window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"science_1984698": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984698",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984698",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984697,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-1038x576.png",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-160x90.png",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 90
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-672x372.png",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image.png",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-1020x574.png",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 574
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-1536x864.png",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 864
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-800x450.png",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 450
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/horizontal-image-768x432.png",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/png",
"height": 432
}
},
"publishDate": 1697238524,
"modified": 1697238524,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "horizontal image",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984596": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984596",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984596",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984593,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-160x108.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 108
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1290
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-1020x685.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 685
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-1536x1032.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1032
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-800x538.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 538
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1499051639-qut-768x516.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 516
}
},
"publishDate": 1696879875,
"modified": 1696963796,
"caption": "Marin County firefighters hike up a hill during a controlled burn training on June 16, 2023 in San Rafael. ",
"description": null,
"title": "California Firefighters Set Controlled Burns As Part Of Wildfire Training",
"credit": "Justin Sullivan/Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Firefighters in yellow jackets and helmets hike up a hill into a gray mist.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984516": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984516",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984516",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984507,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-160x90.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 90
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112.jpg",
"width": 2309,
"height": 1299
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-2048x1152.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1152
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-1020x574.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 574
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-1536x864.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 864
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-1920x1080.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1080
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-800x450.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 450
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1465073112-768x432.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 432
}
},
"publishDate": 1696533614,
"modified": 1696533735,
"caption": "Close-up shot of medical drug production line.",
"description": null,
"title": "Blue and white capsules on a conveyer belt",
"credit": "SweetBunFactory/Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Blue capsules on conveyor at a modern pharmaceutical factory.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984323": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984323",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984323",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984319,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2-1020x576.jpeg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2-160x120.jpeg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 120
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2-672x372.jpeg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2.jpeg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 765
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2-800x600.jpeg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 600
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765-2-768x576.jpeg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
}
},
"publishDate": 1695332320,
"modified": 1695334195,
"caption": "US Forest Service research ecologist Karen Pope crouches in a stream in Lower Grouse Meadow to demonstrate how dams capture sediment. As channels fill with sediment, they become shallower, allowing water to spread through meadows and preventing buildup within reservoirs and other infrastructure further downstream.",
"description": null,
"title": "meadows-6501b99c2e264-1020x765",
"credit": "Kerry Klein/KVPR",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "a woman in jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a hard hat, kneels in a puddle with trees in the background",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984300": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984300",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984300",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984299,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-160x120.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 120
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1920
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-2048x1536.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1536
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-1020x765.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 765
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-1536x1152.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1152
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-1920x1440.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1440
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-800x600.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 600
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-1258514923-d0f342ea312f778d880004356d38fea701661e61-768x576.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
}
},
"publishDate": 1695240918,
"modified": 1695252129,
"caption": "Smoky haze from wildfires in Canada obscures New York City's Empire State Building this year. The air in the US has improved over the past 50 years, but smoke pollution from growing wildfires erodes much of that progress.",
"description": null,
"title": "Smoky haze from wildfire",
"credit": "David Dee Delgado/Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Orange skies and smoke is seen in a city amongst buildings.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984231": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984231",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984231",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984229,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1705
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-2048x1364.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1364
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-1020x679.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 679
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-1536x1023.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1023
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-1920x1279.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1279
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_31_custom-6abe04048b5975f182a9e05de2107f72d9559663-768x511.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 511
}
},
"publishDate": 1694105137,
"modified": 1694125214,
"caption": "Charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees and chollas are seen at the edge of the York Fire in San Bernardino County, inside Mojave National Preserve.",
"description": null,
"title": "Charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees and chollas are seen at the edge of the York Fire in San Bernardino County, California, inside Mojave National Preserve.",
"credit": "Krystal Ramirez/NPR",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Dry landscape dotted with small burnt plants under a blue sky.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984217": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984217",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984217",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984216,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-160x110.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 110
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1756
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-2048x1405.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1405
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-1020x700.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 700
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-1536x1054.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1054
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-1920x1317.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1317
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-800x549.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 549
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/gettyimages-51998444_custom-e9b817e44683fb1f86e7c6926993066d3f8ca6b4-768x527.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 527
}
},
"publishDate": 1694017685,
"modified": 1694017894,
"caption": "As oceans get hotter, scientists are looking for ways to safeguard coral species so they can be used to restore reefs in the future.",
"description": null,
"title": "As oceans get hotter, scientists are looking for ways to safeguard coral species so they can be used to restore reefs in the future.",
"credit": "Donald Miralle/Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "A school of manini fish pass over a coral reef at Hanauma Bay on January 15, 2005 in Honolulu, Hawaii",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984164": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984164",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984164",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984149,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1280
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_03-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1693507819,
"modified": 1693528609,
"caption": "Ben Harrison (left) and Aaron Tuttle with the Karuk Tribal Fisheries Program, collect young salmon for tagging in Horse Creek along the Klamath River on July 18, 2023. The Karuk and Yurok tribes are anxiously awaiting a renewed river as the dams come down. ",
"description": null,
"title": null,
"credit": "Semantha Norris/CalMatters",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1984201": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1984201",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984201",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1984200,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-160x120.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 120
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1919
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-2048x1536.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1536
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-1020x765.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 765
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-1536x1152.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1152
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-1920x1440.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1440
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-800x600.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 600
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1059345734-3aa28c30849d6d8cf28cf28a35e947cb7bb5fc62-768x576.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
}
},
"publishDate": 1693523965,
"modified": 1693524111,
"caption": "Towering smoke plumes overshadowed California's town of Paradise as the Camp Fire raced through in 2018. More than 18,000 acres burned in a matter of hours.",
"description": null,
"title": "Camp Fire",
"credit": "Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "A home is overshadowed by towering smoke plumes.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1983984": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1983984",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983984",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1983983,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-160x106.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 106
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2.jpg",
"width": 1800,
"height": 1198
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-1020x679.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 679
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-1536x1022.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1022
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-800x532.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 532
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahiana-21_custom-dbc34c4bfa452d7771dcd89ba7e72ebd533f44b2-768x511.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 511
}
},
"publishDate": 1692383031,
"modified": 1692383275,
"caption": "Volunteers helping those who lost homes in Lahaina stop to pray on a hillside. The town is surrounded by dry, invasive grasses which are highly flammable.",
"description": null,
"title": "Maui Fires",
"credit": "Deanne Fitzmaurice for NPR",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "An image of three people embracing in a group hug. They are surrounded by dry grass with a backdrop of the blue ocean and skies.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1983910": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1983910",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983910",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1983909,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-160x120.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 120
