the land. The bishop pine forest we see today naturally sprung back after that wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the forest is 80 years old, and the dying bishop pines are being replaced by oak and bay. Without another wildfire, this indigenous bishop pine forest — the largest natural bishop pine grove in the world — will eventually disappear.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resilience of the forest, not the trees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gaman explained that it’s not because bishop pines are fragile. “There might be 40 generations of bishop pines in the life of one redwood tree,” Gaman said. “So bishop pines are resilient in that the young ones can burst onto the landscape after a fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beauty of bishop pines is that they make space for the next generation. While it’s a pain to clear fallen trees, it’s a chore that’s easier to appreciate after the full experience of hiking the Johnstone Trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001348\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001348\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240822-AEMMANUEL-WALKING-BISHOP-PINE-2-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emmanuel Serriere hikes through the bishop pine forest along the Johnstone Trail in Tomales Bay State Park. \u003ccite>(Lusen Mendel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After I watched Serriere clear a lower part of the trail, we hiked up to a ridge. First, he pointed out the fallen tree he’d cleared and marked with the trail’s highest altitude. Then he turned to the clearing that the dead tree exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look, we got new babies,” Serriere exclaimed. “New bishop pines coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001163\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/20240820_BISHOPPINES_GC-31-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bishop pine, visible on the center-left, can be seen from Heart’s Desire Beach at Tomales Bay State Park on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "push-to-build-more-homes-on-california-coast-stifled-after-lawmakers-derail-housing-bills",
"title": "Push to Build More Homes on California Coast Stifled After Lawmakers Derail Housing Bills",
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"headTitle": "Push to Build More Homes on California Coast Stifled After Lawmakers Derail Housing Bills | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Housing advocates thought this would be the year when they finally cracked the California Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early spring, Democratic lawmakers and the Yes In My Backyard activists backing them rolled out a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/california-coastal-commission-protections/\">series of bills\u003c/a> aimed at making it easier to build apartments and accessory dwelling units along California’s highly regulated coast and to make it more difficult for the independent and influential California Coastal Commission to slow or block housing projects. The 15-member group oversees almost all of the state’s 840 miles of coastline, a stretch of land that just under a million Californians call home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pro-construction push built off last year’s success for the coalition when the Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/07/california-coast-housing-bill/\">passed a major housing law\u003c/a> and — breaking from long-standing legislative tradition — did not include a carveout for the coast. This year’s pack of bills was meant to cement and build off a new political reality in which the 48-year-old Coastal Commission no longer has quite so much say over housing policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to mid-August and those new bills are either dead or so severely watered down that they no longer carry the promise of a more built-out coastline. Whatever happened last year, the California Coastal Commission is still a force to be reckoned with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians really treasure their coast, and they feel very strongly about protecting it, and bills that seek to weaken coastal protections are going to run into some strong headwinds,” said Sarah Christie, the commission’s legislative affairs director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 1970s, the California Coastal Commission has closely regulated any construction or demolition within the California coastal zone — a narrow band of land that varies from 1,000 feet to 5 miles inland from high tide. While many recent state housing laws have required predictable, by-the-book approval of proposed developments, the commission has remained a redoubt of discretion. The commission’s defenders say that that is as it should be since the coast’s enormous value to the public, its fragile ecosystems, and its vulnerability to searise require holistic and individualized protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, San Diego Democratic Assemblymember David Alvarez pulled his bill, AB 2560, written to ensure that California’s density bonus law, a policy that allows developers to build taller, denser or meeting fewer local requirements in exchange for setting aside some units for lower-income tenants or owners, applies in the coastal zone. As he explained in a press release, recent amendments tacked onto the bill would have made it “ineffective at building more housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tweak came out of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which heard the bill in late June, just prior to the Legislative summer recess. The amendment would have subjected any density bonus project to the added protections of the California Coastal Act. Sen. Dave Min, an Irivine Democrat, helms the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amendment “undid the point of the bill,” said Will Moore, policy director at Circulate San Diego, a nonprofit that co-sponsored the bill. The only point in continuing to move forward after such changes would have been “if we were just in love with the number 2560 or something,” he added. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"california-housing\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Min’s Natural Resources Committee emerged as a vital defender of the Coastal Commission this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the committee also substantially revised two coastal housing bills by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas. One would have exempted backyard cottages, otherwise known as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/11/adu-san-diego/\">accessory dwelling units\u003c/a>, from Coastal Commission review. Amendments out of the Min’s committee revised it to simply require the commission to offer guidance to local governments on how to permit ADUs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second Blakespear bill would have sped up the appeal deadline for apartment projects in the coastal zone. Min’s amendments changed it to simply require that the commission submit a report to the Legislature by 2026. (The bill died in a subsequent fiscal committee last week.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blakespear accepted those changes at the time, but not happily, which led to a testy exchange at the April hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To clarify, you were not forced to take any amendments, you agreed to take them,” Min said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am absolutely forced to take these amendments,” Blakespear responded. “I am doing that willingly, but I do not want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last half-decade, a majority of state lawmakers have come to embrace the idea that bringing down the cost of housing in California requires a significant increase in the supply of homes. California housing regulators are pushing local governments across the state to permit 315,000 new units every year until the end of the decade — a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">pace of construction\u003c/a> without precedent in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing advocates note that the coastal zone passes through many urbanized centers and that its population is disproportionately wealthy and white. That, they argue, has made the Coastal Commission a tool of elitist exclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Coastal Act defenders argue that the goals of making the state’s beachfront property more accessible and protecting the coast are not mutually exclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a variety of ways we could increase workforce housing in the coastal zone without undercutting the Coastal Act,” Christie said. That might include requiring local governments, which are in many cases tasked with enforcing the act, to approve housing projects that don’t jeopardize coastal resources. The Commission has also \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GroteCoastalCommissionTestimony.pdf\">long called for the state\u003c/a> to give it the power to require developers to set aside units for low-income residents, authority that was taken away from the agency in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That debate is dead in the Legislature for now, but it’s likely to resurface again in some form next year.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Several efforts to minimize the power and influence of the California Coastal Commission have stalled.",
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"title": "Push to Build More Homes on California Coast Stifled After Lawmakers Derail Housing Bills | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Housing advocates thought this would be the year when they finally cracked the California Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early spring, Democratic lawmakers and the Yes In My Backyard activists backing them rolled out a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/california-coastal-commission-protections/\">series of bills\u003c/a> aimed at making it easier to build apartments and accessory dwelling units along California’s highly regulated coast and to make it more difficult for the independent and influential California Coastal Commission to slow or block housing projects. The 15-member group oversees almost all of the state’s 840 miles of coastline, a stretch of land that just under a million Californians call home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pro-construction push built off last year’s success for the coalition when the Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/07/california-coast-housing-bill/\">passed a major housing law\u003c/a> and — breaking from long-standing legislative tradition — did not include a carveout for the coast. This year’s pack of bills was meant to cement and build off a new political reality in which the 48-year-old Coastal Commission no longer has quite so much say over housing policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to mid-August and those new bills are either dead or so severely watered down that they no longer carry the promise of a more built-out coastline. Whatever happened last year, the California Coastal Commission is still a force to be reckoned with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians really treasure their coast, and they feel very strongly about protecting it, and bills that seek to weaken coastal protections are going to run into some strong headwinds,” said Sarah Christie, the commission’s legislative affairs director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 1970s, the California Coastal Commission has closely regulated any construction or demolition within the California coastal zone — a narrow band of land that varies from 1,000 feet to 5 miles inland from high tide. While many recent state housing laws have required predictable, by-the-book approval of proposed developments, the commission has remained a redoubt of discretion. The commission’s defenders say that that is as it should be since the coast’s enormous value to the public, its fragile ecosystems, and its vulnerability to searise require holistic and individualized protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, San Diego Democratic Assemblymember David Alvarez pulled his bill, AB 2560, written to ensure that California’s density bonus law, a policy that allows developers to build taller, denser or meeting fewer local requirements in exchange for setting aside some units for lower-income tenants or owners, applies in the coastal zone. As he explained in a press release, recent amendments tacked onto the bill would have made it “ineffective at building more housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tweak came out of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which heard the bill in late June, just prior to the Legislative summer recess. The amendment would have subjected any density bonus project to the added protections of the California Coastal Act. Sen. Dave Min, an Irivine Democrat, helms the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amendment “undid the point of the bill,” said Will Moore, policy director at Circulate San Diego, a nonprofit that co-sponsored the bill. The only point in continuing to move forward after such changes would have been “if we were just in love with the number 2560 or something,” he added. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Min’s Natural Resources Committee emerged as a vital defender of the Coastal Commission this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the committee also substantially revised two coastal housing bills by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas. One would have exempted backyard cottages, otherwise known as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/11/adu-san-diego/\">accessory dwelling units\u003c/a>, from Coastal Commission review. Amendments out of the Min’s committee revised it to simply require the commission to offer guidance to local governments on how to permit ADUs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second Blakespear bill would have sped up the appeal deadline for apartment projects in the coastal zone. Min’s amendments changed it to simply require that the commission submit a report to the Legislature by 2026. (The bill died in a subsequent fiscal committee last week.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blakespear accepted those changes at the time, but not happily, which led to a testy exchange at the April hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To clarify, you were not forced to take any amendments, you agreed to take them,” Min said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am absolutely forced to take these amendments,” Blakespear responded. “I am doing that willingly, but I do not want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last half-decade, a majority of state lawmakers have come to embrace the idea that bringing down the cost of housing in California requires a significant increase in the supply of homes. California housing regulators are pushing local governments across the state to permit 315,000 new units every year until the end of the decade — a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">pace of construction\u003c/a> without precedent in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing advocates note that the coastal zone passes through many urbanized centers and that its population is disproportionately wealthy and white. That, they argue, has made the Coastal Commission a tool of elitist exclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Coastal Act defenders argue that the goals of making the state’s beachfront property more accessible and protecting the coast are not mutually exclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a variety of ways we could increase workforce housing in the coastal zone without undercutting the Coastal Act,” Christie said. That might include requiring local governments, which are in many cases tasked with enforcing the act, to approve housing projects that don’t jeopardize coastal resources. The Commission has also \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GroteCoastalCommissionTestimony.pdf\">long called for the state\u003c/a> to give it the power to require developers to set aside units for low-income residents, authority that was taken away from the agency in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That debate is dead in the Legislature for now, but it’s likely to resurface again in some form next year.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "pretty-but-not-nice-californias-invasive-ice-plant",
"title": "Pretty, but Not 'Nice': California's Invasive Ice Plant",
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"headTitle": "Pretty, but Not ‘Nice’: California’s Invasive Ice Plant | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant has many monikers: \u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em>, highway ice plant or simply, sour fig. If you’ve ever set eyes on a California beach, even from a distance, you’ve seen it. The fleshy green succulent has finger-like, three-sided leaves. It blooms with purple and yellow flowers in the spring. Most agree it’s a pretty plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this ubiquitous coastal plant has a dark side. It’s an invasive species that blankets dune landscapes, squeezing out native plants and critters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/span>Wetland ecologist Lorraine Parsons has a joke about invasive species: “Does that plant species play nicely in the sandbox?” she told me while observing rolling dunes covered with ice plant at Point Reyes National Seashore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer for this succulent is a decisive “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> competes with other plants for basic resources like\u003ca href=\"https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=1660\"> light, water and space\u003c/a>. And it usually wins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After KQED listener Tom McMahon moved here in 2016, he was surprised to learn that the existence of ice plant in California barely predates the state’s railroads and highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the past century, the succulent has blanketed some of California’s most beautiful seaside places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s part of my expectation of what the Pacific coast is,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon wanted to know how the freeway plant got here in the first place, so he asked Bay Curious to look into its origin story. He also wanted to know about other invasive plants that don’t “play nice” with California natives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The beach invader\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From Crescent City to San Diego, ice plant can be seen in some of California’s most iconic coastal areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Point Reyes National Seashore, there are miles and miles of it, despite the fact that park staff have been organizing removal events to control it for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one recent work party in June, around 10 employees and volunteers tore out ice plant just north of the lighthouse. Parsons said they chose the area because it wasn’t completely overrun, and therefore, there’s still hope that the sparse populations of native plants can bounce back after the removal of ice plant and European beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsons’ coworkers worked their way along the ground on their hands and knees, pulling out long strands of ice plant. They opted for a manual removal method rather than using herbicide, which would have affected other plants and water sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990217\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francesca Dezza Parada (left) and Celeste Chavez, bilingual environmental educators with the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, remove ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of dunes at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because it grows in long, crawling strands, fellow weed killers have been known to enjoy friendly competition over who can remove the longest strand of ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll end up with something as long as your body and proudly hold it up like a big fish,” park ranger Sierra Frisbie said with a laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sierra Frisbie (left) and biological science technician Miriam Golding look at native plans in an area where ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, was removed at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the beach backdrop at Point Reyes is gorgeous, and the weed crusaders are having a good time, long-term ice plant eradication here is a permanent management problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started, Parsons said, when the plant was intentionally sown here in the early to mid-1900s as a way to keep dunes from moving into nearby pastures. Sandy dune ecosystems naturally shift, and ice plant helps hold them in place by setting down roots along viney, ground-hugging stems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant also grows fast — about three feet laterally a year. So whenever ice plant shows up, it can pretty quickly form a dense carpet, holding the soil together underneath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After decades of growth at Point Reyes, Parsons said, about 60 percent of the coastal area has been taken over by ice plant and another invasive — the equally pernicious European beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this hillside near a beach just north of the lighthouse, Parsons’ team is trying to make space for the native\u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/species/tidestroms-lupine-lupinus-tidestromii\"> Tidestrom’s Lupine\u003c/a>, which is at risk of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seeds of the lupine, another low-to-the-ground dune-lover with lavender flowers, are being eaten by mice, which have great cover in the nearby ice plant and beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>Native deer mice come, and they literally clip off the seams that have the seed on it, and they tug them off. And that’s like a food source for them,” Parsons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decline of native plants has a ripple effect on other wildlife. For example, another plant here, the\u003ca href=\"https://calscape.org/Monardella-undulata-(Curlyleaf-Monardella)\"> Curlyleaf Monardella\u003c/a>, is a primary nectar source for the endangered\u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/species/myrtles-silverspot-butterfly-speyeria-zerene-myrtleae\"> Myrtle’s Silverspot\u003c/a> butterfly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990859\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990859\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1284\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Native plants grow in a section of dunes at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4, 2024, that has been cleared of an invasive ice plant. The top row from left to right: curly-leaved Monardella (Monardella sinuata ssp. nigrescens), coast Indian paintbrush (Castilleja affinis) and beach layia (Layia carnosa). The bottom row from left to right are: mock heather (Ericameria ericoides), Tidestrom’s lupine (Lupinus tidestromii) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). This California poppy is the state flower. It’s very common around California, but usually, the flower is solid orange. The ones on the dunes tend to be much more yellow. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And birds such as the Western Snowy Plover, which are already\u003ca href=\"https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8035\"> threatened\u003c/a>, are also made vulnerable by the nearby ice plant and beach grass. The short, white-bellied shorebird nests right in the sand on the beach. Their predators, ravens and coyotes, hide out in the thick cover of the invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes it easier for them to kind of sneak up on the nest,” Parsons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> can also change the microbiota of the soil, making it less favorable for native plants even after ice plant is removed. So Parsons says removing an area infested by ice plants can just make space for “secondary invaders, instead of luring native flora back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all those reasons, the staff at Point Reyes National Seashore choose their battles wisely when deciding which dune habitat to restore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to get rid of all this ice plant,” Parsons said, so they choose areas that aren’t completely overrun. “Because, in a sense, you get more bang for your buck … It’s a lot easier to reestablish a native community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Ice plant’s origins\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, ice plant blankets the California coastline and can also be seen in residential home gardens (where it is more welcome as an ornamental or lawn substitute).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> is not just a problem in California, though. It’s everywhere: coastal Italy, Spain, Argentina and Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since people have been buying plants and gardening, plants have been traded across international borders, UC Santa Barbara ecology professor\u003ca href=\"https://www.eemb.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/dantonio\"> Carla D’Antonio said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People take plants with them when they go places. When the Spaniards came here, they had a whole array of species,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant first came from South Africa, probably in the 1930s, according to D’Antonio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990222\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wetland biologist Lorraine Parsons removes ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Caltrans and other transportation engineers are\u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Plants/Dont-Plant-Me/Iceplant\"> widely reported\u003c/a> to have planted it around highways, railroads and other landscapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was planted along railroads to stabilize blowing sand,” D’Antonio said. “It’s probably pretty good at stopping cars that are out of control, you know, and stopping erosion of cliff sides or bank sides onto those highways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a turning point with ice plant in the 1980s and ’90s, D’Antonio said, when natural area managers started not wanting the plant around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were noticing that they were losing some of their beautiful…endemic coastal poppies and other things because \u003cem>Carpobrotus\u003c/em> was growing everywhere,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Other invasives\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Certainly, ice plant isn’t the only invasive plant crowding out California natives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profile/arundo-donax-profile/\">\u003cem>Arundo Donax\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a giant reed used for roofing material and musical instruments,\u003ca href=\"https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/giant-reed\"> was brought to California in the early 1800s\u003c/a>. \u003cem>Arundo Donax\u003c/em> is particularly troublesome. It turns river areas into fuel for fires and grows back even stronger after a blaze. Tens of millions of public dollars have been used to fight its spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While thousands of non-native plants have been introduced into California — some of them brought intentionally, others accidentally — most of them don’t alter their environments as much as Arundo and ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It isn’t that many of them that are really causing these big changes,” D’Antonio said. “But the ones that do definitely are changing the resources and the values that we want to have in our ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990216\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990216\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, grows at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Preventing ‘invasions’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The good news is that in the past few decades, ecologists have been trying to establish some boundaries on international plant exchange, D’Antonio said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And more locally, park rangers are using a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to preventing the spread of invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rachel Kesel, a senior environmental scientist with California State Parks, is an evangelist for catching plant invaders before they take over entire coastlines. She’s trained park staff all over the Bay Area in early detection work, teaching them how to identify, map, and get rid of invasive plants before they become unmanageable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990219\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sierra Frisbie removes ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One morning in June, Kesel trained a handful of park managers and volunteers at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in the Russian River area of Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She warned them about a wispy green weed called panic veldt grass or\u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profile/ehrharta-erecta-profile/\"> \u003cem>Ehrharta erect\u003c/em>a\u003c/a>, which she saw crop up all over Mt. Tam when she worked there for the better part of a decade. She doesn’t want the grass to invade these redwoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really is probably the highest priority for what to look for,” she said to the group. “It often comes in on our vehicles, mud in our tires and that sort of thing, out of our neighborhoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although this little blade of grass looks harmless, Kesel takes it very seriously. It has the potential to take over the forest floor; it can grow in just 2% light as well as on a sunny, soil-deprived beach. The veldt grass grows between other plants, which makes it look messy and hard to pull out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1475\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-800x590.