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1920
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-2048x1536.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1536
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-1020x765.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 765
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-1536x1152.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1152
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-1920x1440.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1440
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-800x600.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 600
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1592922802-ee9a7912aae0457baa62c0f57266fbf4b3597969-768x576.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
}
},
"publishDate": 1692117639,
"modified": 1692124187,
"caption": "A wildfire in Maui destroyed the historic town of Lahaina and killed at least 99 people, making it the worst natural disaster in state history and the deadliest US wildfire in over a century.",
"description": null,
"title": "Wildfire in Maui",
"credit": "Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Two people look from a road above a town in the aftermath of a wildfire.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_1983791": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_1983791",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983791",
"found": true
},
"parent": 1983775,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1691172902,
"modified": 1691172916,
"caption": "Reddish-brown water can be seen in the Berkeley Marina on July 31, 2023, in what could be a potential red-tide algae bloom developing in the Bay.",
"description": null,
"title": "RS67419_230731-RedTideAlgae-15-BL-qut",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false,
"liveAudioPlayStartedAt": 0,
"liveAudioPlayContext": ""
},
"authorsReducer": {
"byline_science_1984507": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984507",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984507",
"name": "Betsy Ladyzhets",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1984299": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984299",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984299",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1193795778/alejandra-borunda\">Alejandra Borunda\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1984229": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984229",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984229",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/859339295/christopher-intagliata\">Christopher Intagliata\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1984216": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984216",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984216",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/803934365/lauren-sommer\">Lauren Sommer\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1984149": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984149",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984149",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/rachel-becker/\">Rachel Becker\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1984200": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1984200",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1984200",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1193795778/alejandra-borunda\">Alejandra Borunda\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1983983": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1983983",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1983983",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/803934365/lauren-sommer\">Lauren Sommer\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_science_1983909": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_science_1983909",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_science_1983909",
"name": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/776048102/rachel-treisman\">Rachel Treisman\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"ekelly": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "3211",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "3211",
"found": true
},
"name": "Erika Kelly",
"firstName": "Erika",
"lastName": "Kelly",
"slug": "ekelly",
"email": "ekelly@KQED.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news"
],
"title": "Deputy Managing Editor",
"bio": "Erika Kelly is deputy managing editor of KQED's newsroom, working with teams covering housing, climate, health, labor and the arts. Previously, she was the senior editor of KQED’s housing affordability desk, leading the team that produced the award winning podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and a native of the Greater Chicagoland Area.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3653973f475e2af06d52444628a0023a48f83905a9d7ce3a4e45e5ecebcb4230?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"bluesky": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Erika Kelly | KQED",
"description": "Deputy Managing Editor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3653973f475e2af06d52444628a0023a48f83905a9d7ce3a4e45e5ecebcb4230?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3653973f475e2af06d52444628a0023a48f83905a9d7ce3a4e45e5ecebcb4230?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/ekelly"
},
"dcronin": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11362",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11362",
"found": true
},
"name": "Dana Cronin",
"firstName": "Dana",
"lastName": "Cronin",
"slug": "dcronin",
"email": "dcronin@KQED.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": "Dana Cronin is a reporter for KQED News. She loves writing stories about climate change, environmental issues, food and agriculture. She's reported across the country, from Colorado to Washington D.C. to Illinois, and has won numerous awards for her coverage. Her work is regularly featured on national broadcasts, including NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, PBS Newshour and Science Friday. She lives in Oakland and has an avocado tree in her back yard.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bcf89e3455ff7235f96ab6fa7258dd95?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "DanaHCronin",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Dana Cronin | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bcf89e3455ff7235f96ab6fa7258dd95?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bcf89e3455ff7235f96ab6fa7258dd95?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/dcronin"
},
"kevinstark": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11608",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11608",
"found": true
},
"name": "Kevin Stark",
"firstName": "Kevin",
"lastName": "Stark",
"slug": "kevinstark",
"email": "kstark@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"science"
],
"title": "Senior Editor",
"bio": "Kevin is a senior editor for KQED Science, managing the station's health and climate desks. His journalism career began in the Pacific Northwest, and he later became a lead reporter for the San Francisco Public Press. His work has appeared in Pacific Standard magazine, the Energy News Network, the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal and WBEZ in Chicago. Kevin joined KQED in 2019, and has covered issues related to energy, wildfire, climate change and the environment.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1f646bf546a63d638e04ff23b52b0e79?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "starkkev",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Kevin Stark | KQED",
"description": "Senior Editor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1f646bf546a63d638e04ff23b52b0e79?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1f646bf546a63d638e04ff23b52b0e79?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kevinstark"
},
"smohamad": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11631",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11631",
"found": true
},
"name": "Sarah Mohamad",
"firstName": "Sarah",
"lastName": "Mohamad",
"slug": "smohamad",
"email": "smohamad@KQED.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "Engagement Producer and Reporter, KQED Science",
"bio": "Sarah Mohamad is an audience engagement reporter and producer for KQED Science. She reports on audience-focused science and environment stories and manages the team's social media, newsletter, and engagement efforts. Prior to this role, she played a key role as project manager for NSF's \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/crackingthecode\">\u003cem>Cracking the Code: Influencing Millennial Science Engagement\u003c/em> \u003c/a>audience research.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6224957cd82d015183756ddde1f928013a563d7ca2e4565f8c4de1ec64886c5?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "sarahkmohamad",
"bluesky": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "about",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Sarah Mohamad | KQED",
"description": "Engagement Producer and Reporter, KQED Science",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6224957cd82d015183756ddde1f928013a563d7ca2e4565f8c4de1ec64886c5?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6224957cd82d015183756ddde1f928013a563d7ca2e4565f8c4de1ec64886c5?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/smohamad"
},
"eromero": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11746",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11746",
"found": true
},
"name": "Ezra David Romero",
"firstName": "Ezra David",
"lastName": "Romero",
"slug": "eromero",
"email": "eromero@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news",
"science"
],
"title": "Climate Reporter",
"bio": "Ezra David Romero is a climate reporter for KQED News. He covers the absence and excess of water in the Bay Area — think sea level rise, flooding and drought. For nearly a decade he’s covered how warming temperatures are altering the lives of Californians. He’s reported on farmers worried their pistachio trees aren’t getting enough sleep, families desperate for water, scientists studying dying giant sequoias, and alongside firefighters containing wildfires. His work has appeared on local stations across California and nationally on public radio shows like Morning Edition, Here and Now, All Things Considered and Science Friday. ",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c76404d287c10ed40224227551ac36e24352c7306f106632caf6fead76f8801f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "ezraromero",
"bluesky": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Ezra David Romero | KQED",
"description": "Climate Reporter",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c76404d287c10ed40224227551ac36e24352c7306f106632caf6fead76f8801f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c76404d287c10ed40224227551ac36e24352c7306f106632caf6fead76f8801f?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/eromero"
}
},
"pagesReducer": {
"science_category_climate": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_31",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "31",
"score": 11.05895
},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"title": "Climate",
"pageMeta": {
"site": "science",
"WpPageTemplate": "page-topic-editorial",
"currentPage": 24
},
"blocks": [
{
"blockName": "kqed/post-list",
"attrs": {
"layout": "cardArticle2",
"query": "posts/science?category=climate",
"seeMore": false,
"paginated": true,
"page": 24
}
},
{
"blockName": "kqed/ad"
}
]
}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"science_1984697": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984697",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984697",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1697454016000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change",
"title": "Why KQED Focused a Season of Its Housing Podcast on Climate Change",
"publishDate": 1697454016,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Why KQED Focused a Season of Its Housing Podcast on Climate Change | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>Both housing and climate change are huge problems that seem in many ways unsolvable. As a result, many of us feel so powerless or discouraged that we turn away. The third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, tells the stories of people who cannot turn away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our reporters have traveled across the state, listening to stories of Californians who are fighting to make a home here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5961654916&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll hear from a teenager whose family fled Pajaro following ferocious winter flooding only to struggle to find an affordable place to live. You’ll hear from a mom living on the streets of Fresno, fighting to keep her son from baking during summer heat waves even as temperatures soared north of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. And there’s the story of a group of neighbors along one block in Oakland, who have banded together to try and ditch their gasoline appliances and electrify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We look at efforts to lower risk for homeowners in wildfire country, where the widespread loss of home insurance is rattling communities at their foundations. We also examine how San Jose is trying to build more infill housing, and in the process atone for California’s total devotion to sprawling suburbs and single family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The season is anchored by KQED Housing Correspondent Erin Baldassari, who brings us into her own story as she grapples with whether it’s safe to move her family back home to the fire-prone Sierra Nevada foothills where she grew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the thing about climate and housing: the two problems are thoroughly intertwined. It’s just that, individually, they are so big and unwieldy that we don’t often consider how they compound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soaring cost of living pushes Californians out of cities and into the path of floods and fires. It also forces millions to drive more and emit more carbon pollution, further warming the planet. When disaster does strike, and people must flee, there’s nowhere affordable left for them to go. For many, it’s a fast track to homelessness — a state that, as one homelessness expert told reporter Vanessa Rancaño, is “on the bleeding edge” of this climate emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s be clear about what this project is not: it’s not a postmortem on the California Dream, one of those California-Is-Burning-Up or I’m-Fleeing-California stories. This is our attempt to do the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We stare straight into the headlights of two seemingly intractable problems, and shepherd out the solutions from the people who are actively working to protect their communities.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "The third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, tells the stories of people who cannot turn away.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1727134579,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": true,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 12,
"wordCount": 455
},
"headData": {
"title": "Why KQED Focused a Season of Its Housing Podcast on Climate Change | KQED",
"description": "The third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, tells the stories of people who cannot turn away.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Why KQED Focused a Season of Its Housing Podcast on Climate Change",
"datePublished": "2023-10-16T04:00:16-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-23T16:36:19-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"source": "Sold Out",
"sticky": false,
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Both housing and climate change are huge problems that seem in many ways unsolvable. As a result, many of us feel so powerless or discouraged that we turn away. The third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, tells the stories of people who cannot turn away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our reporters have traveled across the state, listening to stories of Californians who are fighting to make a home here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5961654916&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll hear from a teenager whose family fled Pajaro following ferocious winter flooding only to struggle to find an affordable place to live. You’ll hear from a mom living on the streets of Fresno, fighting to keep her son from baking during summer heat waves even as temperatures soared north of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. And there’s the story of a group of neighbors along one block in Oakland, who have banded together to try and ditch their gasoline appliances and electrify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We look at efforts to lower risk for homeowners in wildfire country, where the widespread loss of home insurance is rattling communities at their foundations. We also examine how San Jose is trying to build more infill housing, and in the process atone for California’s total devotion to sprawling suburbs and single family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The season is anchored by KQED Housing Correspondent Erin Baldassari, who brings us into her own story as she grapples with whether it’s safe to move her family back home to the fire-prone Sierra Nevada foothills where she grew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the thing about climate and housing: the two problems are thoroughly intertwined. It’s just that, individually, they are so big and unwieldy that we don’t often consider how they compound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soaring cost of living pushes Californians out of cities and into the path of floods and fires. It also forces millions to drive more and emit more carbon pollution, further warming the planet. When disaster does strike, and people must flee, there’s nowhere affordable left for them to go. For many, it’s a fast track to homelessness — a state that, as one homelessness expert told reporter Vanessa Rancaño, is “on the bleeding edge” of this climate emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s be clear about what this project is not: it’s not a postmortem on the California Dream, one of those California-Is-Burning-Up or I’m-Fleeing-California stories. This is our attempt to do the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We stare straight into the headlights of two seemingly intractable problems, and shepherd out the solutions from the people who are actively working to protect their communities.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change",
"authors": [
"11608",
"3211"
],
"programs": [
"science_5140"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_5141",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_194",
"science_3448",
"science_2184",
"science_5072",
"science_5094",
"science_5073",
"science_113"
],
"featImg": "science_1984698",
"label": "source_science_1984697"
},
"science_1984593": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984593",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984593",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1696935641000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1696935641,
"format": "standard",
"title": "This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More?",
"headTitle": "This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn’t California Do More? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For forest managers to conduct prescribed burns, weather conditions have to be just right: not too hot or windy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not too damp, but also not too dry. Just right, Goldilocks, in the middle,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, experts say more prescribed burning is needed across California to prevent out-of-control megafires. That fact is even more pronounced in cool, wet years like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mild weather conditions provided the perfect backdrop for fire agencies to conduct large-scale controlled burns, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">help prevent\u003c/a> extreme wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most days this year that were favorable for it, there really wasn’t much-prescribed fire activity,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burning is expected to get harder with climate change. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00993-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New research\u003c/a> shows the number of safe burn days across the West is expected to drop by 17% by the year 2060. The Bay Area could lose as many as 30 ideal burn days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re already not doing enough, and climate change is going to come along and make it significantly harder, then what hope do we have for really scaling this up in the way that many ecologists and fire scientists think we should be doing?” said Swain, who co-authored the research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gregg Bratcher, division chief, Cal Fire\"]‘This year was rough. By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.’[/pullquote]For a century, California has suppressed wildfires. Today, the state’s forests are overgrown and littered with fuel — primed to burn. Ecologists and Indigenous tribal groups have long criticized forest managers for not using “good fire,” as it’s sometimes called, to help keep forests in check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The floors are littered with trees and brush and invasive species that have taken over,” said Yurok tribe member Elizabeth Azzuz. “When that happens, it kills all the native and indigenous plants in the understory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azzuz directs Indigenous and family burning for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.culturalfire.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cultural Fire Management Council\u003c/a> and facilitates controlled burns on Yurok tribal land located in far Northern California along the Klamath Basin. Typically, they can only conduct two burns per year. But this year, given the weather, they managed to squeeze in one additional burn in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that we get a June burn window, very rare,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s fire agency did conduct prescribed burns this year — though fewer than normal, said Gregg Bratcher, who oversees Cal Fire’s prescribed fire program in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year was rough,” he said. “By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=arts_13925067 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/DSC04885-1020x680.jpg']While the climate models may have shown wide open windows for controlled burns, Bratcher said the rainy, wet winter and spring months made it difficult to light fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost a lot of burn days because it was just too wet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that rain did tamp down California’s wildfire season this year. The state experienced far fewer and less destructive fires. Lightning touched off some of the biggest ones that burned across remote areas in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to safe weather conditions and their remoteness, forest managers and tribes allowed them to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These fires have been doing really important work,” said Tony Marks-Block, ecological anthropologist at CSU East Bay, adding that these types of ecologically beneficial fire have been largely eliminated by fire suppression since last century. “In future years when lightning strikes again, or there’s an accidental fire initiated by a person, that fire will not be as extreme because there’s less fuel to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from those fires did drift down and dirty the air across the Bay Area for several days in September. Marks-Block said these kinds of low severity fires can produce poor air quality but “they reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic fire events and longer periods of poor air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians might need to get used to shorter periods of semi-regular, smoky conditions to avoid weeks-long stretches of choking, hazardous air like the Bay Area lived through during the firestorms of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, Cal Fire’s Bratcher said the agency may have to rely more on managing the forest by hand during wet years like this one, using chainsaws and wood chippers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landscape will dictate what tools in the toolbox we can use,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While prescribed burning is one of the best ways to manage the forests, they can’t rely on it exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 823,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 25
},
"modified": 1704845878,
"excerpt": "California needs way more prescribed burns to prevent out-of-control megafires.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "California needs way more prescribed burns to prevent out-of-control megafires.",
"title": "This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More? | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More?",
"datePublished": "2023-10-10T04:00:41-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:17:58-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "a-good-year-for-good-fire-california-didnt-take-avantage",
"status": "publish",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"source": "Wildfire",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1984593/a-good-year-for-good-fire-california-didnt-take-avantage",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For forest managers to conduct prescribed burns, weather conditions have to be just right: not too hot or windy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not too damp, but also not too dry. Just right, Goldilocks, in the middle,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, experts say more prescribed burning is needed across California to prevent out-of-control megafires. That fact is even more pronounced in cool, wet years like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mild weather conditions provided the perfect backdrop for fire agencies to conduct large-scale controlled burns, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">help prevent\u003c/a> extreme wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most days this year that were favorable for it, there really wasn’t much-prescribed fire activity,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burning is expected to get harder with climate change. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00993-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New research\u003c/a> shows the number of safe burn days across the West is expected to drop by 17% by the year 2060. The Bay Area could lose as many as 30 ideal burn days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re already not doing enough, and climate change is going to come along and make it significantly harder, then what hope do we have for really scaling this up in the way that many ecologists and fire scientists think we should be doing?” said Swain, who co-authored the research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘This year was rough. By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"size": "medium",
"align": "right",
"citation": "Gregg Bratcher, division chief, Cal Fire",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For a century, California has suppressed wildfires. Today, the state’s forests are overgrown and littered with fuel — primed to burn. Ecologists and Indigenous tribal groups have long criticized forest managers for not using “good fire,” as it’s sometimes called, to help keep forests in check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The floors are littered with trees and brush and invasive species that have taken over,” said Yurok tribe member Elizabeth Azzuz. “When that happens, it kills all the native and indigenous plants in the understory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azzuz directs Indigenous and family burning for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.culturalfire.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cultural Fire Management Council\u003c/a> and facilitates controlled burns on Yurok tribal land located in far Northern California along the Klamath Basin. Typically, they can only conduct two burns per year. But this year, given the weather, they managed to squeeze in one additional burn in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that we get a June burn window, very rare,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s fire agency did conduct prescribed burns this year — though fewer than normal, said Gregg Bratcher, who oversees Cal Fire’s prescribed fire program in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year was rough,” he said. “By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "arts_13925067",