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1020x752.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1536x1133.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1920x1416.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Kesel, senior environmental scientist for California State Parks, holds up a piece of invasive panic veldtgrass or Ehrharta erecta, in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve during a training with local park workers. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It would really change that iconic look of the understory floor and kind of what people are coming into an old-growth redwood forest to see,” Kesel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunting down and rooting out invasives may seem like a lot of effort. But to anyone who stands among the redwoods on a hot day and soaks in the beauty of the clover-shaped sorrel on the forest floor, it probably doesn’t seem like too much to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, we all manage weeds in our own yards, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to get nerdy about the invasive plants in your area, go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/\">Cal-IPC.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re inspired to plant California natives in your neighborhood, \u003ca href=\"https://calscape.org/\">Calscape offers design ideas and resources\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When you think of quintessential California experiences, driving down Highway 1 is pretty tough to beat. It was one of the first things Tom McMahon did when he first visited the Bay Area in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon: \u003c/strong>I rented a car, and I drove from San Francisco down to Seacliff. And on the way, I actually stopped along a few spots. And one of them was like, Poplar Beach. And, you know, one of the things that kind of jumped out was all these green plants with the purple and yellow flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> What he was seeing was ice plant — a fleshy green succulent with finger-like, three-sided leaves. It grows low to the ground and spreads out over large areas, like a carpet. In spring its pink, purple, or yellow flowers burst open — its petals spreading like little fireworks. Quite frankly, it’s gorgeous! But it’s got a dark side. McMahon started studying plants with his 5-year-old daughter recently and learned this charming-looking plant is invasive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon:\u003c/strong> And this has been something that I’ve seen everywhere, and it’s part of my expectation of what the Pacific coast is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> McMahon lives in California now, and he and his daughter go on walks and see ice plant all over — it’s often used in landscaping in place of grass. She’s been asking: “If it’s invasive, why did someone put it there?” and McMahon doesn’t have a great answer. So, he asked Bay Curious for an assist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon:\u003c/strong> Yeah, I’d like to know, why are the ice plants here, who brought them here? What was their purpose? And what other things do we see every day that are actually invasive and potentially harming our local plant life and wildlife?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This week on Bay Curious, we’re delving into the world of invasive plants. We’ll answer McMahon’s questions about ice plant and explore a few other troublesome flora. That’s all just head, stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[SPONSOR MESSAGE]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> To answer Tom McMahon’s questions about ice plant and other notorious invasives. KQED producer Pauline Bartolone got really in the weeds, hardy har har. Enjoy the ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Ice plant has many monikers … Carpobrotus edulis, highway ice plant, or simply sour fig. If you’ve ever set eyes on a California beach, even from a distance, you’ve seen it. From as far north as Crescent City all the way down to San Diego. When it comes to invasive species in California, ice plant is iconic. And so are the areas it invades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[Wind sounds and crashing waves]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Like the Point Reyes seashore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>So that’s all ice plant! \u003cem>[laughs]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Oh wow, okay, that whole ridge …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>That whole ridge is ice plant over there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>I went to the rolling dunes of Point Reyes to meet Lorraine Parsons. She’s a wetland ecologist with the National Seashore. There are miles and miles of ice plant here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> If you drive Sir Francis Drake all the way out to the lighthouse and you look out toward the ocean, many areas are just this dense carpet of ice plant and literally no other plant species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Parsons is here today with around 10 employees and volunteers to tear out ice plant uphill from a beach near the lighthouse. Here, they still have a chance to protect some vulnerable wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> And we still have some native plant species, but they’re being pushed out by the ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> National seashore staff have been organizing work parties like this for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sound of plants rustling, breaking]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danna Ojeda:\u003c/strong> Oh, it’s a pretty easy plant to pull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Biotechnician Danna Ojeda is on her hands and knees ripping out ice plant, drawing her hand back like she’s pulling a plug out of a wall. Technically, you could kill ice plant with herbicide, but that can affect other plants and water sources. Ojeda says the trickiest part about tearing it out is just making sure you don’t remove other plants too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danna Ojeda:\u003c/strong> So you just pull it, and since it’s sand, it comes right off. Just make sure the roots don’t go in between any of the plants so you don’t accidentally bring them up to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Park ranger Sierra Frisbie adds her ice plant debris to a big pile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sierra Frisbie: \u003c/strong>During a volunteer event, we try to have a competition of who can get the longest piece of ice plant and you’ll end up with something, you know, as long as your body and proudly hold it up like a big fish or something. It’s kinda your catch of the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>While it’s a gorgeous sunny day out here, this is a beast of a project and a permanent management problem. Parsons says ice plant was actually planted here in the early to mid-1900s as a way to keep dunes, which naturally shift, from moving into nearby pastures. Ice plant is a good soil stabilizer. But it grows laterally about three feet a year. So after decades of growth, Parsons says, about 60 percent of the coastal area in Point Reyes has been taken over by ice plant and another invasive — the equally pernicious European beach grass. They’re struggling to get rid of it in areas where endangered native plants like Tidestrom’s lupine are at risk of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>So this is the Tidestrom’s lupine here … Again, this is a short-lived perennial plant species in the pea family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Tidestrom’s lupine is another low-to-the-ground beach-loving plant with little lavender flowers. But here, its seeds are being eaten by mice, which hide out in the nearby ice plant and European beach grass. In many areas, it hasn’t been growing back\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>It has historically stretched from Sonoma County near Goat Rock all the way down to Monterey. And, you know, over that time, populations have been lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>The decline of native plants has a ripple effect on other wildlife in an ecosystem. For example, another plant here, the Curlyleaf Monardella, is a primary nectar source for an endangered butterfly. And birds such as the snowy plover, a tiny white-bellied thing, are also threatened. They nest right in the sand on the beach. And the nearby ice plant and beach grass provide cover for their predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> So, like, ravens can be in there obviously like coyotes, other animals like that, it makes it easier for them to kind of sneak up on the nest there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>And the bad news about ice plant gets worse. The invasive can also change the soil conditions, so it is less favorable for native plants even after ice plant is removed. For all those reasons, when it comes to these eradication parties, Parsons says they have to choose their battles wisely. They don’t even bother with the completely overrun areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> We realize we’re not going to get rid of all this beach grass, and we’re not going to get rid of all this ice plant. So I think we’re just focusing on these like moderately to sparsely invaded areas because, in a sense, you get more bang for your buck. You’ve already got the native plants here. It’s a lot easier to get, to reestablish a native community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Today, ice plant blankets the California coastline. It’s not just a problem in California, though, it’s everywhere: coastal Italy, Spain, Argentina, Australia. UC Santa Barbara ecology professor Carla D’Antonio says that’s not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>People take plants with them when they go places. When the Spaniards came here, they had a whole array of species that they brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>D’Antonio says there isn’t a lot of documentation about the beginnings of Carpobrotus edulis in the U.S. but there’s a consensus about its origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>It came from South Africa. It appears to have come probably, in the 1930s. It was planted along railroads to stabilize blowing sand. It was planted along highways. It’s probably pretty good at stopping cars that are out of control, you know, and stopping erosion of cliff sides or bank sides onto those highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Ice plant’s long and viny stems stay close to the ground as they grow, and set down many different roots along the way. The tangley mat keeps soil together underneath. That’s why Caltrans and other engineers planted it around highways, railroads and other landscapes. But when managers of natural areas like Asilomar in Monterey started getting concerned about ice plant, D’Antonio decided to do her doctoral research on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>Awareness really started to grow that this thing was showing up everywhere. People were noticing that they were losing some of their beautiful kind of endemic coastal poppies and other things because carpobrotus was growing everywhere.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nPauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Certainly, ice plant isn’t the only non-native plant bent on world domination. Our question asker, Tom McMahon wanted to know about others on the most-wanted list. I’d say Arundo donax would definitely be in that category. The giant reed was brought to California in the early 1800s and used for roofing material and musical instruments. Arundo donax is particularly gnarly, turning river areas into fuel for fire and growing back even stronger after a blaze. Tens of millions of public dollars have been used to fight it. All in all, D’Antonio says, thousands of non-native plants have been introduced into California. Some of them intentionally, others accidentally. Most of them play nice with native plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio:\u003c/strong> So it isn’t that many of them that are really causing these big changes. But the ones that do definitely are changing the resources and the values that we want to have in our ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> So how do we stop those world-dominating plants? D’Antonio says for the past few decades, ecologists have been trying to establish some boundaries on international plant exchange. And more locally, park rangers are using boots on the ground approaches to preventing the spread of invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>So I brought a couple of things with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>People like Rachel Kesel in Sonoma County. The park ranger is an evangelist for catching plant invaders early before they take over entire coastlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>So I think everybody probably knows that all folks engaged in land management spend a lot of time and money on invasive plants. And what the early detection of invasive plants approach does is try to shift some of that, hopefully, new investment of time and money that you are already spending to plants that are newer on the landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel has trained park staff all over the Bay Area to find invasive plants early. Today, she’s in Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve in the Russian River warning a handful of park staff and volunteers about a wispy green weed called panic veldt grass, or Ehrharta erecta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>It often comes in on our vehicles, mud in our tires and that sort of thing out of our neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel takes this little blade of grass very seriously. She saw Ehrharta crop up all over Mt. Tam, where she worked for the better part of a decade. This thing sounds like it could withstand an apocalypse. It can grow on a forest floor in just 2 percent light, or a sunny, soil deprived beach. It grows between other plants, which makes it hard to pull out. And Kesel says it just looks messy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>It would really change that iconic look of the understory floor and kind of what people are coming into an old-growth redwood forest to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[footsteps]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel takes a couple of park personnel out on a detection walk, to show them how they can identify the plant, and map it, so scientists can track its footprint over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> Go, team! Now, when I come upon something like this, I’m always gonna take a twirl around it…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Is that it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> No, that is a melaka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> It’s a native grass, thankfully. But. Good eye, you’re noticing grasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Apparently, I can’t tell the difference between blades of grass, but Kesel seems to have developed a hawk eye for this work. When we did come across the pesky blades of grass, she broke out a plastic bag to transport the undesirables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> I know I look paranoid, but it is dropping its seed, which is why I have it in the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[rustling of plastic bag]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> So now you go in the bag, my friend …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Then, she holds up the blade of grass like it’s a contaminated Q-tip so the park workers can get a closer look. She takes out her mini magnifying glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> So, all right. If we look at the base. Of course, this one isn’t very red because, like I said, color is a fickle character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Finally, she shows the park workers how to map other invasives using a program on her phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>Go to my location. Why are you being so dumb? I talk back to my device a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> During this trip, part of me felt like, wow, what a lot of effort to remove just a little blade of grass. But on the way out of Armstrong that day, I took a moment to stand under the shade of the redwoods and soak in the beauty. The forest floor was covered in this really pretty, delicate-looking sorrel. It’s a clover-like plant a few inches off the ground. That’s when it struck me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> I can really see why people want to preserve this place. The air is so still and soft, and I imagine much cooler than outside this redwood forest. I could spend all day here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>When it comes to preserving that feeling of the redwoods, managing invasives doesn’t seem like too much to ask. After all, we all manage weeds in our own yards, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That story was produced by Pauline Bartolone. Big thanks to Tom McMahon and his five-year-old daughter for the question. And to the California invasive plant council for their expertise on this story. If you want to learn more about invasive plants or get involved in one of those removal work parties – we’ve got a lot of resources for you online at BayCurious.org. We’ll drop a link in our show notes too. Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. You can support our show by becoming a member! Give today at donate.kqed.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family. I’m Olivia Allen-Price, thank you for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant has many monikers: \u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em>, highway ice plant or simply, sour fig. If you’ve ever set eyes on a California beach, even from a distance, you’ve seen it. The fleshy green succulent has finger-like, three-sided leaves. It blooms with purple and yellow flowers in the spring. Most agree it’s a pretty plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this ubiquitous coastal plant has a dark side. It’s an invasive species that blankets dune landscapes, squeezing out native plants and critters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/span>Wetland ecologist Lorraine Parsons has a joke about invasive species: “Does that plant species play nicely in the sandbox?” she told me while observing rolling dunes covered with ice plant at Point Reyes National Seashore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer for this succulent is a decisive “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> competes with other plants for basic resources like\u003ca href=\"https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=1660\"> light, water and space\u003c/a>. And it usually wins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After KQED listener Tom McMahon moved here in 2016, he was surprised to learn that the existence of ice plant in California barely predates the state’s railroads and highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the past century, the succulent has blanketed some of California’s most beautiful seaside places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s part of my expectation of what the Pacific coast is,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon wanted to know how the freeway plant got here in the first place, so he asked Bay Curious to look into its origin story. He also wanted to know about other invasive plants that don’t “play nice” with California natives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The beach invader\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From Crescent City to San Diego, ice plant can be seen in some of California’s most iconic coastal areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Point Reyes National Seashore, there are miles and miles of it, despite the fact that park staff have been organizing removal events to control it for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one recent work party in June, around 10 employees and volunteers tore out ice plant just north of the lighthouse. Parsons said they chose the area because it wasn’t completely overrun, and therefore, there’s still hope that the sparse populations of native plants can bounce back after the removal of ice plant and European beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsons’ coworkers worked their way along the ground on their hands and knees, pulling out long strands of ice plant. They opted for a manual removal method rather than using herbicide, which would have affected other plants and water sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990217\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-13-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francesca Dezza Parada (left) and Celeste Chavez, bilingual environmental educators with the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, remove ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of dunes at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because it grows in long, crawling strands, fellow weed killers have been known to enjoy friendly competition over who can remove the longest strand of ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll end up with something as long as your body and proudly hold it up like a big fish,” park ranger Sierra Frisbie said with a laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-67-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sierra Frisbie (left) and biological science technician Miriam Golding look at native plans in an area where ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, was removed at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the beach backdrop at Point Reyes is gorgeous, and the weed crusaders are having a good time, long-term ice plant eradication here is a permanent management problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started, Parsons said, when the plant was intentionally sown here in the early to mid-1900s as a way to keep dunes from moving into nearby pastures. Sandy dune ecosystems naturally shift, and ice plant helps hold them in place by setting down roots along viney, ground-hugging stems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant also grows fast — about three feet laterally a year. So whenever ice plant shows up, it can pretty quickly form a dense carpet, holding the soil together underneath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After decades of growth at Point Reyes, Parsons said, about 60 percent of the coastal area has been taken over by ice plant and another invasive — the equally pernicious European beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this hillside near a beach just north of the lighthouse, Parsons’ team is trying to make space for the native\u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/species/tidestroms-lupine-lupinus-tidestromii\"> Tidestrom’s Lupine\u003c/a>, which is at risk of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seeds of the lupine, another low-to-the-ground dune-lover with lavender flowers, are being eaten by mice, which have great cover in the nearby ice plant and beach grass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>Native deer mice come, and they literally clip off the seams that have the seed on it, and they tug them off. And that’s like a food source for them,” Parsons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decline of native plants has a ripple effect on other wildlife. For example, another plant here, the\u003ca href=\"https://calscape.org/Monardella-undulata-(Curlyleaf-Monardella)\"> Curlyleaf Monardella\u003c/a>, is a primary nectar source for the endangered\u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/species/myrtles-silverspot-butterfly-speyeria-zerene-myrtleae\"> Myrtle’s Silverspot\u003c/a> butterfly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990859\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990859\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1284\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-105-BL-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Native plants grow in a section of dunes at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4, 2024, that has been cleared of an invasive ice plant. The top row from left to right: curly-leaved Monardella (Monardella sinuata ssp. nigrescens), coast Indian paintbrush (Castilleja affinis) and beach layia (Layia carnosa). The bottom row from left to right are: mock heather (Ericameria ericoides), Tidestrom’s lupine (Lupinus tidestromii) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). This California poppy is the state flower. It’s very common around California, but usually, the flower is solid orange. The ones on the dunes tend to be much more yellow. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And birds such as the Western Snowy Plover, which are already\u003ca href=\"https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8035\"> threatened\u003c/a>, are also made vulnerable by the nearby ice plant and beach grass. The short, white-bellied shorebird nests right in the sand on the beach. Their predators, ravens and coyotes, hide out in the thick cover of the invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes it easier for them to kind of sneak up on the nest,” Parsons said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> can also change the microbiota of the soil, making it less favorable for native plants even after ice plant is removed. So Parsons says removing an area infested by ice plants can just make space for “secondary invaders, instead of luring native flora back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all those reasons, the staff at Point Reyes National Seashore choose their battles wisely when deciding which dune habitat to restore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to get rid of all this ice plant,” Parsons said, so they choose areas that aren’t completely overrun. “Because, in a sense, you get more bang for your buck … It’s a lot easier to reestablish a native community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Ice plant’s origins\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, ice plant blankets the California coastline and can also be seen in residential home gardens (where it is more welcome as an ornamental or lawn substitute).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carpobrotus edulis\u003c/em> is not just a problem in California, though. It’s everywhere: coastal Italy, Spain, Argentina and Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since people have been buying plants and gardening, plants have been traded across international borders, UC Santa Barbara ecology professor\u003ca href=\"https://www.eemb.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/dantonio\"> Carla D’Antonio said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People take plants with them when they go places. When the Spaniards came here, they had a whole array of species,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ice plant first came from South Africa, probably in the 1930s, according to D’Antonio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990222\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-45-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wetland biologist Lorraine Parsons removes ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Caltrans and other transportation engineers are\u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Plants/Dont-Plant-Me/Iceplant\"> widely reported\u003c/a> to have planted it around highways, railroads and other landscapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was planted along railroads to stabilize blowing sand,” D’Antonio said. “It’s probably pretty good at stopping cars that are out of control, you know, and stopping erosion of cliff sides or bank sides onto those highways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a turning point with ice plant in the 1980s and ’90s, D’Antonio said, when natural area managers started not wanting the plant around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were noticing that they were losing some of their beautiful…endemic coastal poppies and other things because \u003cem>Carpobrotus\u003c/em> was growing everywhere,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Other invasives\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Certainly, ice plant isn’t the only invasive plant crowding out California natives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profile/arundo-donax-profile/\">\u003cem>Arundo Donax\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a giant reed used for roofing material and musical instruments,\u003ca href=\"https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/giant-reed\"> was brought to California in the early 1800s\u003c/a>. \u003cem>Arundo Donax\u003c/em> is particularly troublesome. It turns river areas into fuel for fires and grows back even stronger after a blaze. Tens of millions of public dollars have been used to fight its spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While thousands of non-native plants have been introduced into California — some of them brought intentionally, others accidentally — most of them don’t alter their environments as much as Arundo and ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It isn’t that many of them that are really causing these big changes,” D’Antonio said. “But the ones that do definitely are changing the resources and the values that we want to have in our ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990216\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990216\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-01-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, grows at Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Preventing ‘invasions’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The good news is that in the past few decades, ecologists have been trying to establish some boundaries on international plant exchange, D’Antonio said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And more locally, park rangers are using a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to preventing the spread of invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rachel Kesel, a senior environmental scientist with California State Parks, is an evangelist for catching plant invaders before they take over entire coastlines. She’s trained park staff all over the Bay Area in early detection work, teaching them how to identify, map, and get rid of invasive plants before they become unmanageable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990219\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240604-InvasiveIcePlant-11-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sierra Frisbie removes ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), an invasive species from South Africa, from a section of Point Reyes National Seashore on June 4. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One morning in June, Kesel trained a handful of park managers and volunteers at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in the Russian River area of Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She warned them about a wispy green weed called panic veldt grass or\u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profile/ehrharta-erecta-profile/\"> \u003cem>Ehrharta erect\u003c/em>a\u003c/a>, which she saw crop up all over Mt. Tam when she worked there for the better part of a decade. She doesn’t want the grass to invade these redwoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really is probably the highest priority for what to look for,” she said to the group. “It often comes in on our vehicles, mud in our tires and that sort of thing, out of our neighborhoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although this little blade of grass looks harmless, Kesel takes it very seriously. It has the potential to take over the forest floor; it can grow in just 2% light as well as on a sunny, soil-deprived beach. The veldt grass grows between other plants, which makes it look messy and hard to pull out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1475\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-800x590.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1020x752.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1536x1133.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Kesel_grass-1920x1416.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Kesel, senior environmental scientist for California State Parks, holds up a piece of invasive panic veldtgrass or Ehrharta erecta, in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve during a training with local park workers. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It would really change that iconic look of the understory floor and kind of what people are coming into an old-growth redwood forest to see,” Kesel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunting down and rooting out invasives may seem like a lot of effort. But to anyone who stands among the redwoods on a hot day and soaks in the beauty of the clover-shaped sorrel on the forest floor, it probably doesn’t seem like too much to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, we all manage weeds in our own yards, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to get nerdy about the invasive plants in your area, go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cal-ipc.org/\">Cal-IPC.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re inspired to plant California natives in your neighborhood, \u003ca href=\"https://calscape.org/\">Calscape offers design ideas and resources\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When you think of quintessential California experiences, driving down Highway 1 is pretty tough to beat. It was one of the first things Tom McMahon did when he first visited the Bay Area in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon: \u003c/strong>I rented a car, and I drove from San Francisco down to Seacliff. And on the way, I actually stopped along a few spots. And one of them was like, Poplar Beach. And, you know, one of the things that kind of jumped out was all these green plants with the purple and yellow flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> What he was seeing was ice plant — a fleshy green succulent with finger-like, three-sided leaves. It grows low to the ground and spreads out over large areas, like a carpet. In spring its pink, purple, or yellow flowers burst open — its petals spreading like little fireworks. Quite frankly, it’s gorgeous! But it’s got a dark side. McMahon started studying plants with his 5-year-old daughter recently and learned this charming-looking plant is invasive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon:\u003c/strong> And this has been something that I’ve seen everywhere, and it’s part of my expectation of what the Pacific coast is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> McMahon lives in California now, and he and his daughter go on walks and see ice plant all over — it’s often used in landscaping in place of grass. She’s been asking: “If it’s invasive, why did someone put it there?” and McMahon doesn’t have a great answer. So, he asked Bay Curious for an assist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom McMahon:\u003c/strong> Yeah, I’d like to know, why are the ice plants here, who brought them here? What was their purpose? And what other things do we see every day that are actually invasive and potentially harming our local plant life and wildlife?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This week on Bay Curious, we’re delving into the world of invasive plants. We’ll answer McMahon’s questions about ice plant and explore a few other troublesome flora. That’s all just head, stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[SPONSOR MESSAGE]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> To answer Tom McMahon’s questions about ice plant and other notorious invasives. KQED producer Pauline Bartolone got really in the weeds, hardy har har. Enjoy the ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Ice plant has many monikers … Carpobrotus edulis, highway ice plant, or simply sour fig. If you’ve ever set eyes on a California beach, even from a distance, you’ve seen it. From as far north as Crescent City all the way down to San Diego. When it comes to invasive species in California, ice plant is iconic. And so are the areas it invades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[Wind sounds and crashing waves]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Like the Point Reyes seashore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>So that’s all ice plant! \u003cem>[laughs]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Oh wow, okay, that whole ridge …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>That whole ridge is ice plant over there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>I went to the rolling dunes of Point Reyes to meet Lorraine Parsons. She’s a wetland ecologist with the National Seashore. There are miles and miles of ice plant here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> If you drive Sir Francis Drake all the way out to the lighthouse and you look out toward the ocean, many areas are just this dense carpet of ice plant and literally no other plant species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Parsons is here today with around 10 employees and volunteers to tear out ice plant uphill from a beach near the lighthouse. Here, they still have a chance to protect some vulnerable wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> And we still have some native plant species, but they’re being pushed out by the ice plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> National seashore staff have been organizing work parties like this for 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sound of plants rustling, breaking]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danna Ojeda:\u003c/strong> Oh, it’s a pretty easy plant to pull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Biotechnician Danna Ojeda is on her hands and knees ripping out ice plant, drawing her hand back like she’s pulling a plug out of a wall. Technically, you could kill ice plant with herbicide, but that can affect other plants and water sources. Ojeda says the trickiest part about tearing it out is just making sure you don’t remove other plants too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danna Ojeda:\u003c/strong> So you just pull it, and since it’s sand, it comes right off. Just make sure the roots don’t go in between any of the plants so you don’t accidentally bring them up to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Park ranger Sierra Frisbie adds her ice plant debris to a big pile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sierra Frisbie: \u003c/strong>During a volunteer event, we try to have a competition of who can get the longest piece of ice plant and you’ll end up with something, you know, as long as your body and proudly hold it up like a big fish or something. It’s kinda your catch of the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>While it’s a gorgeous sunny day out here, this is a beast of a project and a permanent management problem. Parsons says ice plant was actually planted here in the early to mid-1900s as a way to keep dunes, which naturally shift, from moving into nearby pastures. Ice plant is a good soil stabilizer. But it grows laterally about three feet a year. So after decades of growth, Parsons says, about 60 percent of the coastal area in Point Reyes has been taken over by ice plant and another invasive — the equally pernicious European beach grass. They’re struggling to get rid of it in areas where endangered native plants like Tidestrom’s lupine are at risk of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>So this is the Tidestrom’s lupine here … Again, this is a short-lived perennial plant species in the pea family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Tidestrom’s lupine is another low-to-the-ground beach-loving plant with little lavender flowers. But here, its seeds are being eaten by mice, which hide out in the nearby ice plant and European beach grass. In many areas, it hasn’t been growing back\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons: \u003c/strong>It has historically stretched from Sonoma County near Goat Rock all the way down to Monterey. And, you know, over that time, populations have been lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>The decline of native plants has a ripple effect on other wildlife in an ecosystem. For example, another plant here, the Curlyleaf Monardella, is a primary nectar source for an endangered butterfly. And birds such as the snowy plover, a tiny white-bellied thing, are also threatened. They nest right in the sand on the beach. And the nearby ice plant and beach grass provide cover for their predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> So, like, ravens can be in there obviously like coyotes, other animals like that, it makes it easier for them to kind of sneak up on the nest there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>And the bad news about ice plant gets worse. The invasive can also change the soil conditions, so it is less favorable for native plants even after ice plant is removed. For all those reasons, when it comes to these eradication parties, Parsons says they have to choose their battles wisely. They don’t even bother with the completely overrun areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lorraine Parsons:\u003c/strong> We realize we’re not going to get rid of all this beach grass, and we’re not going to get rid of all this ice plant. So I think we’re just focusing on these like moderately to sparsely invaded areas because, in a sense, you get more bang for your buck. You’ve already got the native plants here. It’s a lot easier to get, to reestablish a native community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Today, ice plant blankets the California coastline. It’s not just a problem in California, though, it’s everywhere: coastal Italy, Spain, Argentina, Australia. UC Santa Barbara ecology professor Carla D’Antonio says that’s not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>People take plants with them when they go places. When the Spaniards came here, they had a whole array of species that they brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>D’Antonio says there isn’t a lot of documentation about the beginnings of Carpobrotus edulis in the U.S. but there’s a consensus about its origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>It came from South Africa. It appears to have come probably, in the 1930s. It was planted along railroads to stabilize blowing sand. It was planted along highways. It’s probably pretty good at stopping cars that are out of control, you know, and stopping erosion of cliff sides or bank sides onto those highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Ice plant’s long and viny stems stay close to the ground as they grow, and set down many different roots along the way. The tangley mat keeps soil together underneath. That’s why Caltrans and other engineers planted it around highways, railroads and other landscapes. But when managers of natural areas like Asilomar in Monterey started getting concerned about ice plant, D’Antonio decided to do her doctoral research on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio: \u003c/strong>Awareness really started to grow that this thing was showing up everywhere. People were noticing that they were losing some of their beautiful kind of endemic coastal poppies and other things because carpobrotus was growing everywhere.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nPauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Certainly, ice plant isn’t the only non-native plant bent on world domination. Our question asker, Tom McMahon wanted to know about others on the most-wanted list. I’d say Arundo donax would definitely be in that category. The giant reed was brought to California in the early 1800s and used for roofing material and musical instruments. Arundo donax is particularly gnarly, turning river areas into fuel for fire and growing back even stronger after a blaze. Tens of millions of public dollars have been used to fight it. All in all, D’Antonio says, thousands of non-native plants have been introduced into California. Some of them intentionally, others accidentally. Most of them play nice with native plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carla D’Antonio:\u003c/strong> So it isn’t that many of them that are really causing these big changes. But the ones that do definitely are changing the resources and the values that we want to have in our ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> So how do we stop those world-dominating plants? D’Antonio says for the past few decades, ecologists have been trying to establish some boundaries on international plant exchange. And more locally, park rangers are using boots on the ground approaches to preventing the spread of invasives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>So I brought a couple of things with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>People like Rachel Kesel in Sonoma County. The park ranger is an evangelist for catching plant invaders early before they take over entire coastlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>So I think everybody probably knows that all folks engaged in land management spend a lot of time and money on invasive plants. And what the early detection of invasive plants approach does is try to shift some of that, hopefully, new investment of time and money that you are already spending to plants that are newer on the landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel has trained park staff all over the Bay Area to find invasive plants early. Today, she’s in Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve in the Russian River warning a handful of park staff and volunteers about a wispy green weed called panic veldt grass, or Ehrharta erecta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>It often comes in on our vehicles, mud in our tires and that sort of thing out of our neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel takes this little blade of grass very seriously. She saw Ehrharta crop up all over Mt. Tam, where she worked for the better part of a decade. This thing sounds like it could withstand an apocalypse. It can grow on a forest floor in just 2 percent light, or a sunny, soil deprived beach. It grows between other plants, which makes it hard to pull out. And Kesel says it just looks messy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>It would really change that iconic look of the understory floor and kind of what people are coming into an old-growth redwood forest to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[footsteps]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Kesel takes a couple of park personnel out on a detection walk, to show them how they can identify the plant, and map it, so scientists can track its footprint over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> Go, team! Now, when I come upon something like this, I’m always gonna take a twirl around it…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Is that it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> No, that is a melaka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> It’s a native grass, thankfully. But. Good eye, you’re noticing grasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Apparently, I can’t tell the difference between blades of grass, but Kesel seems to have developed a hawk eye for this work. When we did come across the pesky blades of grass, she broke out a plastic bag to transport the undesirables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> I know I look paranoid, but it is dropping its seed, which is why I have it in the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[rustling of plastic bag]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> So now you go in the bag, my friend …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>Then, she holds up the blade of grass like it’s a contaminated Q-tip so the park workers can get a closer look. She takes out her mini magnifying glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel:\u003c/strong> So, all right. If we look at the base. Of course, this one isn’t very red because, like I said, color is a fickle character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> Finally, she shows the park workers how to map other invasives using a program on her phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rachel Kesel: \u003c/strong>Go to my location. Why are you being so dumb? I talk back to my device a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> During this trip, part of me felt like, wow, what a lot of effort to remove just a little blade of grass. But on the way out of Armstrong that day, I took a moment to stand under the shade of the redwoods and soak in the beauty. The forest floor was covered in this really pretty, delicate-looking sorrel. It’s a clover-like plant a few inches off the ground. That’s when it struck me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/strong> I can really see why people want to preserve this place. The air is so still and soft, and I imagine much cooler than outside this redwood forest. I could spend all day here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/strong>When it comes to preserving that feeling of the redwoods, managing invasives doesn’t seem like too much to ask. After all, we all manage weeds in our own yards, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That story was produced by Pauline Bartolone. Big thanks to Tom McMahon and his five-year-old daughter for the question. And to the California invasive plant council for their expertise on this story. If you want to learn more about invasive plants or get involved in one of those removal work parties – we’ve got a lot of resources for you online at BayCurious.org. We’ll drop a link in our show notes too. Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. You can support our show by becoming a member! Give today at donate.kqed.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family. I’m Olivia Allen-Price, thank you for listening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "managing-a-wildfire-is-an-intricate-game-of-chess-and-mutual-aid-is-crucial",
"title": "Managing a Wildfire Is an Intricate Game of Chess — and Mutual Aid Is Crucial",
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"headTitle": "Managing a Wildfire Is an Intricate Game of Chess — and Mutual Aid Is Crucial | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>On the surface, fighting wildfires doesn’t appear to require delicacy or nuance. Fire bosses speak in the language of war: weapons, attack, suppression, control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to effectively \u003cem>manage \u003c/em>a wildfire is to engage in an intricate game of multidimensional chess: moving firefighters and equipment where they are most needed or where they are predicted to be required, then coaxing and caring for these resources so that they can continue to be used and moved around a fiery board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, which is blazing through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties, already consuming about 415,000 acres. Now burning for two weeks, it’s the fourth largest fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a difficult fire to manage because of the steep, remote terrain, its early start in the season, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics\">nearly 30,000\u003c/a> other wildfires around the country this year that have been gobbling up firefighters and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people might ask, ‘Are there enough resources in California?’” Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler said during a news conference last week from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/borel-fire\">Borel Fire\u003c/a> in Kern County. “A fire chief’s standard response is ‘Yes, but we could use more.’ Thanks to mutual aid, help is here and more is coming from around the state, nation and world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Cal Fire wrestles with long shifts, stressful conditions, sizzling heatwaves and budget restraints, California’s statewide mutual aid pact and reciprocal assistance from crews across the U.S. and other nations are critical to ensuring there are enough firefighters to battle its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-wildfires-explained/\">intensifying wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California “is very successful at handling its incidents” with its own platoons of firefighters and specially-equipped fleets of aircraft, said Sean Peterson, manager of the federal government’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/\">National Interagency Coordination Center\u003c/a>, which triages the nation’s large fires by deciding where to send reinforcements. “They have more resources, with state and federal cooperators, than the rest of the U.S. combined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Park Fire, a dusty parking lot at the Silver Dollar Fairground near Chico is crammed with red, yellow and green fire engines and crew trucks emblazoned with the logo of the agency that sent them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Whitehouse, an engineer with the Ventura County Fire Department, sat in his fire engine on a recent day with the air conditioning blasting against the 100-degree-plus temperatures at the Park Fire command post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been on the fire for a week and, after working shifts of 24 hours on and 24 hours off, he said his priorities are sharply focused: “Hydrate, eat and sleep,” Whitehouse said. “On days off, after I get myself squared away, I don’t have trouble sleeping. Then it’s back at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999555\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Whitehouse, a Ventura County Fire Department engineer, in his engine at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Emiliano Lopez, a firefighter from the Riverside County Fire Department, said he hasn’t had a bad day yet, that he’s managing the heat, taking time to rest and taking breaks when he can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials say implementing a shortened 66-hour workweek — down from 72 hours — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/07/10/governor-newsom-and-fire-officials-highlight-californias-wildfire-readiness-and-response/\">planning to phase in more firefighters\u003c/a> over five years will take some of the stress off overworked Cal Fire firefighters. For wildfires, state crews stay as needed, generally working 14 to 21 days before they are rotated out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is on getting the health welfare and rest time,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna said. “It used to be that the large incidents were so infrequent that you’d get to go home for a week. We have made a more concerted effort to make those 21-day cycles a reality and allow people more time at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire would not allow its firefighters at the Park Fire to be interviewed by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is so vast that the fairground is one of two incident command posts established to better stage the nearly 6,600 personnel on the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Chris Hardy, Cal Fire’s deputy chief of command and control, federal fire crews from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service are deployed on California fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hand crews from the California Conservation Corps and the National Guard are working fire lines. The state Office of Emergency Services assigned hundreds of engines from local jurisdictions to join the fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999557\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter gestures as the Park Fire burns near Chico on July 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/Reuters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Outside of California, help is coming from all points of the compass. Texas dispatched 25 engines, Utah sent engines and water tenders and Nevada deployed an engine. A fire engine from North Dakota is making its way to the state. A cadre of fire supervisors from Florida, Arkansas and Oregon are working California fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a group from the New York City Fire Department is assisting with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/13/2024-sqf-lightning-complex/updates/2d64827f-aaa7-47b8-81df-a17df50bb7e7\">complex of fires\u003c/a> in the Sequoia National Forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two waves of Australian firefighters — whose extensive experience and familiarity with California fires is highly prized — are expected to arrive this week. Canada, a reliable partner, is enduring its own fire assault and regrets it cannot help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got calls from governors on the East Coast who were willing to send help,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “That’s a hell of a thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a two-way assistance channel: Despite its already severe fire year — with \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics\">almost four times more acreage burned\u003c/a> so far than the average for this time of year — California already has sent crews to Oregon and Texas, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-a-nationwide-level-5-alert-the-highest\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A nationwide Level 5 alert — the highest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tyler praised California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.caloes.