"hero": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/DSC04885-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While the climate models may have shown wide open windows for controlled burns, Bratcher said the rainy, wet winter and spring months made it difficult to light fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost a lot of burn days because it was just too wet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that rain did tamp down California’s wildfire season this year. The state experienced far fewer and less destructive fires. Lightning touched off some of the biggest ones that burned across remote areas in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to safe weather conditions and their remoteness, forest managers and tribes allowed them to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These fires have been doing really important work,” said Tony Marks-Block, ecological anthropologist at CSU East Bay, adding that these types of ecologically beneficial fire have been largely eliminated by fire suppression since last century. “In future years when lightning strikes again, or there’s an accidental fire initiated by a person, that fire will not be as extreme because there’s less fuel to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from those fires did drift down and dirty the air across the Bay Area for several days in September. Marks-Block said these kinds of low severity fires can produce poor air quality but “they reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic fire events and longer periods of poor air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians might need to get used to shorter periods of semi-regular, smoky conditions to avoid weeks-long stretches of choking, hazardous air like the Bay Area lived through during the firestorms of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, Cal Fire’s Bratcher said the agency may have to rely more on managing the forest by hand during wet years like this one, using chainsaws and wood chippers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landscape will dictate what tools in the toolbox we can use,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While prescribed burning is one of the best ways to manage the forests, they can’t rely on it exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984593/a-good-year-for-good-fire-california-didnt-take-avantage",
"authors": [
"11362"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_5194",
"science_113"
],
"featImg": "science_1984596",
"label": "source_science_1984593"
},
"science_1984507": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984507",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984507",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1696539614000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1696539614,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Can Scientists Calculate a Carbon Footprint for Drugs?",
"headTitle": "Can Scientists Calculate a Carbon Footprint for Drugs? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Anyone picking up a prescription from their pharmacy is used to the reams of paper that typically accompany it: information on safety, storing, and how to use the drug. What if that information also included your medicine’s carbon footprint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some scientists are trying to calculate those footprints, as part of a growing effort to understand biotech and pharmaceutical companies’ contributions to climate change. While overall estimates suggest this industry \u003ca href=\"https://www.mygreenlab.org/2022-carbon-impact-of-biotech--pharma-report.html\">emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide\u003c/a> each year, it’s often tough to pinpoint the exact sources of those emissions, presenting a challenge as companies seek to reduce their footprints and outside organizations seek to evaluate their efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://reports.statnews.com/products/climate-rankings?variant=40219209400423\">recent STAT report\u003c/a> found that the majority of large pharmaceutical and biotech companies aren’t publicly disclosing their emissions to a global organization that sets standards for climate transparency. One key reason, experts say, is that pharma and biotech emissions can be difficult to estimate, especially for midsize and smaller companies unable to devote teams of analysts to these calculations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other industries, most greenhouse gas emissions come from companies’ direct activities and energy use, referred to as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, respectively. But for pharma and biotech, about 90% of emissions come from indirect sources, falling into the Scope 3 category. These sources include emissions from the raw materials that go into drugs and devices, chemical processes that turn those raw materials into products, transporting and storing the products, their use in medical settings, and disposal, often in a landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugmakers, health care organizations, and outside research groups are increasingly focused on calculating carbon footprints for individual products. The analyses help to provide more accurate estimates of overall corporate emissions and show where there’s room for improving sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These calculations are “a priority for everyone,” said Nazneen Rahman, founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yewmaker.com/\">Yewmaker\u003c/a>, a startup that is working on medical carbon-footprint research. “It’s obviously a priority for the manufacturers, because they have to reduce their … emissions. And it is a real priority for health systems” because medicines make up a significant share of their own emissions, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Claire Lund, vice president for sustainability at GSK\"]‘Having product-specific footprints allows us to better understand the environmental impact of our products across their entire lifecycle.’[/pullquote]Some hospitals, for instance, want to use specific emissions data to inform which medical products they purchase, said \u003ca href=\"https://mse.vt.edu/faculty-staff/Faculty/mcginnis.html\">Sean McGinnis\u003c/a>, a professor in green engineering at Virginia Tech who specializes in these assessments. By buying more sustainable medicines, a hospital can reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions — responding to requests of administrators who are increasingly interested in “having a good carbon footprint,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In pharma, GSK aims to reduce the environmental impact of its products and packaging 25% by 2030, and footprint calculations help show opportunities to cut those emissions, said Claire Lund, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2452223621001206\">author of research on this topic\u003c/a> and vice president for sustainability at GSK, one of the top-ranked firms in STAT’s recent report. “Having product-specific footprints allows us to better understand the environmental impact of our products across their entire lifecycle,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global health agencies are also starting to ask for these data, said Neel Lakhani, senior director of strategy and innovation at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which has supported research into health care sustainability. For example, health organizations in Africa might want to know if manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines locally would reduce the carbon footprint of those products, compared to shipping them from elsewhere in the world, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the data requests are growing, calculating the carbon footprint of an individual medical product can be complex. Researchers like McGinnis face challenges with obtaining data on a drug’s composition, accounting for inconsistencies in how companies report emissions data, and understanding what happens to products after they leave the factory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While precise numbers may be hard to find, the carbon footprint information that we have suggests health products continue to be major contributors to climate change. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.13425\">one recent paper from Adam Cimprich\u003c/a>, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, and colleagues, found that the annual carbon emissions from treating the occupants of a single bed at a hospital in British Columbia, Canada is about the same as for five households. The medical products used to care for patients in that bed led to a significant share of emissions, Cimprich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers interested in the carbon footprint of a medicine typically arrive at an estimate through a scientific process called life cycle assessment (or LCA). \u003ca href=\"https://seesustainability.co.uk/about-us\">Matt Sawyer\u003c/a>, a consultant specializing in environmental sustainability in health care, described the process as similar to a “cake recipe”: researchers add together many different ingredients and might arrive at an unexpected end result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each component in the recipe is a smaller-scale assessment in itself, answering questions such as: How much carbon dioxide is generated in collecting the raw materials for this medicine? How much carbon dioxide is generated from transporting those raw materials to a factory where they will be processed? How much carbon dioxide from the chemical procedures used to turn the raw materials into a medical product? How much carbon dioxide from packaging the resulting medicine, transporting it to a health care facility, storing it, giving it to a patient, discarding of the final product if some is left unused?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list of questions can be endless, so one key step in the life cycle assessment process is setting boundaries. In a course he teaches on these assessments, McGinnis typically tells students, “Draw a box around what you consider your product.” Some assessments might go all the way from raw materials to disposal, while others could focus on the activities in a factory setting. There’s no standard procedure in the pharmaceutical industry for which activities are left in or out of the box, so these choices can vary widely from one research project to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Amy Booth, doctoral candidate at Oxford University \"]‘You go through that whole chemical process with the manufacturing, and then there’s the packaging and distribution.’[/pullquote]For scientists analyzing medical products, one challenge can be the number of components and steps involved, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/amy-booth\">Amy Booth\u003c/a>, a doctoral candidate at Oxford University who studies environmental impacts of health care. For example, she said, compare the life cycle of a drug to that of a tomato. The \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-019-01688-6\">tomato’s life cycle\u003c/a> may include its growth on a farm or in a greenhouse (requiring water, maybe some pesticides, maybe heating), followed by packaging and distributing it for consumption, and typically ends in a human stomach. It’s a fairly straightforward, easy-to-measure process with readily available data, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugs, on the other hand, require a variety of active pharmaceutical ingredients and other materials involved in their research, development, and manufacturing. “You go through that whole chemical process with the manufacturing, and then there’s the packaging and distribution,” Booth said. Drugs also may require different considerations for transportation and storage than food products, such as if they need to be stored in a special freezer. And drugs tend to create significant waste: All the pill bottles discarded, expired or simply unused add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, “the more steps you have in that production process, the bigger [environmental] impact it’s going to have,” Booth said. Emissions can also vary widely depending on where a drug is made, which adds complexity. The carbon footprint of a medicine produced in a factory powered by coal would be significantly higher than the footprint of the same medicine produced in a factory powered by solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When adding up those production steps, there’s little public data describing how pharmaceutical processing leads to emissions. For life cycle assessments in other industries, researchers can rely on open databases that provide standard values, called conversion factors, translating from common materials to the greenhouse gases emitted in their production. These databases can be used to analyze medical devices and other products made of metal or plastic, such as masks and gowns, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.cheme.cornell.edu/research/grad-students/xiang-zhao\">Xiang Zhao\u003c/a>, a doctoral student at Cornell University who has worked on these assessments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no database for the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in drugs, and pharma companies tend to keep that information secret. While proprietary data is an issue for life cycle assessments across industries, McGinnis said, the medical industry tends to be “less willing” to share. Any attempt to estimate emissions from a drug that uses proprietary chemicals is “where it really gets hard,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers try to ask companies for their data, with mixed results. Sawyer’s attempts typically lead to no reply, or a reply simply linking to the company’s public sustainability report (which usually has limited details), or — in the best case scenario — a total carbon footprint figure that fails to share any methodology behind the number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even pharma companies themselves are limited in their ability to calculate carbon footprints, because their internal data miss a key part of the life cycle: what happens to drugs after they enter the health care system. To capture those emissions, companies would need data from health providers; and those emissions, too, can vary by location. The same medicine might have a lower footprint in a big city, where patients have a short trip to their pharmacy, compared to rural areas where more driving is required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists still persist in this research because the results can be incredibly informative for health organizations. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652622047278?via%3Dihub\">a paper by Zhao and colleagues\u003c/a> found that hospital gowns marketed as biodegradable are actually less environmentally friendly than their conventional counterparts, due to carbon dioxide and methane released after the biodegradable gowns are placed in landfills. \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06518#\">Another paper by the same group at Cornell\u003c/a> and Lakhani at CHAI identified major sources of emissions — and potential options for improving sustainability — in the production of a common HIV drug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These assessments show the pros and cons of choosing one medical product over another, or adjusting aspects of the production process, Zhao said. Otherwise health organizations are kept guessing about which option is the most sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand the carbon emissions generated by medical products, the pharma and biotech industry needs to develop more transparency around sharing their existing data and standards for calculating life cycle assessments, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one step towards data transparency, several Canadian health institutions have supported \u003ca href=\"https://healthcarelca.com/\">HealthcareLCA\u003c/a>, an online library of academic papers estimating the environmental impacts of different health products and processes. This project is a helpful starting point, said \u003ca href=\"https://uwaterloo.ca/scholar/afpcimpr/home\">Cimprich\u003c/a>, the University of Waterloo researcher who studies health care life cycles. But different papers in the library use “different methods, assumptions, and qualities of data,” he added — there’s no standardization in the results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Health care is playing catch-up here with other sectors” when it comes to pooling data on products’ carbon emissions, Cimprich said. Other industries like food, construction, and different manufacturing sectors have more extensive data available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts like Cimprich and Booth, at Oxford, would like to see leaders in health, pharma, and biotech companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.basf.com/global/en/who-we-are/sustainability/whats-new/sustainability-news/2022/Chemical-industry-agrees-on-global-standard-for-calculating-product-carbon-footprint.html\">look to these other industries\u003c/a> as models for building public databases that help researchers translate from chemical building blocks to emissions and other environmental impacts. Companies shouldn’t “reinvent the wheel,” but should rather “draw on other industries that have done product footprinting already,” Booth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers can look forward to one such database later this year. Rahman and colleagues at Yewmaker are working on a scientific paper and open-access database that will provide carbon footprint estimates for medicines made with small molecules, a type of drug that accounts for about 90% of pharma products. The estimates are based on data science models, incorporating different chemicals’ molecular structures and standard manufacturing processes, Rahman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yewmaker’s database is set to offer more comprehensive information than scientists could previously access about drugs’ emissions: It will have an “internal rigor and comparability” unlike prior papers that evaluate one drug at a time, Rahman said. But these estimates will still be less accurate than information that pharma companies might provide from internal research. Rahman hopes any companies that notice inaccuracies in Yewmaker’s data will be motivated to publicly correct the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another potential source for standardized data might be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sustainable-markets.org/taskforces/health-systems-taskforce/\">Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Health Systems Task Force\u003c/a>, a collaboration of executives from top pharma companies including AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck, Novo Nordisk, and others. By working together, top companies could develop emissions measurement standards for the rest of the industry. Such standards may be particularly helpful for smaller companies like those that produce generic medicines, Rahman said: these companies have fewer resources for internal measurement but still make a lot of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some scientists are critical of pharma companies’ ability to develop their own standards and regulations. Sawyer, the consultant, would prefer to see regulations come from government agencies, such as the U.K.’s National Health System — which is already \u003ca href=\"https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/get-involved/suppliers/\">ahead of U.S. agencies\u003c/a> on sustainability commitments. Governments may consider incorporating environmental assessments into their standards for approving new drugs, Sawyer said, perhaps on a parallel track to existing standards for safety and effectiveness in clinical trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, large health organizations are starting to put pressure on companies to share carbon footprint data. Lakhani at CHAI sees the increased pressure as a classic “carrot or the stick” situation: health organizations could offer a “carrot,” by telling companies that they’d be more likely to buy medicines that are more environmentally friendly; government agencies could offer a “stick,” by only allowing companies that disclose emissions data to sell their products. “Sometime, hopefully in the near future, [environmental disclosure] becomes the standard,” Lakhani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of coverage of climate change and health, supported by a grant from \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonwealthfund.org/\">The Commonwealth Fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 2419,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 36
},
"modified": 1704845882,
"excerpt": "Pinpointing the sources of carbon emissions for drugs is tough, presenting a challenge as companies seek to reduce their footprints.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Pinpointing the sources of carbon emissions for drugs is tough, presenting a challenge as companies seek to reduce their footprints.",
"title": "Can Scientists Calculate a Carbon Footprint for Drugs? | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Can Scientists Calculate a Carbon Footprint for Drugs?",
"datePublished": "2023-10-05T14:00:14-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:02-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "scientists-want-to-put-carbon-footprints-on-drugs-but-its-hard-to-get-accurate-numbers",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.statnews.com/",
"nprByline": "Betsy Ladyzhets",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"source": "STAT",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1984507/scientists-want-to-put-carbon-footprints-on-drugs-but-its-hard-to-get-accurate-numbers",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Anyone picking up a prescription from their pharmacy is used to the reams of paper that typically accompany it: information on safety, storing, and how to use the drug. What if that information also included your medicine’s carbon footprint?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some scientists are trying to calculate those footprints, as part of a growing effort to understand biotech and pharmaceutical companies’ contributions to climate change. While overall estimates suggest this industry \u003ca href=\"https://www.mygreenlab.org/2022-carbon-impact-of-biotech--pharma-report.html\">emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide\u003c/a> each year, it’s often tough to pinpoint the exact sources of those emissions, presenting a challenge as companies seek to reduce their footprints and outside organizations seek to evaluate their efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://reports.statnews.com/products/climate-rankings?variant=40219209400423\">recent STAT report\u003c/a> found that the majority of large pharmaceutical and biotech companies aren’t publicly disclosing their emissions to a global organization that sets standards for climate transparency. One key reason, experts say, is that pharma and biotech emissions can be difficult to estimate, especially for midsize and smaller companies unable to devote teams of analysts to these calculations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other industries, most greenhouse gas emissions come from companies’ direct activities and energy use, referred to as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, respectively. But for pharma and biotech, about 90% of emissions come from indirect sources, falling into the Scope 3 category. These sources include emissions from the raw materials that go into drugs and devices, chemical processes that turn those raw materials into products, transporting and storing the products, their use in medical settings, and disposal, often in a landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugmakers, health care organizations, and outside research groups are increasingly focused on calculating carbon footprints for individual products. The analyses help to provide more accurate estimates of overall corporate emissions and show where there’s room for improving sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These calculations are “a priority for everyone,” said Nazneen Rahman, founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yewmaker.com/\">Yewmaker\u003c/a>, a startup that is working on medical carbon-footprint research. “It’s obviously a priority for the manufacturers, because they have to reduce their … emissions. And it is a real priority for health systems” because medicines make up a significant share of their own emissions, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘Having product-specific footprints allows us to better understand the environmental impact of our products across their entire lifecycle.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"align": "right",
"size": "medium",
"citation": "Claire Lund, vice president for sustainability at GSK",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some hospitals, for instance, want to use specific emissions data to inform which medical products they purchase, said \u003ca href=\"https://mse.vt.edu/faculty-staff/Faculty/mcginnis.html\">Sean McGinnis\u003c/a>, a professor in green engineering at Virginia Tech who specializes in these assessments. By buying more sustainable medicines, a hospital can reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions — responding to requests of administrators who are increasingly interested in “having a good carbon footprint,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In pharma, GSK aims to reduce the environmental impact of its products and packaging 25% by 2030, and footprint calculations help show opportunities to cut those emissions, said Claire Lund, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2452223621001206\">author of research on this topic\u003c/a> and vice president for sustainability at GSK, one of the top-ranked firms in STAT’s recent report. “Having product-specific footprints allows us to better understand the environmental impact of our products across their entire lifecycle,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global health agencies are also starting to ask for these data, said Neel Lakhani, senior director of strategy and innovation at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which has supported research into health care sustainability. For example, health organizations in Africa might want to know if manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines locally would reduce the carbon footprint of those products, compared to shipping them from elsewhere in the world, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the data requests are growing, calculating the carbon footprint of an individual medical product can be complex. Researchers like McGinnis face challenges with obtaining data on a drug’s composition, accounting for inconsistencies in how companies report emissions data, and understanding what happens to products after they leave the factory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While precise numbers may be hard to find, the carbon footprint information that we have suggests health products continue to be major contributors to climate change. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.13425\">one recent paper from Adam Cimprich\u003c/a>, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo, and colleagues, found that the annual carbon emissions from treating the occupants of a single bed at a hospital in British Columbia, Canada is about the same as for five households. The medical products used to care for patients in that bed led to a significant share of emissions, Cimprich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers interested in the carbon footprint of a medicine typically arrive at an estimate through a scientific process called life cycle assessment (or LCA). \u003ca href=\"https://seesustainability.co.uk/about-us\">Matt Sawyer\u003c/a>, a consultant specializing in environmental sustainability in health care, described the process as similar to a “cake recipe”: researchers add together many different ingredients and might arrive at an unexpected end result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each component in the recipe is a smaller-scale assessment in itself, answering questions such as: How much carbon dioxide is generated in collecting the raw materials for this medicine? How much carbon dioxide is generated from transporting those raw materials to a factory where they will be processed? How much carbon dioxide from the chemical procedures used to turn the raw materials into a medical product? How much carbon dioxide from packaging the resulting medicine, transporting it to a health care facility, storing it, giving it to a patient, discarding of the final product if some is left unused?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list of questions can be endless, so one key step in the life cycle assessment process is setting boundaries. In a course he teaches on these assessments, McGinnis typically tells students, “Draw a box around what you consider your product.” Some assessments might go all the way from raw materials to disposal, while others could focus on the activities in a factory setting. There’s no standard procedure in the pharmaceutical industry for which activities are left in or out of the box, so these choices can vary widely from one research project to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘You go through that whole chemical process with the manufacturing, and then there’s the packaging and distribution.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"align": "right",