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/Fire-Rescue/Documents/CalOES_-_Fire_and_Rescue_-_Mutual_Aid_Plan-3.pdf\">mutual aid system (PDF)\u003c/a> for its ability to marshal resources from cooperating agencies quickly. The agreements are pledges that when calls for help come in from another agency within California, fire departments will answer if they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">overall fire response\u003c/a> is bifurcated, with north and south operations centers set up to more nimbly respond to fires in each region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents\">nearly 4,900 fires in California \u003c/a>so far this year and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/\">more sparking every day\u003c/a>, the system’s limits are being tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the need to order additional resources,” Tyler said. “We continue to reach out and ask for resources across the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of those requests are sent to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, where Peterson oversees the daily national fire situation report, making decisions on where to send crews, engines and planes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the U.S. now on Preparedness Level 5, the highest, it’s a sobering outlook. It’s only the fourth time in 20 years that the alert level has been reached so early in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those requesting assistance and for those sending it, it’s starting to be everything, everywhere, all at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our western geographic areas are ordering resources,” Peterson said. “When I came in at 7 o’clock today, we already had 800 orders sitting here. No large fire is going to get every resource they ask for right now. We are almost fully committed with our resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999566\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999698\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-800x268.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1020x341.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1536x514.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-2048x685.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1920x642.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Top: Cal Fire crews are rewinding hoses at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024. Bottom left: A Cal Fire firefighter unpacks a fire engine shortly after fighting the Park Fire. Bottom right: Dean, a Cal Fire firefighter who preferred to not give his last name, works in temperatures that exceeded 100 degrees in Chico, on Aug. 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Peterson, who was born in Redding and grew up in Paradise, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/11/8/camp-fire/\">scene of California’s most deadly fire\u003c/a>, is a third-generation firefighter who used to work for Cal Fire before joining the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the chessmaster responsible for moving much of the nation’s firefighting pieces, Peterson said the current challenge is “we don’t have people to send. It’s a balancing act, it can be a chess game. It’s a game we have been playing for several decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said last week that “a lot of mutual aid is being stretched to West-wide fires,” acknowledging that California is not always the top national priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t skimped on staffing, we have a record number of personnel. When I got here as governor, we had 6,700 personnel at Cal Fire. Today, more than 9,700 men and women work at Cal Fire,” Newsom said at a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-rest-is-paramount-for-hotshots-state-crews\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rest ‘is paramount’ for Hotshots, state crews\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service has adjusted, too. The standard staffing on its Hotshot crews in recent years has expanded to 25. These highly-trained crews are often positioned at the most dangerous parts of fires. With at least 18 members required to deploy, a firefighter who needs to stand down can do so without affecting the functionality of the crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2024/07/park-fire-size-mapped/\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, stubborn and dangerous, has grown into a “campaign fire,” an informal designation that acknowledges it’s a blaze likely to be around for some time. The million-acre \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/august-complex-includes-doe-fire\">August Complex\u003c/a> fire in 2020 burned in seven Northern California counties for nearly three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999700\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-800x268.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1020x341.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1536x514.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-2048x685.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1920x642.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Firefighters at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, after a 24-hour shift. Right: The Park Fire command post in Chico serves as headquarters for crews, offering food, accommodations, showers and mental health support, among other services. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a fire line, that translates into days and nights that blur. Sixteen-hour shifts or longer are not uncommon. Already tired crews settle into a rhythm of hours on the fire followed by a handful of hours to shower, eat and, critically, sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Getting the crew sufficient rest is paramount for me once we are off the fire line,” said Dan Mallia, superintendent for the Redding Hot Shots, an elite Forest Service team that worked the Park Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the fire service has a better understanding of the link between sleep and maintaining physical and mental health. To that end, some crews sleep in specially retrofitted trailers at the incident command post, while others, such as Cal Fire, stay in local hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fire camps, which can be loud, bustling places with round-the-clock lights and noise, are not ideal places to rest. Mallia said, after decades of fighting fires in remote places in California, “I know all the hidey-holes. It needs to be quiet and it needs to be dark. We find a campsite, put a sleeping pad down and get in our bags. I’ve slept in hundreds of high school gyms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran firefighters joke about being able to sleep standing up. Talking this week while waiting for his team to be assigned, Mallia said the crew was in trucks, ready to go. “I guarantee you they are catnapping,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3 id=\"h-can-i-pet-your-dog\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘Can I pet your dog?’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Fire bosses now understand that rest and time away from the fire line are critical to maintaining crews’ ability to stay at work and mentally stay on the job. With firefighters facing months of racing from fire to fire, officials employ anything that can reduce the strain of an already stressful job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ember, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q18tLsRzd1U\">a cheerful yellow labrador\u003c/a>, is one such tool. Richard Alamo is her handler, and as he strides through the sprawling camp he is greeted with “Can I pet your dog?,” exactly the reaction he’s looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alamo, a captain with the Sacramento Fire Department, employs Ember and her ever-swishing tail as a therapy dog to allow firefighters to decompress by petting and playing with the dog, a small moment of normalcy in a frenetic place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re working long hours. They’re waiting to see some of the devastation,” he said. “And so when you come up, they’re all smiles. We’re making a huge impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999568\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999568\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter embraces Ember, a therapy dog, at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, after returning from a long shift fighting the Park Fire. Ember and other therapy dogs are available to crew members at the command post to alleviate stress. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She has a calming nature, and she just loves people,” Alamo said, stroking the dog’s head. “It’s amazing to see her seek out certain people who might be stressed or have some type of emotion, and she’ll provide a little nudge, then position herself right in front of them so they can pet her. Sometimes, there’s no conversation that needs to be had. Just her simply going up to that person and saying, ‘Hey, I’m here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those moments of decompression are now part of the state’s overall fire strategy. Tyler has said that attending to the mental health of his employees is a top priority amid what some state officials have described as a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/cal-fire-firefighter-ptsd/\">crisis of PTSD and suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department has a team of peer support counselors who travel to fire stations and set up in trailers on large fires, with an open-door policy for anyone working the fire to talk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The frequency and intensity of fires now leave little downtime, on a fire or after, because they might be quickly redeployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a never-ending chess game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has the potential to be a very long fire season,” Peterson said. “It does give us pause; yes, it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "So many intense wildfires all at once require intricate maneuvering of firefighters and equipment across California and the West.",
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"title": "Managing a Wildfire Is an Intricate Game of Chess — and Mutual Aid Is Crucial | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the surface, fighting wildfires doesn’t appear to require delicacy or nuance. Fire bosses speak in the language of war: weapons, attack, suppression, control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to effectively \u003cem>manage \u003c/em>a wildfire is to engage in an intricate game of multidimensional chess: moving firefighters and equipment where they are most needed or where they are predicted to be required, then coaxing and caring for these resources so that they can continue to be used and moved around a fiery board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, which is blazing through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties, already consuming about 415,000 acres. Now burning for two weeks, it’s the fourth largest fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a difficult fire to manage because of the steep, remote terrain, its early start in the season, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics\">nearly 30,000\u003c/a> other wildfires around the country this year that have been gobbling up firefighters and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people might ask, ‘Are there enough resources in California?’” Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler said during a news conference last week from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/borel-fire\">Borel Fire\u003c/a> in Kern County. “A fire chief’s standard response is ‘Yes, but we could use more.’ Thanks to mutual aid, help is here and more is coming from around the state, nation and world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Cal Fire wrestles with long shifts, stressful conditions, sizzling heatwaves and budget restraints, California’s statewide mutual aid pact and reciprocal assistance from crews across the U.S. and other nations are critical to ensuring there are enough firefighters to battle its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-wildfires-explained/\">intensifying wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California “is very successful at handling its incidents” with its own platoons of firefighters and specially-equipped fleets of aircraft, said Sean Peterson, manager of the federal government’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/\">National Interagency Coordination Center\u003c/a>, which triages the nation’s large fires by deciding where to send reinforcements. “They have more resources, with state and federal cooperators, than the rest of the U.S. combined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Park Fire, a dusty parking lot at the Silver Dollar Fairground near Chico is crammed with red, yellow and green fire engines and crew trucks emblazoned with the logo of the agency that sent them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Whitehouse, an engineer with the Ventura County Fire Department, sat in his fire engine on a recent day with the air conditioning blasting against the 100-degree-plus temperatures at the Park Fire command post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been on the fire for a week and, after working shifts of 24 hours on and 24 hours off, he said his priorities are sharply focused: “Hydrate, eat and sleep,” Whitehouse said. “On days off, after I get myself squared away, I don’t have trouble sleeping. Then it’s back at it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999555\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_21-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Whitehouse, a Ventura County Fire Department engineer, in his engine at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Emiliano Lopez, a firefighter from the Riverside County Fire Department, said he hasn’t had a bad day yet, that he’s managing the heat, taking time to rest and taking breaks when he can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials say implementing a shortened 66-hour workweek — down from 72 hours — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/07/10/governor-newsom-and-fire-officials-highlight-californias-wildfire-readiness-and-response/\">planning to phase in more firefighters\u003c/a> over five years will take some of the stress off overworked Cal Fire firefighters. For wildfires, state crews stay as needed, generally working 14 to 21 days before they are rotated out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is on getting the health welfare and rest time,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna said. “It used to be that the large incidents were so infrequent that you’d get to go home for a week. We have made a more concerted effort to make those 21-day cycles a reality and allow people more time at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire would not allow its firefighters at the Park Fire to be interviewed by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is so vast that the fairground is one of two incident command posts established to better stage the nearly 6,600 personnel on the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Chris Hardy, Cal Fire’s deputy chief of command and control, federal fire crews from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service are deployed on California fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hand crews from the California Conservation Corps and the National Guard are working fire lines. The state Office of Emergency Services assigned hundreds of engines from local jurisdictions to join the fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999557\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/073024-Park-Fire-FG-REUTERS-01-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter gestures as the Park Fire burns near Chico on July 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/Reuters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Outside of California, help is coming from all points of the compass. Texas dispatched 25 engines, Utah sent engines and water tenders and Nevada deployed an engine. A fire engine from North Dakota is making its way to the state. A cadre of fire supervisors from Florida, Arkansas and Oregon are working California fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a group from the New York City Fire Department is assisting with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/13/2024-sqf-lightning-complex/updates/2d64827f-aaa7-47b8-81df-a17df50bb7e7\">complex of fires\u003c/a> in the Sequoia National Forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two waves of Australian firefighters — whose extensive experience and familiarity with California fires is highly prized — are expected to arrive this week. Canada, a reliable partner, is enduring its own fire assault and regrets it cannot help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got calls from governors on the East Coast who were willing to send help,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “That’s a hell of a thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a two-way assistance channel: Despite its already severe fire year — with \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics\">almost four times more acreage burned\u003c/a> so far than the average for this time of year — California already has sent crews to Oregon and Texas, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-a-nationwide-level-5-alert-the-highest\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A nationwide Level 5 alert — the highest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tyler praised California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.caloes.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/Fire-Rescue/Documents/CalOES_-_Fire_and_Rescue_-_Mutual_Aid_Plan-3.pdf\">mutual aid system (PDF)\u003c/a> for its ability to marshal resources from cooperating agencies quickly. The agreements are pledges that when calls for help come in from another agency within California, fire departments will answer if they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">overall fire response\u003c/a> is bifurcated, with north and south operations centers set up to more nimbly respond to fires in each region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents\">nearly 4,900 fires in California \u003c/a>so far this year and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/\">more sparking every day\u003c/a>, the system’s limits are being tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the need to order additional resources,” Tyler said. “We continue to reach out and ask for resources across the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of those requests are sent to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, where Peterson oversees the daily national fire situation report, making decisions on where to send crews, engines and planes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the U.S. now on Preparedness Level 5, the highest, it’s a sobering outlook. It’s only the fourth time in 20 years that the alert level has been reached so early in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those requesting assistance and for those sending it, it’s starting to be everything, everywhere, all at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our western geographic areas are ordering resources,” Peterson said. “When I came in at 7 o’clock today, we already had 800 orders sitting here. No large fire is going to get every resource they ask for right now. We are almost fully committed with our resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999566\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_33-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999698\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-800x268.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1020x341.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1536x514.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-2048x685.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-2-1920x642.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Top: Cal Fire crews are rewinding hoses at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024. Bottom left: A Cal Fire firefighter unpacks a fire engine shortly after fighting the Park Fire. Bottom right: Dean, a Cal Fire firefighter who preferred to not give his last name, works in temperatures that exceeded 100 degrees in Chico, on Aug. 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Peterson, who was born in Redding and grew up in Paradise, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/11/8/camp-fire/\">scene of California’s most deadly fire\u003c/a>, is a third-generation firefighter who used to work for Cal Fire before joining the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the chessmaster responsible for moving much of the nation’s firefighting pieces, Peterson said the current challenge is “we don’t have people to send. It’s a balancing act, it can be a chess game. It’s a game we have been playing for several decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said last week that “a lot of mutual aid is being stretched to West-wide fires,” acknowledging that California is not always the top national priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We haven’t skimped on staffing, we have a record number of personnel. When I got here as governor, we had 6,700 personnel at Cal Fire. Today, more than 9,700 men and women work at Cal Fire,” Newsom said at a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-rest-is-paramount-for-hotshots-state-crews\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rest ‘is paramount’ for Hotshots, state crews\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service has adjusted, too. The standard staffing on its Hotshot crews in recent years has expanded to 25. These highly-trained crews are often positioned at the most dangerous parts of fires. With at least 18 members required to deploy, a firefighter who needs to stand down can do so without affecting the functionality of the crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2024/07/park-fire-size-mapped/\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, stubborn and dangerous, has grown into a “campaign fire,” an informal designation that acknowledges it’s a blaze likely to be around for some time. The million-acre \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/august-complex-includes-doe-fire\">August Complex\u003c/a> fire in 2020 burned in seven Northern California counties for nearly three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999700\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-800x268.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1020x341.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1536x514.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-2048x685.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_25-KQED-1-1920x642.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Firefighters at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, after a 24-hour shift. Right: The Park Fire command post in Chico serves as headquarters for crews, offering food, accommodations, showers and mental health support, among other services. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a fire line, that translates into days and nights that blur. Sixteen-hour shifts or longer are not uncommon. Already tired crews settle into a rhythm of hours on the fire followed by a handful of hours to shower, eat and, critically, sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Getting the crew sufficient rest is paramount for me once we are off the fire line,” said Dan Mallia, superintendent for the Redding Hot Shots, an elite Forest Service team that worked the Park Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the fire service has a better understanding of the link between sleep and maintaining physical and mental health. To that end, some crews sleep in specially retrofitted trailers at the incident command post, while others, such as Cal Fire, stay in local hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fire camps, which can be loud, bustling places with round-the-clock lights and noise, are not ideal places to rest. Mallia said, after decades of fighting fires in remote places in California, “I know all the hidey-holes. It needs to be quiet and it needs to be dark. We find a campsite, put a sleeping pad down and get in our bags. I’ve slept in hundreds of high school gyms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran firefighters joke about being able to sleep standing up. Talking this week while waiting for his team to be assigned, Mallia said the crew was in trucks, ready to go. “I guarantee you they are catnapping,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3 id=\"h-can-i-pet-your-dog\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘Can I pet your dog?’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Fire bosses now understand that rest and time away from the fire line are critical to maintaining crews’ ability to stay at work and mentally stay on the job. With firefighters facing months of racing from fire to fire, officials employ anything that can reduce the strain of an already stressful job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ember, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q18tLsRzd1U\">a cheerful yellow labrador\u003c/a>, is one such tool. Richard Alamo is her handler, and as he strides through the sprawling camp he is greeted with “Can I pet your dog?,” exactly the reaction he’s looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alamo, a captain with the Sacramento Fire Department, employs Ember and her ever-swishing tail as a therapy dog to allow firefighters to decompress by petting and playing with the dog, a small moment of normalcy in a frenetic place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re working long hours. They’re waiting to see some of the devastation,” he said. “And so when you come up, they’re all smiles. We’re making a huge impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999568\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999568\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080224_ParkFireCommandPost_FM_CM_05-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter embraces Ember, a therapy dog, at the Park Fire command post in Chico on Aug. 2, 2024, after returning from a long shift fighting the Park Fire. Ember and other therapy dogs are available to crew members at the command post to alleviate stress. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She has a calming nature, and she just loves people,” Alamo said, stroking the dog’s head. “It’s amazing to see her seek out certain people who might be stressed or have some type of emotion, and she’ll provide a little nudge, then position herself right in front of them so they can pet her. Sometimes, there’s no conversation that needs to be had. Just her simply going up to that person and saying, ‘Hey, I’m here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those moments of decompression are now part of the state’s overall fire strategy. Tyler has said that attending to the mental health of his employees is a top priority amid what some state officials have described as a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/cal-fire-firefighter-ptsd/\">crisis of PTSD and suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department has a team of peer support counselors who travel to fire stations and set up in trailers on large fires, with an open-door policy for anyone working the fire to talk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The frequency and intensity of fires now leave little downtime, on a fire or after, because they might be quickly redeployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a never-ending chess game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has the potential to be a very long fire season,” Peterson said. “It does give us pause; yes, it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "californians-say-they-were-fired-for-leaving-their-jobs-in-sweltering-heat-is-the-state-on-their-side",
"title": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side?",
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"headTitle": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11999014,news_11886628,news_11991314\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "While California has rules to protect farmworkers from excessive heat, inspections and citations are significantly down. A bill before the Legislature would make it easier to file workers’ compensation claims for heat illnesses.",
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"title": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side? | KQED",
"description": "While California has rules to protect farmworkers from excessive heat, inspections and citations are significantly down. A bill before the Legislature would make it easier to file workers’ compensation claims for heat illnesses.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jeanne-kuang/\">Jeanne Kuang\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may have heard some horror stories about electric vehicle charging — long lines, lengthy waits, broken units. Sometimes even\u003cem> finding \u003c/em>a charging station is a challenge. When your car’s low on charge but no charger is available, it’s stressful. Maybe you’re halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and you’re stuck waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the big things stopping Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg from buying an electric car right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that by 2030, between having some years to save up and the technology getting better and cheaper, maybe that’s around the time [it] could work for our family,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Lindberg has an idea to help alleviate the charging congestion. She’s noticed a lot of empty former gas station sites around her neighborhood in Oakland and wondered, “Would it be a good idea to turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal for the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by the year 2035. So even if you’ve got a gas-powered car, and this isn’t a problem you’re facing currently, it may be soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How to set up a charging station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To find out what goes into installing a new charging station, I met up with Jonah Eidus, who oversees real estate development for electric car charging company EVgo. The company has hundreds of charging stalls across the Bay Area and thousands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes,” Eidus said. “And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since charging your car takes longer than pumping gas, stations are designed with the surroundings in mind. They aim to install stations in the parking lot of a Safeway, for example, or close to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many other considerations too, Eidus said, including the availability of parking stalls. Is there enough space for many cars to park? The goal, after all, is to build as many charging stalls per site as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does the site integrate well into the electrical grid? The product they are ultimately selling is electricity, so they have to make sure that a site \u003cem>has \u003c/em>the electricity to sell at an affordable price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, is the charging station set up near those who need it most, including those who live in apartment complexes and don’t have the option to charge from their own garage? There are also city zoning regulations and safety considerations to take into account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even half of what goes into establishing a charging site. In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through,” Eidus said. “When a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Improving reliability and keeping up with demand\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California — particularly the Bay Area — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/bay-area-electric-vehicles.html\">leads the nation\u003c/a> in electric vehicle adoption. To meet that growing demand, California has to build 1 million new chargers by the end of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24795161/assembly-bill-2127-second-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-second-assessment-revised-staff-report.pdf#page=52\">according to the state’s own projections (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/07/california-electric-car-chargers-unrealistic-goals/\">that’s not feasible\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers,” said Carleen Cullen, co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Gov. Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only are they in short supply, the ones we do have are not always reliable, Cullen said. She helped conduct a study a few years ago to test the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area and found that a quarter of them weren’t functional, meaning the screens were broken, the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullen said while the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, there’s still not enough of it — despite the fact that \u003ca href=\"https://smartasset.com/data-studies/ev-chargers-2023\">California is outpacing other states\u003c/a> in both EV adoption and infrastructure. And in order to reach Newsom’s goal, we need consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, local governments and utility companies to work together, Cullen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to move the adoption of EVs forward, we need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tashinda Richardson of Oakland plugs in her rented electric vehicle at an EVgo Fast Charging station in Oakland on Jan. 29. Richardson said it can be hard to find a charger when she needs one. Sometimes, she said, chargers won’t work or the plug will get stuck in the car. \u003ccite>(Kathryn Styer Martínez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big hold-up right now, according to Cullen, lies with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a huge lag time between when the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to the power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station anywhere. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant, for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system,” said David Almeida, a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almeida said the utility company underestimated electricity demand, and as a result, it doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the rapidly growing EV industry right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the work needed to bolster this transportation system overhaul, Almeida said it’s ultimately worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, California’s transportation system is by far the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/ghg-inventory-data\">largest contributor\u003c/a> to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and EVs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09642\">study\u003c/a> by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been a believer from the very beginning,” Almeida said. “And it’s just very cool to see a lot of this prove out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay curious. And today we’re going on a little road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of a car driving\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Here we go. So we are driving around San Francisco in my Volkswagen E-golf, and it’s an electric vehicle. And we’re looking for a place to charge. And I’m here with Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And how do you normally find a place to charge in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s pretty rare that I have to find a place to charge because I mostly charge at home. But when I do have to find a place, I pull up an app on my phone and …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Safely, of course, pulled over by the side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Exactly. Let’s actually pull over real quick up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of car decelerating)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so I pull up this app on my phone and what it does is it loads all sorts of different chargers that are nearby that are owned by all sorts of different companies. The numbers mean how many charging stations are in each of these locations. Of the one that’s nearby, it looks like one is out of service; four are currently being used … but looks like one is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> 0.2 miles away. That’s not too bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Yeah, let’s give it a shot. Okay, so the charger is somewhere in this enormous parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> You know that there’s a spot open right now because of your app, right? Or is it possible that it’s there but someone’s using it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I would … I would say I don’t feel 100% confident based on the app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> There’s a line of Teslas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, let’s go and see if the non-Tesla chargers are near the Tesla ones, too. Oh, and here we are to the right. … This is also Tesla charging. Just kidding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We drove around the parking lot for a while but then finally found the chargers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> So, it’s full. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There was a little dispute with another customer over who was there first. It was totally us, but we let it go. Eventually, another stall opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Charging port here, plug it in and it looks like this one gives me the option to pay by the EVgo app, or I can pay by credit card, which is actually great. It does not seem … Oh, there we go, there we go. Okay, let’s remove the card … (pause) authorization declined. I will try a different card payment. (pause) Authorized!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Step one: Complete! (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Step 7,962: pay for the charging. (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Generally, I would say this was not super easy, and yet it’s pretty much totally full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: Yeah, I mean, it’s not easy. I feel really lucky most of the time. I charge at home because it is, you know, it’s a pain and it’s a little stressful, especially if you are really low on charge. Like I’ve been in situations where I’m really sweating it out because I go to one charging station and like the screen is broken or the Wi-Fi isn’t working, or sometimes they’ll have these in paid parking garages and they don’t tell you that. And it’s like $30 just to get in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like it feels like you do have to have an at-home charger right now for this to be convenient and conducive to your lifestyle. Like, I can’t imagine, like fully relying on this, you know. I, for one, will probably just stick with my Subaru for now. My gas-powered Subaru, for now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> On today’s episode of Bay Curious, we dive into the world of electric vehicles. I love driving mine, but as you saw, it’s not perfect. California currently dominates the EV market, and the state has a lofty goal of banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. So if you’re not driving an EV yet, you may be soon. Is your community set up for it? Is the Bay area’s current infrastructure matching up with the demand? We’ll get into all that just after a quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>SPONSOR\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>For this episode, I’m tossing to my co-pilot … reporter Dana Cronin … to explain what’s going on with the Bay Area’s EV infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like a lot of Bay Area residents … maybe you included … I want my next car to be electric. But if my 2012 Subaru Outback died tomorrow … I’m not sure I’d be ready to make the switch. Especially after that drive with Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg … feels the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> You hear those stories in the news sometimes about, like, the drive between, like, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. You know, people going in their Teslas and having a super long line at the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Kelly works for a climate startup accelerator, and she’s thought, “There’s gotta be a solution to this problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One came to her… as she was driving through her neighborhood in Oakland. She’s noticed a lot of abandoned gas stations around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> Would it be a good idea to maybe turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I mean … sounds like a good idea to me. I, too, live in Oakland and have noticed quite a few empty lots. Whether they’re former gas stations, convenience stores, or storefronts … it seems like there’s plenty of empty space for charging stations to set up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, to do that, you first need a charging company. So, I met with one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of loud road noise)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah Eidus is wearing a navy-logoed polo and is parked at an EVgo charging station. He oversees EVgo’s real estate department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EVgo has hundreds of charging stalls in the Bay Area … the one we’re meeting at is in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood … right off of 580 on Fruitvale Avenue. It’s set up at a Shell gas station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> So this site is an eight-stall, fast-charging site, capable of delivering up to 350 kW to each car. And it is definitely one of the more popular stations in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>That’s enough to charge most modern EVs in less than 20 minutes. And it is popular! Over the course of our interview … all eight stalls were full almost the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without wasting any time, I posed Kelly’s question. Could empty lots and gas stations near her house get setups like this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes. And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>It takes longer to charge your car’s battery than it does to pump gas. So this charging station, for example, is right next to a Peet’s Coffee and a Farmer Joe’s grocery store. A perfect place to run some errands while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we’re talking, Dave Robinson drives up in his brand new 2023 KIA EV6, backs into a stall, and plugs in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>What do you plan to do while you wait?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dave Robinson:\u003c/strong> Just hang out. You know, if it’s going to be a while, there’s coffee shops and everything else around. So it’s easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Convenience! It’s a big factor in selecting a charging site, Jonah says. But there are lots of other factors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Availability of parking stalls, grid interconnection, forecasted charging demand, electricity rates and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>OK … let’s take those one at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> Availability of parking stalls …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning … is there enough space for cars to park here? The goal is to build as many charging stalls as possible per site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … grid interconnection …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This one is super important. Because after all, the product they are ultimately selling … is electricity. And they need to make sure that a specific site HAS the electricity to sell\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … forecasted charging demand … electricity rates …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>How many customers do they expect, and how much will those customers have to pay to charge? The cost of electricity can \u003cem>literally \u003c/em>vary block to block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And … EVGo is a for-profit company after all … so it needs to pencil out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Is the charging station set up near those who need it the most? Those who live in apartment complexes, for example, don’t have the option to charge from their own garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even \u003cem>half \u003c/em>the considerations that go into establishing a charging site. There’s also things like a city’s zoning regulations … and safety considerations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through. And when a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah couldn’t say exactly whether the specific abandoned gas stations in Kelly’s neighborhood could be converted to charging sites … I guess that’s a question for the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(music)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>So that’s how companies choose specific charging sites … and avoid others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the \u003cem>heart \u003c/em>of Kelly’s question … is a bigger question. Clearly, we need MORE charging stations … whether at abandoned gas stations … or near coffee shops and grocery stores. So … why hasn’t the electric vehicle charging infrastructure kept up with demand?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that question, I met up with Carleen Cullen. She’s the co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Governor Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of a busy parking lot)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>We meet up at another charging station … this one in the parking lot of a Safeway in Mill Valley. We’re chatting next to Carleen’s Chevy Bolt … which is parked in a stall, ready to charge … when, all of a sudden, another EV driver pulls up behind us and asks how long we plan to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I guess that’s part of the challenge is that there’s so few chargers that we have someone waiting on us here waiting for a charge, somewhat impatiently. So we’re going to go ahead and get charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> Let’s get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen swipes her credit card, pulls the charger around to her car, plugs in, and it starts charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of the high-pitched hum from the charger)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>So when you hear that great hum, you know that that’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen is somewhat of an electric vehicle evangelist … an E-V-vangelist … if you will. Half the time we spent together I felt like I was in an EV infomercial. But she’s not naive. She knows the current infrastructure is flawed. In fact, she did a study a few years ago where she tested the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>And we found that about a quarter of the stations in the Bay area weren’t functional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning the screens were broken or the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed. She says the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, but there’s still not enough of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers. Yeah, we’re definitely tight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And that’s in part because … what we’re talking about here … is a MAJOR overhaul of an entire transportation system. In 2020, Governor Newsom set a goal to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in California by the year 2035. And California is outpacing other states in both EV adoption and infrastructure by a long shot. We have more chargers than any other state. But in order to reach that lofty goal … Carleen says we need three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> We need to move the adoption of EVs forward. We need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>These things all have to happen simultaneously. Consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, utility companies, local governments … everyone has to work in concert for this to work. Carleen says, right now, the utility companies aren’t necessarily pulling their weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>There’s a huge lag time between when the station, the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to our power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station ANYWHERE. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant … for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are critical considerations, says David Almeida … a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group. And he says Carleen’s critique is fair. He says, yes, the utility is definitely still playing catch-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida:\u003c/strong> So we have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He also says … they didn’t plan for that increased demand for electricity. In fact, they UNDERestimated it … and, as a result, they don’t have the infrastructure to support it right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he says, they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida: \u003c/strong>We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He says their goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This all sounds like a lot of work. Overhauling our entire state’s transportation system … building thousands and thousands of new charging stations … getting utility companies on board … I’m exhausted just thinking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s important to remember WHY we’re doing this. Right now, California’s transportation system is BY FAR the largest contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Evs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, obviously, to keep up that progress … the system has to work for EVERYONE. And I’m not sure we’re there yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music sneaks in\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> What do you think, Olivia? Any more sympathy for the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> You know, yeah. I didn’t realize there were so many hurdles to getting new charging stations online. I feel really lucky that I am able to charge my car at home and so this isn’t an issue I have to deal with very often. But for folks who can’t charge overnight where they live — that’s a huge hurdle. And I’m sure it’s a non-starter for some people! It’s got to get better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Yeah … 2035 is not THAT far away … and if we’re gonna reach that goal, we’re going to need more charging stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m kind of hoping my Subaru lasts just a couple more years …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Dana Cronin — thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story would not have been possible without our question-asker, Kelly Lindberg. That’s because you, our dear audience, decide what we cover by submitting questions — and then voting on which ones we should answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a new voting round-up at BayCurious.org with three enticing questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 1:\u003c/strong> Why did Oakland International Airport become San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, giving us two very confusingly similar-sounding airports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 2:\u003c/strong> I remember going to the Berkeley dump, now Cesar Chavez Park, with my dad in the 1970s. It was pretty wild. It’d be really interesting to learn more about its evolution from dump to park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 3:\u003c/strong> I was walking my dog on Thornton Beach on the Daly City/SF border and found a really long tunnel coming out of the hillside around some abandoned piers. Any idea what it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Voting is so easy! Just grab your phone, pull up BayCurious.org, scroll to our voting round and click on your favorite question! No registering or emails or phone numbers or anything complicated. We try to make it easy on you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale. Special thanks to Laura Klivans, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may have heard some horror stories about electric vehicle charging — long lines, lengthy waits, broken units. Sometimes even\u003cem> finding \u003c/em>a charging station is a challenge. When your car’s low on charge but no charger is available, it’s stressful. Maybe you’re halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and you’re stuck waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the big things stopping Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg from buying an electric car right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that by 2030, between having some years to save up and the technology getting better and cheaper, maybe that’s around the time [it] could work for our family,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Lindberg has an idea to help alleviate the charging congestion. She’s noticed a lot of empty former gas station sites around her neighborhood in Oakland and wondered, “Would it be a good idea to turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal for the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by the year 2035. So even if you’ve got a gas-powered car, and this isn’t a problem you’re facing currently, it may be soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How to set up a charging station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To find out what goes into installing a new charging station, I met up with Jonah Eidus, who oversees real estate development for electric car charging company EVgo. The company has hundreds of charging stalls across the Bay Area and thousands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes,” Eidus said. “And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since charging your car takes longer than pumping gas, stations are designed with the surroundings in mind. They aim to install stations in the parking lot of a Safeway, for example, or close to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many other considerations too, Eidus said, including the availability of parking stalls. Is there enough space for many cars to park? The goal, after all, is to build as many charging stalls per site as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does the site integrate well into the electrical grid? The product they are ultimately selling is electricity, so they have to make sure that a site \u003cem>has \u003c/em>the electricity to sell at an affordable price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, is the charging station set up near those who need it most, including those who live in apartment complexes and don’t have the option to charge from their own garage? There are also city zoning regulations and safety considerations to take into account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even half of what goes into establishing a charging site. In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through,” Eidus said. “When a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Improving reliability and keeping up with demand\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California — particularly the Bay Area — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/bay-area-electric-vehicles.html\">leads the nation\u003c/a> in electric vehicle adoption. To meet that growing demand, California has to build 1 million new chargers by the end of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24795161/assembly-bill-2127-second-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-second-assessment-revised-staff-report.pdf#page=52\">according to the state’s own projections (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/07/california-electric-car-chargers-unrealistic-goals/\">that’s not feasible\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers,” said Carleen Cullen, co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Gov. Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only are they in short supply, the ones we do have are not always reliable, Cullen said. She helped conduct a study a few years ago to test the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area and found that a quarter of them weren’t functional, meaning the screens were broken, the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullen said while the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, there’s still not enough of it — despite the fact that \u003ca href=\"https://smartasset.com/data-studies/ev-chargers-2023\">California is outpacing other states\u003c/a> in both EV adoption and infrastructure. And in order to reach Newsom’s goal, we need consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, local governments and utility companies to work together, Cullen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to move the adoption of EVs forward, we need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tashinda Richardson of Oakland plugs in her rented electric vehicle at an EVgo Fast Charging station in Oakland on Jan. 29. Richardson said it can be hard to find a charger when she needs one. Sometimes, she said, chargers won’t work or the plug will get stuck in the car. \u003ccite>(Kathryn Styer Martínez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big hold-up right now, according to Cullen, lies with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a huge lag time between when the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to the power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station anywhere. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant, for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system,” said David Almeida, a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almeida said the utility company underestimated electricity demand, and as a result, it doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the rapidly growing EV industry right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the work needed to bolster this transportation system overhaul, Almeida said it’s ultimately worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, California’s transportation system is by far the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/ghg-inventory-data\">largest contributor\u003c/a> to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and EVs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09642\">study\u003c/a> by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been a believer from the very beginning,” Almeida said. “And it’s just very cool to see a lot of this prove out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay curious. And today we’re going on a little road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of a car driving\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Here we go. So we are driving around San Francisco in my Volkswagen E-golf, and it’s an electric vehicle. And we’re looking for a place to charge. And I’m here with Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And how do you normally find a place to charge in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s pretty rare that I have to find a place to charge because I mostly charge at home. But when I do have to find a place, I pull up an app on my phone and …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Safely, of course, pulled over by the side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Exactly. Let’s actually pull over real quick up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of car decelerating)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so I pull up this app on my phone and what it does is it loads all sorts of different chargers that are nearby that are owned by all sorts of different companies. The numbers mean how many charging stations are in each of these locations. Of the one that’s nearby, it looks like one is out of service; four are currently being used … but looks like one is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> 0.2 miles away. That’s not too bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Yeah, let’s give it a shot. Okay, so the charger is somewhere in this enormous parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> You know that there’s a spot open right now because of your app, right? Or is it possible that it’s there but someone’s using it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I would … I would say I don’t feel 100% confident based on the app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> There’s a line of Teslas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, let’s go and see if the non-Tesla chargers are near the Tesla ones, too. Oh, and here we are to the right. … This is also Tesla charging. Just kidding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We drove around the parking lot for a while but then finally found the chargers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> So, it’s full. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There was a little dispute with another customer over who was there first. It was totally us, but we let it go. Eventually, another stall opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Charging port here, plug it in and it looks like this one gives me the option to pay by the EVgo app, or I can pay by credit card, which is actually great. It does not seem … Oh, there we go, there we go. Okay, let’s remove the card … (pause) authorization declined. I will try a different card payment. (pause) Authorized!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Step one: Complete! (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Step 7,962: pay for the charging. (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Generally, I would say this was not super easy, and yet it’s pretty much totally full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: Yeah, I mean, it’s not easy. I feel really lucky most of the time. I charge at home because it is, you know, it’s a pain and it’s a little stressful, especially if you are really low on charge. Like I’ve been in situations where I’m really sweating it out because I go to one charging station and like the screen is broken or the Wi-Fi isn’t working, or sometimes they’ll have these in paid parking garages and they don’t tell you that. And it’s like $30 just to get in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like it feels like you do have to have an at-home charger right now for this to be convenient and conducive to your lifestyle. Like, I can’t imagine, like fully relying on this, you know. I, for one, will probably just stick with my Subaru for now. My gas-powered Subaru, for now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> On today’s episode of Bay Curious, we dive into the world of electric vehicles. I love driving mine, but as you saw, it’s not perfect. California currently dominates the EV market, and the state has a lofty goal of banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. So if you’re not driving an EV yet, you may be soon. Is your community set up for it? Is the Bay area’s current infrastructure matching up with the demand? We’ll get into all that just after a quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>SPONSOR\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>For this episode, I’m tossing to my co-pilot … reporter Dana Cronin … to explain what’s going on with the Bay Area’s EV infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like a lot of Bay Area residents … maybe you included … I want my next car to be electric. But if my 2012 Subaru Outback died tomorrow … I’m not sure I’d be ready to make the switch. Especially after that drive with Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg … feels the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> You hear those stories in the news sometimes about, like, the drive between, like, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. You know, people going in their Teslas and having a super long line at the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Kelly works for a climate startup accelerator, and she’s thought, “There’s gotta be a solution to this problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One came to her… as she was driving through her neighborhood in Oakland. She’s noticed a lot of abandoned gas stations around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> Would it be a good idea to maybe turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I mean … sounds like a good idea to me. I, too, live in Oakland and have noticed quite a few empty lots. Whether they’re former gas stations, convenience stores, or storefronts … it seems like there’s plenty of empty space for charging stations to set up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, to do that, you first need a charging company. So, I met with one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of loud road noise)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah Eidus is wearing a navy-logoed polo and is parked at an EVgo charging station. He oversees EVgo’s real estate department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EVgo has hundreds of charging stalls in the Bay Area … the one we’re meeting at is in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood … right off of 580 on Fruitvale Avenue. It’s set up at a Shell gas station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> So this site is an eight-stall, fast-charging site, capable of delivering up to 350 kW to each car. And it is definitely one of the more popular stations in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>That’s enough to charge most modern EVs in less than 20 minutes. And it is popular! Over the course of our interview … all eight stalls were full almost the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without wasting any time, I posed Kelly’s question. Could empty lots and gas stations near her house get setups like this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes. And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>It takes longer to charge your car’s battery than it does to pump gas. So this charging station, for example, is right next to a Peet’s Coffee and a Farmer Joe’s grocery store. A perfect place to run some errands while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we’re talking, Dave Robinson drives up in his brand new 2023 KIA EV6, backs into a stall, and plugs in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>What do you plan to do while you wait?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dave Robinson:\u003c/strong> Just hang out. You know, if it’s going to be a while, there’s coffee shops and everything else around. So it’s easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Convenience! It’s a big factor in selecting a charging site, Jonah says. But there are lots of other factors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Availability of parking stalls, grid interconnection, forecasted charging demand, electricity rates and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>OK … let’s take those one at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> Availability of parking stalls …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning … is there enough space for cars to park here? The goal is to build as many charging stalls as possible per site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … grid interconnection …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This one is super important. Because after all, the product they are ultimately selling … is electricity. And they need to make sure that a specific site HAS the electricity to sell\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … forecasted charging demand … electricity rates …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>How many customers do they expect, and how much will those customers have to pay to charge? The cost of electricity can \u003cem>literally \u003c/em>vary block to block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And … EVGo is a for-profit company after all … so it needs to pencil out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Is the charging station set up near those who need it the most? Those who live in apartment complexes, for example, don’t have the option to charge from their own garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even \u003cem>half \u003c/em>the considerations that go into establishing a charging site. There’s also things like a city’s zoning regulations … and safety considerations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through. And when a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah couldn’t say exactly whether the specific abandoned gas stations in Kelly’s neighborhood could be converted to charging sites … I guess that’s a question for the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(music)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>So that’s how companies choose specific charging sites … and avoid others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the \u003cem>heart \u003c/em>of Kelly’s question … is a bigger question. Clearly, we need MORE charging stations … whether at abandoned gas stations … or near coffee shops and grocery stores. So … why hasn’t the electric vehicle charging infrastructure kept up with demand?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that question, I met up with Carleen Cullen. She’s the co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Governor Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of a busy parking lot)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>We meet up at another charging station … this one in the parking lot of a Safeway in Mill Valley. We’re chatting next to Carleen’s Chevy Bolt … which is parked in a stall, ready to charge … when, all of a sudden, another EV driver pulls up behind us and asks how long we plan to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I guess that’s part of the challenge is that there’s so few chargers that we have someone waiting on us here waiting for a charge, somewhat impatiently. So we’re going to go ahead and get charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> Let’s get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen swipes her credit card, pulls the charger around to her car, plugs in, and it starts charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of the high-pitched hum from the charger)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>So when you hear that great hum, you know that that’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen is somewhat of an electric vehicle evangelist … an E-V-vangelist … if you will. Half the time we spent together I felt like I was in an EV infomercial. But she’s not naive. She knows the current infrastructure is flawed. In fact, she did a study a few years ago where she tested the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>And we found that about a quarter of the stations in the Bay area weren’t functional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning the screens were broken or the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed. She says the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, but there’s still not enough of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers. Yeah, we’re definitely tight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And that’s in part because … what we’re talking about here … is a MAJOR overhaul of an entire transportation system. In 2020, Governor Newsom set a goal to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in California by the year 2035. And California is outpacing other states in both EV adoption and infrastructure by a long shot. We have more chargers than any other state. But in order to reach that lofty goal … Carleen says we need three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> We need to move the adoption of EVs forward. We need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>These things all have to happen simultaneously. Consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, utility companies, local governments … everyone has to work in concert for this to work. Carleen says, right now, the utility companies aren’t necessarily pulling their weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>There’s a huge lag time between when the station, the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to our power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station ANYWHERE. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant … for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are critical considerations, says David Almeida … a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group. And he says Carleen’s critique is fair. He says, yes, the utility is definitely still playing catch-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida:\u003c/strong> So we have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He also says … they didn’t plan for that increased demand for electricity. In fact, they UNDERestimated it … and, as a result, they don’t have the infrastructure to support it right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he says, they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida: \u003c/strong>We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He says their goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This all sounds like a lot of work. Overhauling our entire state’s transportation system … building thousands and thousands of new charging stations … getting utility companies on board … I’m exhausted just thinking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s important to remember WHY we’re doing this. Right now, California’s transportation system is BY FAR the largest contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Evs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, obviously, to keep up that progress … the system has to work for EVERYONE. And I’m not sure we’re there yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music sneaks in\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> What do you think, Olivia? Any more sympathy for the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> You know, yeah. I didn’t realize there were so many hurdles to getting new charging stations online. I feel really lucky that I am able to charge my car at home and so this isn’t an issue I have to deal with very often. But for folks who can’t charge overnight where they live — that’s a huge hurdle. And I’m sure it’s a non-starter for some people! It’s got to get better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Yeah … 2035 is not THAT far away … and if we’re gonna reach that goal, we’re going to need more charging stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m kind of hoping my Subaru lasts just a couple more years …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Dana Cronin — thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story would not have been possible without our question-asker, Kelly Lindberg. That’s because you, our dear audience, decide what we cover by submitting questions — and then voting on which ones we should answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a new voting round-up at BayCurious.org with three enticing questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 1:\u003c/strong> Why did Oakland International Airport become San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, giving us two very confusingly similar-sounding airports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 2:\u003c/strong> I remember going to the Berkeley dump, now Cesar Chavez Park, with my dad in the 1970s. It was pretty wild. It’d be really interesting to learn more about its evolution from dump to park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 3:\u003c/strong> I was walking my dog on Thornton Beach on the Daly City/SF border and found a really long tunnel coming out of the hillside around some abandoned piers. Any idea what it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Voting is so easy! Just grab your phone, pull up BayCurious.org, scroll to our voting round and click on your favorite question! No registering or emails or phone numbers or anything complicated. We try to make it easy on you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale. Special thanks to Laura Klivans, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"title": "Firefighters Make Progress in Park Fire Ahead of Possible Thunderstorms, Erratic Winds",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 4 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Firefighters made progress Saturday against California’s largest wildfire of the year ahead of expected thunderstorms that could unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds and erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">fire-stricken West\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not completely out of the woods yet, but we’re looking very, very good,” Cal Fire official Mark Brunton said in a video update Saturday. “This is moving at a very fast pace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Containment of the Park Fire, now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, is at 27% as of early Saturday. Brunton said the relatively milder weather the last few days allowed firefighters to build containment lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hotter weather, fuels and terrain will continue posing challenges for the estimated 6,500 firefighters battling the fire, which has spread over 626 square miles since \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">allegedly being started by arson\u003c/a> in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles covers about 503 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppression crews will also start removing damaged infrastructure in some areas Saturday to allow residents to return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story 12 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Firefighters battling California’s largest wildfire of the year are preparing for treacherous conditions entering the weekend, when expected thunderstorms may unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds that could erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">fire-stricken West\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather, fuels and terrain will pose challenges for the nearly 6,400 firefighters battling the Park Fire, which has spread over 624 square miles since \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">allegedly being started by arson\u003c/a> in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. It is now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppression crews working on more than 200 miles of active fire front gained 24% containment by early Friday, Cal Fire said. Temperatures were expected to range up to 103 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire originated at low elevations where it quickly burned through thick grass and oaks, destroying at least 542 structures and damaging 50 since erupting July 24. As it has climbed higher, the vegetation has changed to a greater concentration of trees and brush, Cal Fire said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lava rocks make for hard and slow work for hand crews,” Cal Fire said in situation report. “Crews are being flown into access areas that have been hard to reach because of long drive times and steep, rugged terrain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After days of benign weather, increasing winds and a surge of monsoonal moisture were expected to increase fire activity and bring a chance of thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday, said Ryan Walbrun, incident meteorologist with the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11998471 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240729-ParkFireEvacuee-66-BL-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern with thunderstorms is any gusty outflow winds that would push the fire itself or create some new fire ignitions within the vicinity of the Park Fire,” Walbrun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The collapse of thunderstorm clouds can blow wind in any and all directions, said Jonathan Pangburn, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if there’s not lightning per se, it is very much a safety-watch-out environment for our firefighters out there,” Pangburn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walbrun said there was little prospect of beneficial rains from the storms and the forecast for next week calls for continued warming and drying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we look forward in time, we’re really just entering the peak of fire season in California,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Park Fire is among almost 100 large fires burning across the western U.S. Evacuation orders were in effect for 28 of the fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">burned in Colorado\u003c/a> on Friday near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver, with some 30 structures damaged or destroyed, thousands of people under evacuation orders and human remains found in a destroyed house earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office disclosed Friday that a blaze threatening hundreds of homes near the Colorado city of Littleton was being \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">investigated as arson\u003c/a>. Karlyn Tilley, a spokesperson for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said the investigation is ongoing and they are using a dog specially trained to sniff out sources and causes of fires. Tilley said just because they suspect the fire was human-caused doesn’t mean it was intentional. Firefighters were making good progress on the fire despite the steep, rocky terrain and blistering heat, and no houses had been burned, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11997808,forum_2010101906496,news_11997515\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause and origin of a fatal blaze west of the town of Lyons was being probed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with specially trained fire investigators from the agency helping local authorities, agency spokesperson Crystal McCoy said. The area blackened by that fire remained relatively unchanged after it burned five houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest of the Colorado fires, west of Loveland, grew to 13 square miles after previously burning about two dozen homes and other structures. Its cause is under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooler weather was expected across the region Friday with some scattered showers, before hot dry conditions return for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new fire sparked Friday afternoon in Oregon’s high desert, near the popular vacation destination of Bend, prompting evacuation notices, cutting power to thousands and slowing traffic along a highway. Fire officials said the blaze spread quickly amid 100-degree heat and a warning from the National Weather Service about the potential for extreme fire behavior. Multiple agencies stopped the fire’s forward progression as of Friday evening, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfire-season-2024-firefighters-climate-653890235089c9fc7b5aacf2e4c66fd7\">climate change warms\u003c/a> the planet and droughts become more severe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 4 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Firefighters made progress Saturday against California’s largest wildfire of the year ahead of expected thunderstorms that could unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds and erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">fire-stricken West\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not completely out of the woods yet, but we’re looking very, very good,” Cal Fire official Mark Brunton said in a video update Saturday. “This is moving at a very fast pace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Containment of the Park Fire, now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, is at 27% as of early Saturday. Brunton said the relatively milder weather the last few days allowed firefighters to build containment lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hotter weather, fuels and terrain will continue posing challenges for the estimated 6,500 firefighters battling the fire, which has spread over 626 square miles since \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">allegedly being started by arson\u003c/a> in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles covers about 503 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppression crews will also start removing damaged infrastructure in some areas Saturday to allow residents to return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story 12 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Firefighters battling California’s largest wildfire of the year are preparing for treacherous conditions entering the weekend, when expected thunderstorms may unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds that could erode progress made over the past week. Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">fire-stricken West\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather, fuels and terrain will pose challenges for the nearly 6,400 firefighters battling the Park Fire, which has spread over 624 square miles since \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">allegedly being started by arson\u003c/a> in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. It is now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppression crews working on more than 200 miles of active fire front gained 24% containment by early Friday, Cal Fire said. Temperatures were expected to range up to 103 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire originated at low elevations where it quickly burned through thick grass and oaks, destroying at least 542 structures and damaging 50 since erupting July 24. As it has climbed higher, the vegetation has changed to a greater concentration of trees and brush, Cal Fire said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lava rocks make for hard and slow work for hand crews,” Cal Fire said in situation report. “Crews are being flown into access areas that have been hard to reach because of long drive times and steep, rugged terrain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After days of benign weather, increasing winds and a surge of monsoonal moisture were expected to increase fire activity and bring a chance of thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday, said Ryan Walbrun, incident meteorologist with the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concern with thunderstorms is any gusty outflow winds that would push the fire itself or create some new fire ignitions within the vicinity of the Park Fire,” Walbrun said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The collapse of thunderstorm clouds can blow wind in any and all directions, said Jonathan Pangburn, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if there’s not lightning per se, it is very much a safety-watch-out environment for our firefighters out there,” Pangburn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walbrun said there was little prospect of beneficial rains from the storms and the forecast for next week calls for continued warming and drying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we look forward in time, we’re really just entering the peak of fire season in California,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Park Fire is among almost 100 large fires burning across the western U.S. Evacuation orders were in effect for 28 of the fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-colorado-105e2106e0d65d9ea85888c9fa8e8890\">burned in Colorado\u003c/a> on Friday near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver, with some 30 structures damaged or destroyed, thousands of people under evacuation orders and human remains found in a destroyed house earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office disclosed Friday that a blaze threatening hundreds of homes near the Colorado city of Littleton was being \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-evacuations-oregon-california-canada-1809c690e8902a4578c9f4286949550d\">investigated as arson\u003c/a>. Karlyn Tilley, a spokesperson for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said the investigation is ongoing and they are using a dog specially trained to sniff out sources and causes of fires. Tilley said just because they suspect the fire was human-caused doesn’t mean it was intentional. Firefighters were making good progress on the fire despite the steep, rocky terrain and blistering heat, and no houses had been burned, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause and origin of a fatal blaze west of the town of Lyons was being probed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with specially trained fire investigators from the agency helping local authorities, agency spokesperson Crystal McCoy said. The area blackened by that fire remained relatively unchanged after it burned five houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest of the Colorado fires, west of Loveland, grew to 13 square miles after previously burning about two dozen homes and other structures. Its cause is under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooler weather was expected across the region Friday with some scattered showers, before hot dry conditions return for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new fire sparked Friday afternoon in Oregon’s high desert, near the popular vacation destination of Bend, prompting evacuation notices, cutting power to thousands and slowing traffic along a highway. Fire officials said the blaze spread quickly amid 100-degree heat and a warning from the National Weather Service about the potential for extreme fire behavior. Multiple agencies stopped the fire’s forward progression as of Friday evening, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/wildfire-season-2024-firefighters-climate-653890235089c9fc7b5aacf2e4c66fd7\">climate change warms\u003c/a> the planet and droughts become more severe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Chevron will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas, the company announced Friday, finalizing a move that many expected for years as California has sought to crack down on the burning of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy giant, which traces its roots to 1870s San Francisco, sold its headquarters complex in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch two years ago. Now, it reports that more than 7,000 of its workers are in the Houston area, while 2,000 remain in San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s top two executives will be the first to relocate to Texas by the end of the year, and all corporate functions are slated to move there over the next five years, the company said in a press release. It plans to keep employees supporting its California operations — including refineries, oil fields and gas stations — in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and other elected leaders have long blamed Chevron as a major contributor to climate change. It is one of several oil companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961542/it-is-time-they-pay-california-sues-big-oil-over-decades-of-damage-and-deception\">the state sued\u003c/a> last year over climate-related issues, and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981762/major-richmond-refinery-accidents-settled-as-part-of-chevron-deal\">Richmond refinery\u003c/a> is a continuing target of both official and unofficial air pollution complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Republicans blamed the company’s move on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fight against the oil industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an entirely predictable consequence of Gavin Newsom’s constant demonization of the companies California depends on for energy, jobs and tax revenue,” Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. “As Californians continue to struggle with the highest gas prices and unemployment of any state in the nation, they know they are paying the price for Newsom’s political stunts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Council, a regional group of business leaders, issued a statement accusing California elected leaders of driving industry away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chasing jobs and employers out of California is no way to run the economy,” said Jim Wunderman, the council’s president and CEO. “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "All of Chevron’s corporate functions are slated to move to the Houston area over the next five years, though workers supporting California refineries and oil fields will stay in the East Bay.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Chevron will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas, the company announced Friday, finalizing a move that many expected for years as California has sought to crack down on the burning of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy giant, which traces its roots to 1870s San Francisco, sold its headquarters complex in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch two years ago. Now, it reports that more than 7,000 of its workers are in the Houston area, while 2,000 remain in San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s top two executives will be the first to relocate to Texas by the end of the year, and all corporate functions are slated to move there over the next five years, the company said in a press release. It plans to keep employees supporting its California operations — including refineries, oil fields and gas stations — in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and other elected leaders have long blamed Chevron as a major contributor to climate change. It is one of several oil companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961542/it-is-time-they-pay-california-sues-big-oil-over-decades-of-damage-and-deception\">the state sued\u003c/a> last year over climate-related issues, and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981762/major-richmond-refinery-accidents-settled-as-part-of-chevron-deal\">Richmond refinery\u003c/a> is a continuing target of both official and unofficial air pollution complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Republicans blamed the company’s move on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fight against the oil industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an entirely predictable consequence of Gavin Newsom’s constant demonization of the companies California depends on for energy, jobs and tax revenue,” Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. “As Californians continue to struggle with the highest gas prices and unemployment of any state in the nation, they know they are paying the price for Newsom’s political stunts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Council, a regional group of business leaders, issued a statement accusing California elected leaders of driving industry away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chasing jobs and employers out of California is no way to run the economy,” said Jim Wunderman, the council’s president and CEO. “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "park-fire-jeopardizes-californias-iconic-spring-run-chinook-salmon",
"title": "Park Fire Could Deal 'Final Death Blow' to California's Endangered Spring-Run Chinook Salmon",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">fifth-largest wildfire\u003c/a> is encroaching on some of the last strongholds for imperiled salmon, potentially devastating a species already on the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The explosive \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADM7b5fnW3mGXtExwmDCEiUAs79MF&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X5DbAkFK6qHOxZ4XVHXMv4B_ZnIYhxYUJf5o0jmOChQNE1AKz38MYhoCpUIQAvD_BwE\">Park Fire\u003c/a> has spread into the \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Mill-Creek\">Mill\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Deer-Creek\">Deer Creek watersheds\u003c/a> in Tehama County, which are two of the three remaining creeks where wild, independent populations of spring-run Chinook, a threatened species, still spawn in the Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the Park Fire climbs to higher altitudes, federal and state officials said it could strike the final death blow to the region’s spring-run salmon, which are already at risk of extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really concerning. It’s really sad. Spring-run Chinook populations have taken such a hit over the past few years, and they’re just at a critically low point,” said Howard Brown, senior policy adviser with the Central Valley office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast fisheries region. “The emotional toll of seeing a fire like this hit such an important place, with (critically at-risk) populations that are suffering so bad, it just feels like the cards are stacked up deeply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are anxiously awaiting the wildfire’s next move, hoping that it doesn’t spread farther into higher elevations. That’s where adult salmon wait in cool pools for water temperatures to drop and flows to rise so they can spawn and where year-old juveniles gain strength before migrating to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re kind of at the mercy of the weather and wind to see if these fires creep along doing beneficial to less-severe things, or if we see a big run that really cooks the watershed,” said Matt Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Northern Region Anadromous Fisheries Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The species is at real risk of extirpation or blinking out. We hope that doesn’t happen,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flames are not the primary, immediate threat. The spring-fed streams are moving so fast that ash in the water will quickly wash away, according to wildlife officials. Instead, firefighting efforts could pose a direct threat to the waterways, including the use of fire retardant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/fire/wfcs/documents/2021%20EcoRA-Retardants-Nov2021-final.pdf#page=%5B13%5D\">which is toxic to fish\u003c/a>, though experts say it’s a necessary tradeoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The important thing right now is to just try to stop it on the head, so it doesn’t burn up these really precious watersheds,” Brown said.\u003cem> “\u003c/em>The next few days will be pretty telling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most severe damage could come later this year — if \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/10/california-wildfires-unsafe-drinking-water/\">heavy rains wash ash, chemicals and sediment from the burn scar into the creeks\u003c/a>. Too much sediment can smother the eggs and baby fish or spark a microbial bloom that sucks oxygen from the water. Larger debris flows also could scour the waterways and fill in holding pools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like liquid cement coming down the river channel,” said Steve Lindley, director of fisheries ecology at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center lab. “It just scours the river down to the bedrock, and everything in it is crushed and ground up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, flash floods sent debris from Siskiyou County’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/7/29/mckinney-fire\">McKinney Fire\u003c/a> into the Klamath River, where the Karuk Tribe reported a devastating fish kill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protected by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/central-valley-spring-run-chinook-salmon#:~:text=The%20Central%20Valley%20spring%2Drun,under%20the%20Endangered%20Species%20Act.\">nation’s Endangered Species Act since 1999\u003c/a>, Central Valley spring-run Chinook have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">experienced catastrophic declines\u003c/a>, reaching record lows last year with only \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=84381&inline\">16 adults returning to spawn in Deer Creek and 34 to Mill Creek\u003c/a>. These populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">warned earlier this year,\u003c/a> “are now at high risk of extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To see really big, hot fires like this move into what used to be their strongholds — it’s really a tough thing to witness,” Brown said. “Right now, it feels like the frontlines of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-salmon-are-really-struggling\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Salmon ‘are really struggling’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Spring-run Chinook salmon were once the cornerstone of California’s commercial fishery, with \u003ca href=\"https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1577/1548-8675%281998%29018%3C0487%3AHAADOC%3E2.0.CO%3B2\">more than half a million fish caught in 1883 alone\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California’s big dam era in the 20th century also sparked \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/01/california-salmon-newsom-plan/\">a massive decline of spring-run Chinook\u003c/a>, one of the four runs of salmon named for the season when they return to freshwater to spawn. The dams cut off \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2024/03/california-salmon-restrictions-ban-2024/\">critical upstream spawning habitat, shifted the timing of flows\u003c/a> and degraded downstream waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, nearly all of the Central Valley’s spring-run populations are gone. The remaining ones are largely confined to the northern Sacramento Valley, where Mill and Deer Creeks provide some of the last high-quality, high-elevation habitat for the species, as well as for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/california-central-valley-steelhead\">threatened Central Valley steelhead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both are \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/about-us/sacramento-river-basin-california\">tributaries to the Sacramento River\u003c/a>. Born in Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mill Creek flows through forests and meadows before dropping through a steep rock canyon into the Sacramento Valley, where it meets the Sacramento River. Deer Creek emerges near the summit of Butt Mountain, flowing 60 miles before it reaches the valley floor and stretches another 11 miles to join the Sacramento River near Vina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deer and Mill Creeks have always represented this exceptional habitat piece for salmon,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, despite that great habitat, the fish populations are really struggling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">the number of returning adults was so low that scientists described it as \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/state-and-federal-fish-agencies-take-urgent-actions-to-save-spring-run-chinook-salmon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a cohort collapse\u003c/a>—\u003c/span>meaning there were too few to successfully produce a new generation. The catastrophic declines prompted state and federal wildlife agencies to begin \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-safeguard-spring-run-chinook-salmon-broodstock\">a conservation hatchery program at UC Davis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program was in response to the “threat that this species could blink out because nothing would return in subsequent years. So the captive brood population is like a little insurance plan or bank account of genetic material,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so few returning adults, a hit to the next generation from the Park Fire could be catastrophic. Johnson said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/7/13/dixie-fire/updates/697a2a02-5e2a-4454-af9d-2107e4e08f7a\">after the Dixie Fire in 2021\u003c/a>, he saw the first rains of the season turn \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/visit-after-dixie-fire.htm\">Mill Creek black with runoff\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The adults returning this year are from that Dixie Fire cohort, and we’re looking at preliminary very low returns,” Johnson said. Though he doesn’t have the evidence yet to back it up, the fire “could be a contributing factor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State wildlife officials warned water regulators in February that fish \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">have been in steep decline since 2015 (PDF)\u003c/a> — in part \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Deer-Creek\">because agricultural water diversions\u003c/a> from the lower rivers frequently drain the creeks. They urged the State Water Resources Control Board to set minimum water levels that must flow through the creeks to protect fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Historical water diversion and water use practices have long been out of balance with ecological needs on these critical watersheds,” Tina Bartlett, regional manager of the northern region, wrote to the water board. In recent years, climate change and frequent droughts have amplified the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board staff are \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/mill-deer-antelope-creeks.html#:~:text=Mill%2C%20Deer%2C%20and%20Antelope%20Creeks%20are%20tributaries%20to%20the%20Sacramento,%2C%20Steelhead%2C%20and%20Pacific%20Lamprey.\">reviewing the recommendations\u003c/a>, according to spokesperson Ailene Voisin.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-eggs-and-young-fish-could-be-smothered\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eggs and young fish could be smothered\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Because of the fire, state wildlife officials cannot survey the number of adult salmon that returned this year, Johnson said. However, preliminary estimates for this year remain very low, prompting alarm from scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a really bad year last year. We had a really bad year this year,” said Andrew Rypel, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. “Say we wipe out this cohort. Salmon are on a three-year lifecycle. That’s starting to look like the anatomy of an extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">wildfire\u003c/a> is not an imminent threat to adults who are in the creeks right now, Johnson said. The creeks have abundant cool water, and as of Monday, the fire was not affecting flow or temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What this fire represents, if it were to consume the habitat in the upper watersheds, is a degradation of that habitat. It’s just another hit to the species that’s already struggling,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these fire-prone landscapes, low-intensity fires can be beneficial. Some sediment in the water can help hide juveniles from predators. Downed trees in the stream can create fish habitats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Johnson and others are concerned about the heat and intensity of the fire. If the first rain events send mud and ash flooding into the creeks, the eggs or juveniles could be smothered by the sediment or suffocate if oxygen levels plummet. Chemicals could degrade the water quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said that these hot fires could reshape this wild, remote landscape. Recent studies show that the one-two punch of climate change and severe fires can change \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2208120120\">which plants return\u003c/a> to a fire-scoured region.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Denuded slopes are primed for erosion, and the loss of tree cover could allow these vital, cool stretches of river to warm in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, my greatest concern is the fire moving any further up Mill and Deer Creek. A hot fire blowup could have devastating ecological consequences for the watershed health of these streams,” he said. “The watersheds and the salmon are irreplaceable resources in the state of California, and they are almost gone. This hurts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The fire is moving into areas where salmon are waiting to spawn. Already in dire shape, experts worry that the Park Fire could push these fish to extinction.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">fifth-largest wildfire\u003c/a> is encroaching on some of the last strongholds for imperiled salmon, potentially devastating a species already on the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The explosive \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADM7b5fnW3mGXtExwmDCEiUAs79MF&gclid=CjwKCAjwnqK1BhBvEiwAi7o0X5DbAkFK6qHOxZ4XVHXMv4B_ZnIYhxYUJf5o0jmOChQNE1AKz38MYhoCpUIQAvD_BwE\">Park Fire\u003c/a> has spread into the \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Mill-Creek\">Mill\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Deer-Creek\">Deer Creek watersheds\u003c/a> in Tehama County, which are two of the three remaining creeks where wild, independent populations of spring-run Chinook, a threatened species, still spawn in the Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the Park Fire climbs to higher altitudes, federal and state officials said it could strike the final death blow to the region’s spring-run salmon, which are already at risk of extinction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really concerning. It’s really sad. Spring-run Chinook populations have taken such a hit over the past few years, and they’re just at a critically low point,” said Howard Brown, senior policy adviser with the Central Valley office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast fisheries region. “The emotional toll of seeing a fire like this hit such an important place, with (critically at-risk) populations that are suffering so bad, it just feels like the cards are stacked up deeply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are anxiously awaiting the wildfire’s next move, hoping that it doesn’t spread farther into higher elevations. That’s where adult salmon wait in cool pools for water temperatures to drop and flows to rise so they can spawn and where year-old juveniles gain strength before migrating to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re kind of at the mercy of the weather and wind to see if these fires creep along doing beneficial to less-severe things, or if we see a big run that really cooks the watershed,” said Matt Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Northern Region Anadromous Fisheries Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The species is at real risk of extirpation or blinking out. We hope that doesn’t happen,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flames are not the primary, immediate threat. The spring-fed streams are moving so fast that ash in the water will quickly wash away, according to wildlife officials. Instead, firefighting efforts could pose a direct threat to the waterways, including the use of fire retardant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/fire/wfcs/documents/2021%20EcoRA-Retardants-Nov2021-final.pdf#page=%5B13%5D\">which is toxic to fish\u003c/a>, though experts say it’s a necessary tradeoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The important thing right now is to just try to stop it on the head, so it doesn’t burn up these really precious watersheds,” Brown said.\u003cem> “\u003c/em>The next few days will be pretty telling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most severe damage could come later this year — if \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/10/california-wildfires-unsafe-drinking-water/\">heavy rains wash ash, chemicals and sediment from the burn scar into the creeks\u003c/a>. Too much sediment can smother the eggs and baby fish or spark a microbial bloom that sucks oxygen from the water. Larger debris flows also could scour the waterways and fill in holding pools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like liquid cement coming down the river channel,” said Steve Lindley, director of fisheries ecology at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center lab. “It just scours the river down to the bedrock, and everything in it is crushed and ground up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, flash floods sent debris from Siskiyou County’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/7/29/mckinney-fire\">McKinney Fire\u003c/a> into the Klamath River, where the Karuk Tribe reported a devastating fish kill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protected by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/central-valley-spring-run-chinook-salmon#:~:text=The%20Central%20Valley%20spring%2Drun,under%20the%20Endangered%20Species%20Act.