"size": "medium",
"citation": "Amy Booth, doctoral candidate at Oxford University ",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For scientists analyzing medical products, one challenge can be the number of components and steps involved, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/amy-booth\">Amy Booth\u003c/a>, a doctoral candidate at Oxford University who studies environmental impacts of health care. For example, she said, compare the life cycle of a drug to that of a tomato. The \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-019-01688-6\">tomato’s life cycle\u003c/a> may include its growth on a farm or in a greenhouse (requiring water, maybe some pesticides, maybe heating), followed by packaging and distributing it for consumption, and typically ends in a human stomach. It’s a fairly straightforward, easy-to-measure process with readily available data, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drugs, on the other hand, require a variety of active pharmaceutical ingredients and other materials involved in their research, development, and manufacturing. “You go through that whole chemical process with the manufacturing, and then there’s the packaging and distribution,” Booth said. Drugs also may require different considerations for transportation and storage than food products, such as if they need to be stored in a special freezer. And drugs tend to create significant waste: All the pill bottles discarded, expired or simply unused add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, “the more steps you have in that production process, the bigger [environmental] impact it’s going to have,” Booth said. Emissions can also vary widely depending on where a drug is made, which adds complexity. The carbon footprint of a medicine produced in a factory powered by coal would be significantly higher than the footprint of the same medicine produced in a factory powered by solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When adding up those production steps, there’s little public data describing how pharmaceutical processing leads to emissions. For life cycle assessments in other industries, researchers can rely on open databases that provide standard values, called conversion factors, translating from common materials to the greenhouse gases emitted in their production. These databases can be used to analyze medical devices and other products made of metal or plastic, such as masks and gowns, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.cheme.cornell.edu/research/grad-students/xiang-zhao\">Xiang Zhao\u003c/a>, a doctoral student at Cornell University who has worked on these assessments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no database for the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in drugs, and pharma companies tend to keep that information secret. While proprietary data is an issue for life cycle assessments across industries, McGinnis said, the medical industry tends to be “less willing” to share. Any attempt to estimate emissions from a drug that uses proprietary chemicals is “where it really gets hard,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers try to ask companies for their data, with mixed results. Sawyer’s attempts typically lead to no reply, or a reply simply linking to the company’s public sustainability report (which usually has limited details), or — in the best case scenario — a total carbon footprint figure that fails to share any methodology behind the number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even pharma companies themselves are limited in their ability to calculate carbon footprints, because their internal data miss a key part of the life cycle: what happens to drugs after they enter the health care system. To capture those emissions, companies would need data from health providers; and those emissions, too, can vary by location. The same medicine might have a lower footprint in a big city, where patients have a short trip to their pharmacy, compared to rural areas where more driving is required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists still persist in this research because the results can be incredibly informative for health organizations. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652622047278?via%3Dihub\">a paper by Zhao and colleagues\u003c/a> found that hospital gowns marketed as biodegradable are actually less environmentally friendly than their conventional counterparts, due to carbon dioxide and methane released after the biodegradable gowns are placed in landfills. \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06518#\">Another paper by the same group at Cornell\u003c/a> and Lakhani at CHAI identified major sources of emissions — and potential options for improving sustainability — in the production of a common HIV drug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These assessments show the pros and cons of choosing one medical product over another, or adjusting aspects of the production process, Zhao said. Otherwise health organizations are kept guessing about which option is the most sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand the carbon emissions generated by medical products, the pharma and biotech industry needs to develop more transparency around sharing their existing data and standards for calculating life cycle assessments, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one step towards data transparency, several Canadian health institutions have supported \u003ca href=\"https://healthcarelca.com/\">HealthcareLCA\u003c/a>, an online library of academic papers estimating the environmental impacts of different health products and processes. This project is a helpful starting point, said \u003ca href=\"https://uwaterloo.ca/scholar/afpcimpr/home\">Cimprich\u003c/a>, the University of Waterloo researcher who studies health care life cycles. But different papers in the library use “different methods, assumptions, and qualities of data,” he added — there’s no standardization in the results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Health care is playing catch-up here with other sectors” when it comes to pooling data on products’ carbon emissions, Cimprich said. Other industries like food, construction, and different manufacturing sectors have more extensive data available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts like Cimprich and Booth, at Oxford, would like to see leaders in health, pharma, and biotech companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.basf.com/global/en/who-we-are/sustainability/whats-new/sustainability-news/2022/Chemical-industry-agrees-on-global-standard-for-calculating-product-carbon-footprint.html\">look to these other industries\u003c/a> as models for building public databases that help researchers translate from chemical building blocks to emissions and other environmental impacts. Companies shouldn’t “reinvent the wheel,” but should rather “draw on other industries that have done product footprinting already,” Booth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers can look forward to one such database later this year. Rahman and colleagues at Yewmaker are working on a scientific paper and open-access database that will provide carbon footprint estimates for medicines made with small molecules, a type of drug that accounts for about 90% of pharma products. The estimates are based on data science models, incorporating different chemicals’ molecular structures and standard manufacturing processes, Rahman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yewmaker’s database is set to offer more comprehensive information than scientists could previously access about drugs’ emissions: It will have an “internal rigor and comparability” unlike prior papers that evaluate one drug at a time, Rahman said. But these estimates will still be less accurate than information that pharma companies might provide from internal research. Rahman hopes any companies that notice inaccuracies in Yewmaker’s data will be motivated to publicly correct the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another potential source for standardized data might be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sustainable-markets.org/taskforces/health-systems-taskforce/\">Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Health Systems Task Force\u003c/a>, a collaboration of executives from top pharma companies including AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck, Novo Nordisk, and others. By working together, top companies could develop emissions measurement standards for the rest of the industry. Such standards may be particularly helpful for smaller companies like those that produce generic medicines, Rahman said: these companies have fewer resources for internal measurement but still make a lot of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some scientists are critical of pharma companies’ ability to develop their own standards and regulations. Sawyer, the consultant, would prefer to see regulations come from government agencies, such as the U.K.’s National Health System — which is already \u003ca href=\"https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/get-involved/suppliers/\">ahead of U.S. agencies\u003c/a> on sustainability commitments. Governments may consider incorporating environmental assessments into their standards for approving new drugs, Sawyer said, perhaps on a parallel track to existing standards for safety and effectiveness in clinical trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, large health organizations are starting to put pressure on companies to share carbon footprint data. Lakhani at CHAI sees the increased pressure as a classic “carrot or the stick” situation: health organizations could offer a “carrot,” by telling companies that they’d be more likely to buy medicines that are more environmentally friendly; government agencies could offer a “stick,” by only allowing companies that disclose emissions data to sell their products. “Sometime, hopefully in the near future, [environmental disclosure] becomes the standard,” Lakhani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of coverage of climate change and health, supported by a grant from \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonwealthfund.org/\">The Commonwealth Fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984507/scientists-want-to-put-carbon-footprints-on-drugs-but-its-hard-to-get-accurate-numbers",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984507"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_1627",
"science_3541",
"science_354",
"science_4154",
"science_2918"
],
"featImg": "science_1984516",
"label": "source_science_1984507"
},
"science_1984319": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984319",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984319",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1695380445000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1695380445,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Why the Forest Service Is Working to Restore Meadows in the Sierra",
"headTitle": "Why the Forest Service Is Working to Restore Meadows in the Sierra | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story aired \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960944/restoring-meadows-in-sierra-nevada-a-key-to-healthy-ecosystems\">on The California Report \u003c/a>— and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-08-25/in-a-burn-scar-along-californias-sierra-nevada-green-glaciers-hold-a-key-to-forest-health\">originally aired on KVPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you think of a meadow, you might picture a field of flowers straight out of a postcard, no trees in sight. But meadows are also key to forest health. And in the Sierra Nevada, most of the meadows that play this role have been degraded or lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to restore these ecosystems, some groups say we must adopt the mindset of small creatures, like rodents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Swift, owner of Swift Water Design, has dedicated his career to restoring meadows in the Sierra Nevada — specifically one a few miles above Shaver Lake called the Lower Grouse Meadow, which was severely affected by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836958/california-sets-record-with-2m-acres-burned-so-far-this-year\">the 2020 Creek Fire\u003c/a>. As a result of the fire, that area is surrounded by barren hillsides and blackened, charred pine trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11644304,news_11933052 label='Fire Restoration in the Sierras']But here, in this meadow just above Shaver Lake, gravel and desiccated tree bark give way to tall grasses, purple wildflowers and buzzing pollinators. Like a strip of black-and-white film that’s been colorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift and his team managed to restore this meadow by building small dams along a stream — replicating what animals would have done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make dams, he says, think: “dirt lasagna.