\">nation’s Endangered Species Act since 1999\u003c/a>, Central Valley spring-run Chinook have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">experienced catastrophic declines\u003c/a>, reaching record lows last year with only \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=84381&inline\">16 adults returning to spawn in Deer Creek and 34 to Mill Creek\u003c/a>. These populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">warned earlier this year,\u003c/a> “are now at high risk of extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To see really big, hot fires like this move into what used to be their strongholds — it’s really a tough thing to witness,” Brown said. “Right now, it feels like the frontlines of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-salmon-are-really-struggling\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Salmon ‘are really struggling’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Spring-run Chinook salmon were once the cornerstone of California’s commercial fishery, with \u003ca href=\"https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1577/1548-8675%281998%29018%3C0487%3AHAADOC%3E2.0.CO%3B2\">more than half a million fish caught in 1883 alone\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California’s big dam era in the 20th century also sparked \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/01/california-salmon-newsom-plan/\">a massive decline of spring-run Chinook\u003c/a>, one of the four runs of salmon named for the season when they return to freshwater to spawn. The dams cut off \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2024/03/california-salmon-restrictions-ban-2024/\">critical upstream spawning habitat, shifted the timing of flows\u003c/a> and degraded downstream waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, nearly all of the Central Valley’s spring-run populations are gone. The remaining ones are largely confined to the northern Sacramento Valley, where Mill and Deer Creeks provide some of the last high-quality, high-elevation habitat for the species, as well as for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/california-central-valley-steelhead\">threatened Central Valley steelhead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both are \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/about-us/sacramento-river-basin-california\">tributaries to the Sacramento River\u003c/a>. Born in Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mill Creek flows through forests and meadows before dropping through a steep rock canyon into the Sacramento Valley, where it meets the Sacramento River. Deer Creek emerges near the summit of Butt Mountain, flowing 60 miles before it reaches the valley floor and stretches another 11 miles to join the Sacramento River near Vina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deer and Mill Creeks have always represented this exceptional habitat piece for salmon,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, despite that great habitat, the fish populations are really struggling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">the number of returning adults was so low that scientists described it as \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/state-and-federal-fish-agencies-take-urgent-actions-to-save-spring-run-chinook-salmon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a cohort collapse\u003c/a>—\u003c/span>meaning there were too few to successfully produce a new generation. The catastrophic declines prompted state and federal wildlife agencies to begin \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-safeguard-spring-run-chinook-salmon-broodstock\">a conservation hatchery program at UC Davis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program was in response to the “threat that this species could blink out because nothing would return in subsequent years. So the captive brood population is like a little insurance plan or bank account of genetic material,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so few returning adults, a hit to the next generation from the Park Fire could be catastrophic. Johnson said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/7/13/dixie-fire/updates/697a2a02-5e2a-4454-af9d-2107e4e08f7a\">after the Dixie Fire in 2021\u003c/a>, he saw the first rains of the season turn \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/visit-after-dixie-fire.htm\">Mill Creek black with runoff\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The adults returning this year are from that Dixie Fire cohort, and we’re looking at preliminary very low returns,” Johnson said. Though he doesn’t have the evidence yet to back it up, the fire “could be a contributing factor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State wildlife officials warned water regulators in February that fish \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/2024.04.16-revised-cdfw-ltr.pdf\">have been in steep decline since 2015 (PDF)\u003c/a> — in part \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Drought/Projects/Deer-Creek\">because agricultural water diversions\u003c/a> from the lower rivers frequently drain the creeks. They urged the State Water Resources Control Board to set minimum water levels that must flow through the creeks to protect fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Historical water diversion and water use practices have long been out of balance with ecological needs on these critical watersheds,” Tina Bartlett, regional manager of the northern region, wrote to the water board. In recent years, climate change and frequent droughts have amplified the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board staff are \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/mill-deer-antelope-creeks.html#:~:text=Mill%2C%20Deer%2C%20and%20Antelope%20Creeks%20are%20tributaries%20to%20the%20Sacramento,%2C%20Steelhead%2C%20and%20Pacific%20Lamprey.\">reviewing the recommendations\u003c/a>, according to spokesperson Ailene Voisin.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-eggs-and-young-fish-could-be-smothered\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eggs and young fish could be smothered\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Because of the fire, state wildlife officials cannot survey the number of adult salmon that returned this year, Johnson said. However, preliminary estimates for this year remain very low, prompting alarm from scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a really bad year last year. We had a really bad year this year,” said Andrew Rypel, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. “Say we wipe out this cohort. Salmon are on a three-year lifecycle. That’s starting to look like the anatomy of an extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">wildfire\u003c/a> is not an imminent threat to adults who are in the creeks right now, Johnson said. The creeks have abundant cool water, and as of Monday, the fire was not affecting flow or temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What this fire represents, if it were to consume the habitat in the upper watersheds, is a degradation of that habitat. It’s just another hit to the species that’s already struggling,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these fire-prone landscapes, low-intensity fires can be beneficial. Some sediment in the water can help hide juveniles from predators. Downed trees in the stream can create fish habitats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Johnson and others are concerned about the heat and intensity of the fire. If the first rain events send mud and ash flooding into the creeks, the eggs or juveniles could be smothered by the sediment or suffocate if oxygen levels plummet. Chemicals could degrade the water quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said that these hot fires could reshape this wild, remote landscape. Recent studies show that the one-two punch of climate change and severe fires can change \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2208120120\">which plants return\u003c/a> to a fire-scoured region.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Denuded slopes are primed for erosion, and the loss of tree cover could allow these vital, cool stretches of river to warm in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, my greatest concern is the fire moving any further up Mill and Deer Creek. A hot fire blowup could have devastating ecological consequences for the watershed health of these streams,” he said. “The watersheds and the salmon are irreplaceable resources in the state of California, and they are almost gone. This hurts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "toilet-paper-and-flat-tires-the-strange-ways-that-californians-ignite-wildfires",
"title": "Flat Tires and Toilet Paper: Bizarre Human Flubs Are at the Root of Most Big Wildfires in California",
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"headTitle": "Flat Tires and Toilet Paper: Bizarre Human Flubs Are at the Root of Most Big Wildfires in California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Of all the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/park-fire-california-wildfires/\">insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters\u003c/a> — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People do dangerous things, things that start \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">wildfires.\u003c/a> Pushing a burning car into a gully. Mowing the lawn on a hot summer day. Mis-wiring a hot tub. Driving cars with flat tires. Burning toilet paper rather than packing it out of a campsite. Setting off smoke bombs at gender reveal parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hot, dry conditions already primed for fire, people’s actions can quickly escalate from a harmless mistake — such as hammering a metal stake into the parched ground — to igniting a blaze that kills a firefighter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People — whether purposeful, reckless or simply careless — are responsible for about 95% of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/\">California’s wildfires\u003c/a>. Last year alone, people caused \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/human-caused\">more than 7,000 wildfires\u003c/a> in California; nationally, it was more than 50,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Humans are incredibly predictable,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna said. “They drag chains, and they leave campfires to burn or they have a flat tire but think they can \u003cem>juuust \u003c/em>make it to the next exit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s people not using appropriate judgment,” he added. “They are not looking at what they are doing and whether or not it’s going to start a fire. I believe in the ability of humans to recognize what is not in their best interest, but people constantly prove me wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add to the list the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, a fierce fire raging across 600 square miles in four Sacramento Valley counties that is already the fifth \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">largest in California history (PDF)\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.buttecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/13770/July-25-2024---CHICO-MAN-ARRESTED-FOR-PARK-FIRE-ARSON---UPDATE\">Butte County authorities (PDF) \u003c/a>arrested a 42-year-old Chico man suspected of pushing a burning vehicle into a ravine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human action, tragically, also may have caused the 57,300-acre \u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.fs2c.usda.gov/incident-information/casqf-borel-fire\">Borel Fire in Kern County\u003c/a>, which began last week on the side of Highway 178, possibly sparked when a vehicle crashed, killing the driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a summer of severe fires, with dangerous lightning storms possible in the coming weeks, authorities wish people would stop doing stupid stuff. Nature doesn’t need any help starting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would include the man accused of driving his truck for more than four miles, minus a front tire, in Sonoma County last week. The metal scraping on the road sparked the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/flora-fire\">Flora Fire\u003c/a>, a small blaze east of Healdsburg. The fire was contained last Sunday and a suspect is in custody. Cal Fire lists the cause as “vehicle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar maneuver started the 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/7/23/carr-fire\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> near Redding. The fire, which killed three people fighting the fire and five civilians and burned nearly 230,000 acres, was ignited by a spark caused by someone driving a trailer with a flat tire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another major human cause is related to institutions — the power utilities — rather than reckless individuals. “Since 2015, \u003ca href=\"https://information.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-117.pdf\">power lines (PDF)\u003c/a> have caused six of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires,” according to a 2022 report from the State Auditor’s office. \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-destructive-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=9e4974c273274858880c2dd28292a96f&hash=29E21CBFCE8D9885F606246607D21CEB\">California’s most deadly fire (PDF)\u003c/a>, the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, was started by arcing transmission lines whipped by high winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural causes still play a significant role, especially \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/09/california-fires-lightning/\">lightning, which could become an even bigger threat due to climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-intentional-arson-is-rare-in-wildfires\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Intentional arson is rare in wildfires\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Arsonists purposefully setting fires is not common, accounting for about 10% of California fires, depending on the year. Last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact\">111 people were arrested for arson-caused fires\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of human-caused fires fall into the unofficial category of people being knuckleheads: Folks doing something they think is safe or, absent any thinking, something they come to regret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few examples:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A smoke bomb at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/couple-gender-reveal-party-wildfire-charged\">gender-reveal party\u003c/a> sparked the deadly 2020 El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which killed a firefighter and cost $42 million to suppress.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A person using a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/4/french-fire\">lawnmower\u003c/a> in Mariposa County caused the French Fire on July 4.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/fire/about/majorfires/2003cedar\">Starting a fire to signal for help\u003c/a>, a hunter inadvertently started the 2003 Cedar Fire near San Diego, which burned 280,278 acres, destroyed 2,820 buildings and killed 15 people.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2015/9/12/valley-fire\">Faulty wiring on a hot tub\u003c/a> in 2015 ignited a fire that burned for longer than a month in Lake County.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2017/7/16/detwiler-fire\">Weapons fired in the backcountry\u003c/a> started the 2017 Detwiler Fire, destroying 134 structures and threatening Yosemite National Park. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2008/7/25/telegraph-fire/\">The same cause in the same area\u003c/a> sparked the Telegraph Fire nine years earlier.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A homeowner attempting to install a shade cloth on his property \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/7/27/ranch-fire-mendocino-complex\">used a hammer to drive a metal stake into the ground\u003c/a>. The sparks set off the Ranch Fire, which killed a firefighter and burned more than 410,000 acres in Colusa, Glenn, Lake and Mendocino counties in 2018.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Throw into the mix: escaped Mylar balloons sparking utility lines, unattended campfires, Weedwackers, cigarette butts tossed out of car windows, trains, backyard fireworks. It’s a wonder that the state doesn’t burn down every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dispatching crews to human-caused fires takes resources away from the fires that nature creates, said Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The answer is to use common sense,” she said. “It’s important not to place blame, but if you have a flat tire and you are 500 feet from the gas station, you may want to push (the car instead.) Think about it in the bigger picture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freeman said a particular numbskull decision she’s seen is, evidently, common: backcountry campers setting fire to used toilet paper so they don’t have to pack it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-vehicles-lawn-equipment-are-leading-causes-of-wildfires\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vehicles, lawn equipment are leading causes of wildfires\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The unsung reason is parking on dry grass. It’s common,” she said. “People pull up to a river access and see all these cars parked on the same strip you are parked on. What do you do? You park there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California firefighters respond to countless brush fires every summer that were started by a hot tailpipe making contact with high and dry grasses next to a road. The flammability of grasses is so well known that even those in the fire service are on guard not to spark fires when they use or move equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually start fires while fighting fires,” Freeman said, noting that heavy-duty fire engines and other fire vehicles can kick up rocks and cause sparks. “You are moving your dozers to respond to a fire, you have to be very careful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Winnacker, fire chief of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mofd.org/our-district/district-overview/fire-chief\">Moraga-Orinda Fire District\u003c/a> east of Berkeley, said human-caused fires commonly involve using equipment outdoors unsafely and vehicle accidents. His department operates a rigorous fire awareness program but sometimes education and warnings are not enough. In June, the fire district instituted a near-total \u003ca href=\"https://www.mofd.org/our-district/fuels-mitigation-fire-prevention/burn-ban-status#:~:text=What%20is%20banned%3F,or%20NG)%20outdoor%20flame%20devices.\">outdoor fire ban\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many California counties suggest mowing grass early in the day or late afternoon, but it’s not mandatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We rely on our education and spreading the word. At the end of the day, some people are going to get it and some are not,” said Andy VanSciver, public information officer for the \u003ca href=\"https://vcfd.org/fire-hazard-reduction-program-fhrp/\">Ventura County Fire Department.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Californians trigger thousands of wildfires every year with poor choices and reckless behavior. The Park Fire, ignited by a man pushing a burning car, was one.",
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"title": "Flat Tires and Toilet Paper: Bizarre Human Flubs Are at the Root of Most Big Wildfires in California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Of all the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/park-fire-california-wildfires/\">insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters\u003c/a> — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People do dangerous things, things that start \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/wildfires/\">wildfires.\u003c/a> Pushing a burning car into a gully. Mowing the lawn on a hot summer day. Mis-wiring a hot tub. Driving cars with flat tires. Burning toilet paper rather than packing it out of a campsite. Setting off smoke bombs at gender reveal parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hot, dry conditions already primed for fire, people’s actions can quickly escalate from a harmless mistake — such as hammering a metal stake into the parched ground — to igniting a blaze that kills a firefighter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People — whether purposeful, reckless or simply careless — are responsible for about 95% of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-wildfire-map-tracker/\">California’s wildfires\u003c/a>. Last year alone, people caused \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/human-caused\">more than 7,000 wildfires\u003c/a> in California; nationally, it was more than 50,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Humans are incredibly predictable,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna said. “They drag chains, and they leave campfires to burn or they have a flat tire but think they can \u003cem>juuust \u003c/em>make it to the next exit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s people not using appropriate judgment,” he added. “They are not looking at what they are doing and whether or not it’s going to start a fire. I believe in the ability of humans to recognize what is not in their best interest, but people constantly prove me wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add to the list the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">Park Fire\u003c/a>, a fierce fire raging across 600 square miles in four Sacramento Valley counties that is already the fifth \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">largest in California history (PDF)\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.buttecounty.net/DocumentCenter/View/13770/July-25-2024---CHICO-MAN-ARRESTED-FOR-PARK-FIRE-ARSON---UPDATE\">Butte County authorities (PDF) \u003c/a>arrested a 42-year-old Chico man suspected of pushing a burning vehicle into a ravine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human action, tragically, also may have caused the 57,300-acre \u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.fs2c.usda.gov/incident-information/casqf-borel-fire\">Borel Fire in Kern County\u003c/a>, which began last week on the side of Highway 178, possibly sparked when a vehicle crashed, killing the driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a summer of severe fires, with dangerous lightning storms possible in the coming weeks, authorities wish people would stop doing stupid stuff. Nature doesn’t need any help starting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would include the man accused of driving his truck for more than four miles, minus a front tire, in Sonoma County last week. The metal scraping on the road sparked the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/flora-fire\">Flora Fire\u003c/a>, a small blaze east of Healdsburg. The fire was contained last Sunday and a suspect is in custody. Cal Fire lists the cause as “vehicle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar maneuver started the 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/7/23/carr-fire\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> near Redding. The fire, which killed three people fighting the fire and five civilians and burned nearly 230,000 acres, was ignited by a spark caused by someone driving a trailer with a flat tire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another major human cause is related to institutions — the power utilities — rather than reckless individuals. “Since 2015, \u003ca href=\"https://information.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-117.pdf\">power lines (PDF)\u003c/a> have caused six of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires,” according to a 2022 report from the State Auditor’s office. \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-destructive-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=9e4974c273274858880c2dd28292a96f&hash=29E21CBFCE8D9885F606246607D21CEB\">California’s most deadly fire (PDF)\u003c/a>, the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, was started by arcing transmission lines whipped by high winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural causes still play a significant role, especially \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/09/california-fires-lightning/\">lightning, which could become an even bigger threat due to climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-intentional-arson-is-rare-in-wildfires\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Intentional arson is rare in wildfires\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Arsonists purposefully setting fires is not common, accounting for about 10% of California fires, depending on the year. Last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact\">111 people were arrested for arson-caused fires\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of human-caused fires fall into the unofficial category of people being knuckleheads: Folks doing something they think is safe or, absent any thinking, something they come to regret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few examples:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A smoke bomb at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/couple-gender-reveal-party-wildfire-charged\">gender-reveal party\u003c/a> sparked the deadly 2020 El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which killed a firefighter and cost $42 million to suppress.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A person using a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/4/french-fire\">lawnmower\u003c/a> in Mariposa County caused the French Fire on July 4.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiego.gov/fire/about/majorfires/2003cedar\">Starting a fire to signal for help\u003c/a>, a hunter inadvertently started the 2003 Cedar Fire near San Diego, which burned 280,278 acres, destroyed 2,820 buildings and killed 15 people.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2015/9/12/valley-fire\">Faulty wiring on a hot tub\u003c/a> in 2015 ignited a fire that burned for longer than a month in Lake County.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2017/7/16/detwiler-fire\">Weapons fired in the backcountry\u003c/a> started the 2017 Detwiler Fire, destroying 134 structures and threatening Yosemite National Park. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2008/7/25/telegraph-fire/\">The same cause in the same area\u003c/a> sparked the Telegraph Fire nine years earlier.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A homeowner attempting to install a shade cloth on his property \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/7/27/ranch-fire-mendocino-complex\">used a hammer to drive a metal stake into the ground\u003c/a>. The sparks set off the Ranch Fire, which killed a firefighter and burned more than 410,000 acres in Colusa, Glenn, Lake and Mendocino counties in 2018.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Throw into the mix: escaped Mylar balloons sparking utility lines, unattended campfires, Weedwackers, cigarette butts tossed out of car windows, trains, backyard fireworks. It’s a wonder that the state doesn’t burn down every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dispatching crews to human-caused fires takes resources away from the fires that nature creates, said Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The answer is to use common sense,” she said. “It’s important not to place blame, but if you have a flat tire and you are 500 feet from the gas station, you may want to push (the car instead.) Think about it in the bigger picture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freeman said a particular numbskull decision she’s seen is, evidently, common: backcountry campers setting fire to used toilet paper so they don’t have to pack it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"h-vehicles-lawn-equipment-are-leading-causes-of-wildfires\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vehicles, lawn equipment are leading causes of wildfires\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The unsung reason is parking on dry grass. It’s common,” she said. “People pull up to a river access and see all these cars parked on the same strip you are parked on. What do you do? You park there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California firefighters respond to countless brush fires every summer that were started by a hot tailpipe making contact with high and dry grasses next to a road. The flammability of grasses is so well known that even those in the fire service are on guard not to spark fires when they use or move equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually start fires while fighting fires,” Freeman said, noting that heavy-duty fire engines and other fire vehicles can kick up rocks and cause sparks. “You are moving your dozers to respond to a fire, you have to be very careful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Winnacker, fire chief of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mofd.org/our-district/district-overview/fire-chief\">Moraga-Orinda Fire District\u003c/a> east of Berkeley, said human-caused fires commonly involve using equipment outdoors unsafely and vehicle accidents. His department operates a rigorous fire awareness program but sometimes education and warnings are not enough. In June, the fire district instituted a near-total \u003ca href=\"https://www.mofd.org/our-district/fuels-mitigation-fire-prevention/burn-ban-status#:~:text=What%20is%20banned%3F,or%20NG)%20outdoor%20flame%20devices.\">outdoor fire ban\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many California counties suggest mowing grass early in the day or late afternoon, but it’s not mandatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We rely on our education and spreading the word. At the end of the day, some people are going to get it and some are not,” said Andy VanSciver, public information officer for the \u003ca href=\"https://vcfd.org/fire-hazard-reduction-program-fhrp/\">Ventura County Fire Department.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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