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a straightforward process involving layers of branches and mud, compacted together, mimicking what beavers have been doing for millions of years, Swift says. It’s also what indigenous people had been doing for centuries as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water is the beating heart of a meadow, and dams, whether built by beavers or humans, create mini wetlands. These wetlands slow erosion, support wildlife and serve as natural firebreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we want groundwater to rise up, we want surface water to spread out and we want the whole water to be backed up to create, we like to call them, ‘green glaciers,’” said Karen Pope, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pope was curious to know how many meadows there are in the Sierra. So she and other ecologists taught computers how to find them from satellite images. The algorithm uncovered thousands, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/psw/news/releases/machine-learning-promotes-meadow-restoration\">covering three times more land than previously known\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But most are in bad shape — overgrown, obliterated by wildfire, or damaged due to mining and other industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“About 5% are actually functioning in any proper sustainable way, productive way. So clearly we have a large task ahead of us,” said Dean Gould, Sierra National Forest Supervisor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meadows, it turns out, have significant environmental value. They can help mitigate climate change, according to Pope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Recovering meadows sequester carbon, and they can sequester up to six times more than the surrounding forest,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meadows in the midsummer are also a critical habitat for endangered animals, like the Great Gray Owl and the Greater Sandhill Cranes, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd591300.pdf\">the U.S. Forest Service (PDF)\u003c/a>. In the summer, healthy meadows are like natural sponges that soak up spring snowmelt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further, meadows hold cultural importance to indigenous communities and have served as gathering sites for thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Karen Pope, US Forest Service\"]‘I have to admit that this is the most exciting work I’ve ever done.’[/pullquote]Pope is optimistic about the restoration of the Sierran meadows. She recently co-founded a group called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.slobeaverbrigade.com/2022/05/16/california-process-based-restoration-network/\">California Process-Based Restoration Network\u003c/a> to promote this work, and many individuals have joined the cause. She believes that the small pilot meadow off Highway 168, where Swift has been working, exemplifies what’s achievable and how restoring meadows can benefit the entire Sierra region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to admit that this is the most exciting work I’ve ever done. It absolutely makes me feel like I’m not just doing research but actually doing something to help,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift’s work to restore the Lower Grouse Meadow was contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, underscoring its importance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s passionate about the work, even though witnessing so much degraded land can be emotionally taxing. “I tell everybody, if there’s another way you can make a living, do that, because this is hard on the soul,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, as he watches a tiny frog disappear into the stream, he adds, “Or it is until you see a meadow like this recover. Then it’s easy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 761,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 24
},
"modified": 1704845896,
"excerpt": "Meadows are more than just pretty places, they also contribute to the ecosystem — but many have been destroyed over the years.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Meadows are more than just pretty places, they also contribute to the ecosystem — but many have been destroyed over the years.",
"title": "Why the Forest Service Is Working to Restore Meadows in the Sierra | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Why the Forest Service Is Working to Restore Meadows in the Sierra",
"datePublished": "2023-09-22T04:00:45-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:16-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "why-the-forest-service-is-working-to-restore-meadows-in-the-sierra",
"status": "publish",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1984319/why-the-forest-service-is-working-to-restore-meadows-in-the-sierra",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story aired \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960944/restoring-meadows-in-sierra-nevada-a-key-to-healthy-ecosystems\">on The California Report \u003c/a>— and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-08-25/in-a-burn-scar-along-californias-sierra-nevada-green-glaciers-hold-a-key-to-forest-health\">originally aired on KVPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you think of a meadow, you might picture a field of flowers straight out of a postcard, no trees in sight. But meadows are also key to forest health. And in the Sierra Nevada, most of the meadows that play this role have been degraded or lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to restore these ecosystems, some groups say we must adopt the mindset of small creatures, like rodents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Swift, owner of Swift Water Design, has dedicated his career to restoring meadows in the Sierra Nevada — specifically one a few miles above Shaver Lake called the Lower Grouse Meadow, which was severely affected by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836958/california-sets-record-with-2m-acres-burned-so-far-this-year\">the 2020 Creek Fire\u003c/a>. As a result of the fire, that area is surrounded by barren hillsides and blackened, charred pine trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_11644304,news_11933052",
"label": "Fire Restoration in the Sierras "
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But here, in this meadow just above Shaver Lake, gravel and desiccated tree bark give way to tall grasses, purple wildflowers and buzzing pollinators. Like a strip of black-and-white film that’s been colorized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift and his team managed to restore this meadow by building small dams along a stream — replicating what animals would have done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make dams, he says, think: “dirt lasagna.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a straightforward process involving layers of branches and mud, compacted together, mimicking what beavers have been doing for millions of years, Swift says. It’s also what indigenous people had been doing for centuries as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water is the beating heart of a meadow, and dams, whether built by beavers or humans, create mini wetlands. These wetlands slow erosion, support wildlife and serve as natural firebreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we want groundwater to rise up, we want surface water to spread out and we want the whole water to be backed up to create, we like to call them, ‘green glaciers,’” said Karen Pope, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pope was curious to know how many meadows there are in the Sierra. So she and other ecologists taught computers how to find them from satellite images. The algorithm uncovered thousands, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/psw/news/releases/machine-learning-promotes-meadow-restoration\">covering three times more land than previously known\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But most are in bad shape — overgrown, obliterated by wildfire, or damaged due to mining and other industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“About 5% are actually functioning in any proper sustainable way, productive way. So clearly we have a large task ahead of us,” said Dean Gould, Sierra National Forest Supervisor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meadows, it turns out, have significant environmental value. They can help mitigate climate change, according to Pope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Recovering meadows sequester carbon, and they can sequester up to six times more than the surrounding forest,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meadows in the midsummer are also a critical habitat for endangered animals, like the Great Gray Owl and the Greater Sandhill Cranes, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd591300.pdf\">the U.S. Forest Service (PDF)\u003c/a>. In the summer, healthy meadows are like natural sponges that soak up spring snowmelt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further, meadows hold cultural importance to indigenous communities and have served as gathering sites for thousands of Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘I have to admit that this is the most exciting work I’ve ever done.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"size": "medium",
"align": "right",
"citation": "Karen Pope, US Forest Service",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pope is optimistic about the restoration of the Sierran meadows. She recently co-founded a group called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.slobeaverbrigade.com/2022/05/16/california-process-based-restoration-network/\">California Process-Based Restoration Network\u003c/a> to promote this work, and many individuals have joined the cause. She believes that the small pilot meadow off Highway 168, where Swift has been working, exemplifies what’s achievable and how restoring meadows can benefit the entire Sierra region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to admit that this is the most exciting work I’ve ever done. It absolutely makes me feel like I’m not just doing research but actually doing something to help,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift’s work to restore the Lower Grouse Meadow was contracted by the U.S. Forest Service, underscoring its importance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s passionate about the work, even though witnessing so much degraded land can be emotionally taxing. “I tell everybody, if there’s another way you can make a living, do that, because this is hard on the soul,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, as he watches a tiny frog disappear into the stream, he adds, “Or it is until you see a meadow like this recover. Then it’s easy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984319/why-the-forest-service-is-working-to-restore-meadows-in-the-sierra",
"authors": [
"11631"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_670",
"science_109"
],
"featImg": "science_1984323",
"label": "science"
},
"science_1984299": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984299",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984299",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1695306643000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1695306643,
"format": "standard",
"title": "How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America's Air",
"headTitle": "How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America’s Air | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Over the last few decades, air in the U.S. has undergone a remarkable transformation: pollution levels of health-damaging tiny particles have dropped by roughly 40% since 2000, primarily thanks to the country’s decades-long effort to improve air quality through the Clean Air Act, a landmark environmental law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildfires fueled by human-driven climate change, however, has erased roughly 25% of those air quality gains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06522-6\">a new study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>. “We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality,” says Marissa Childs, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects are more pronounced in Western states, where smoke-laden days have become an annual fact of life. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131279317/pacific-northwest-schools-cancel-outdoor-activities-when-air-quality-is-unhealth\">Schools\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/550656850\"> keep kids inside during recess\u003c/a>; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/25/1195926923/canada-wildfire-smoke-asthma-cdc-new-york-hospital-visits\">emergency rooms\u003c/a> know to prepare when wildfires break out nearby. The study found that since 2016, in states like California, Washington, and Oregon, wildfire smoke has added enough pollution to the air to wipe out nearly half of the total air quality gains made from 2000 onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest, South, and eastern states are not immune. “This is impacting way more places than we used to think and at a larger scale,” says Childs. Even before this year’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195154996/some-of-canadas-wildfires-likely-made-worse-by-human-driven-climate-change\"> Canadian wildfires\u003c/a> blanketed the Eastern seaboard in thick smoke, smoke plumes regularly tanked air quality far from\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184393713/canadas-wildfires-are-part-of-a-worrying-trend-but-theyre-not-without-precedent\"> the actual wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Clean Air Act worked until now\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bipartisan Clean Air Act, signed into law in 1970, has had remarkable success cleaning up \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">the nation’s air\u003c/a>. In its first few decades, levels of the six major pollutants it addressed dropped by \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">more than 40%\u003c/a>. Since 2000, the drop has continued nearly everywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Marissa Childs, author and researcher, Harvard's Center for the Environment\"]‘We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality. But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.’[/pullquote]One major target of the Clean Air Act is PM2.5 — tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Many different sources contribute to PM2.5 including dust, and soot from burning coal or gas. The super-small particles are also produced when anything burns such as forests, grasslands, and houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing or retiring coal and gas-fired power plants cut PM2.5 levels nearby. So did improving car and truck fuel efficiency and pollution-control technologies like catalytic converters — though pollution levels near major roadways still often exceed the EPA’s daily standard. Nationally, PM2.5 levels dropped \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends\">another 42% between 2000 and 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall, there was a big improvement — but it was not shared equitably,” says Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego. Communities of colo\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">r remained exposed to higher pollution\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP8584\"> even as total levels dropped\u003c/a>. Black communities in particular breathe in much more heavy pollution from \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491\">cars, heavy industry, and construction\u003c/a> than any other groups. That’s a pattern that holds nationwide and over decades, including into today’s efforts to cut back fossil fuel pollution, which are at risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41131-x\">continuing the disparities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More smoke is not good for anyone’s health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, the country’s air was getting cleaner. But Childs, who was living in California at the time watching wildfire seasons break record after record, could tell that wasn’t the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists were pinpointing how climate change exacerbated the burns. The answer, they found over and over, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213815120\">was a lot\u003c/a>. Hotter, drier conditions sucked more moisture out of vegetation, priming it to burn explosively and extensively when a spark happened to catch.[aside postID='science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305' label='Related coverage']Decades and even centuries of fire suppression — the long-held policy of the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies — also fed the wildfires. Many habitats across the Western U.S. evolved to experience frequent burns, which cleared away excess fuel, and Indigenous communities often used fire to keep those habitats open as well. Now forests are packed with \u003ca href=\"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3250\">many more trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combination has led to wildfires that burn 10 times the acreage as 50 years ago. Massive, destructive burn years like 2020 are projected to become much more common as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\">climate change marches forward\u003c/a>, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/professionals-prepare-for-prescribed-burn#:~:text=Prescribed%20fire%20helps%20reduce%20wildfire,less%20available%20material%20to%20burn.\">aggressive forest management\u003c/a> could blunt some of the worst outcomes,\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1126912268\"> research shows\u003c/a>. And wildfires are not just tied to the West. This year, wildfires burned from Canada’s East to West coasts and deep into Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Migliaccio, an immunologist at the University of Montana, studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health. When he moved to Montana in 2000, wildfires weren’t top-of-mind for most people. But within the past decade, “the concern has gotten huge,” he says. “And it’s gone global.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the health impacts leak well outside the immediate realm of the fires. Smoke, and all its fine particles, can travel thousands of miles. “When you see a wildfire smoke plume, you see that pollution. Essentially, the smoke that you’re seeing is PM2.5,” says Colleen Reid, an environmental public health expert at the University of Colorado, Boulder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not yet completely clear if \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099482986/eliminating-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-would-save-about-50-000-lives-study-finds\">wildfire smoke particles\u003c/a> induce different health outcomes than PM2.5 from other sources, like roadways, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">some research points that direction\u003c/a>. But the tiny particles from fires and other pollution sources are so small they cross from lungs into the bloodstream, driving inflammation throughout the body. Even short-term exposure to wildfire smoke makes lung problems like asthma worse, as well as a panoply of other health issues, from heart attacks to neurological issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Migliaccio \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32764367/\">led a study\u003c/a> that followed Montanans exposed to extremely high doses of smoke for 49 straight days in 2017. It found their lung function was depressed for at least two years afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 41 states, air quality had been getting better between 2000 and the 2010s. But as wildfires exploded, those improvements stopped or even reversed. Smoke was responsible for just intermittent “exceedances,” when air pollution exceeds EPA’s limits, in the early part of the record. By 2020-2022, wildfire smoke was the primary cause of bad air in four western states and a major contributor in 17 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Solutions are not straightforward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are a natural and necessary ecological reality in many parts of the country. But research predicts the frequency and size of fires will\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\"> grow precipitously in coming decades\u003c/a>, increasing peoples’ exposure to smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act effectively regulates point-source pollution, like soot from power plants. It is less effective at regulating risk from smoke, which drifts across state borders and affects people far from the wildfires themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dialing back the climate pressures that exacerbate wildfires is critical, says Childs. But so is creating forest and fire management policies that reduce exposure to very high concentrations of smoke. That could be, somewhat counterintuitively, increasing the number of \u003cem>prescribed\u003c/em> fires, which can lessen the risk of catastrophic wildfires, though they also generate local smoke plumes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, people can take steps to protect themselves from inevitable smoke exposure, says Reid. Installing air filters in your home — and keeping them clean — can go a long way. Health experts recommend wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you have to go outdoors, and to avoid exercise in smoky air if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+wildfire+smoke+is+erasing+years+of+progress+toward+cleaning+up+America%27s+air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1294,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 22
},
"modified": 1704845898,
"excerpt": "A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades. ",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades. ",
"title": "How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America's Air | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America's Air",
"datePublished": "2023-09-21T07:30:43-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:18-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1200143622&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:00:20 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:40:59 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200143622/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air?ft=nprml&f=1200143622",
"nprImageAgency": "David Dee Delgado/Getty Images",
"source": "NPR",
"nprStoryId": "1200143622",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/news/affiliate/npr",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1193795778/alejandra-borunda\">Alejandra Borunda\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:40:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1984299/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Over the last few decades, air in the U.S. has undergone a remarkable transformation: pollution levels of health-damaging tiny particles have dropped by roughly 40% since 2000, primarily thanks to the country’s decades-long effort to improve air quality through the Clean Air Act, a landmark environmental law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildfires fueled by human-driven climate change, however, has erased roughly 25% of those air quality gains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06522-6\">a new study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>. “We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality,” says Marissa Childs, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects are more pronounced in Western states, where smoke-laden days have become an annual fact of life. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131279317/pacific-northwest-schools-cancel-outdoor-activities-when-air-quality-is-unhealth\">Schools\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/550656850\"> keep kids inside during recess\u003c/a>; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/25/1195926923/canada-wildfire-smoke-asthma-cdc-new-york-hospital-visits\">emergency rooms\u003c/a> know to prepare when wildfires break out nearby. The study found that since 2016, in states like California, Washington, and Oregon, wildfire smoke has added enough pollution to the air to wipe out nearly half of the total air quality gains made from 2000 onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest, South, and eastern states are not immune. “This is impacting way more places than we used to think and at a larger scale,” says Childs. Even before this year’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195154996/some-of-canadas-wildfires-likely-made-worse-by-human-driven-climate-change\"> Canadian wildfires\u003c/a> blanketed the Eastern seaboard in thick smoke, smoke plumes regularly tanked air quality far from\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184393713/canadas-wildfires-are-part-of-a-worrying-trend-but-theyre-not-without-precedent\"> the actual wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Clean Air Act worked until now\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bipartisan Clean Air Act, signed into law in 1970, has had remarkable success cleaning up \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">the nation’s air\u003c/a>. In its first few decades, levels of the six major pollutants it addressed dropped by \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">more than 40%\u003c/a>. Since 2000, the drop has continued nearly everywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality. But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"align": "right",
"size": "medium",
"citation": "Marissa Childs, author and researcher, Harvard's Center for the Environment",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One major target of the Clean Air Act is PM2.5 — tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Many different sources contribute to PM2.5 including dust, and soot from burning coal or gas. The super-small particles are also produced when anything burns such as forests, grasslands, and houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing or retiring coal and gas-fired power plants cut PM2.5 levels nearby. So did improving car and truck fuel efficiency and pollution-control technologies like catalytic converters — though pollution levels near major roadways still often exceed the EPA’s daily standard. Nationally, PM2.5 levels dropped \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends\">another 42% between 2000 and 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall, there was a big improvement — but it was not shared equitably,” says Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego. Communities of colo\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">r remained exposed to higher pollution\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP8584\"> even as total levels dropped\u003c/a>. Black communities in particular breathe in much more heavy pollution from \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491\">cars, heavy industry, and construction\u003c/a> than any other groups. That’s a pattern that holds nationwide and over decades, including into today’s efforts to cut back fossil fuel pollution, which are at risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41131-x\">continuing the disparities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More smoke is not good for anyone’s health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, the country’s air was getting cleaner. But Childs, who was living in California at the time watching wildfire seasons break record after record, could tell that wasn’t the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists were pinpointing how climate change exacerbated the burns. The answer, they found over and over, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213815120\">was a lot\u003c/a>. Hotter, drier conditions sucked more moisture out of vegetation, priming it to burn explosively and extensively when a spark happened to catch.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305",
"label": "Related coverage "
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Decades and even centuries of fire suppression — the long-held policy of the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies — also fed the wildfires. Many habitats across the Western U.S. evolved to experience frequent burns, which cleared away excess fuel, and Indigenous communities often used fire to keep those habitats open as well. Now forests are packed with \u003ca href=\"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3250\">many more trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combination has led to wildfires that burn 10 times the acreage as 50 years ago. Massive, destructive burn years like 2020 are projected to become much more common as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\">climate change marches forward\u003c/a>, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/professionals-prepare-for-prescribed-burn#:~:text=Prescribed%20fire%20helps%20reduce%20wildfire,less%20available%20material%20to%20burn.\">aggressive forest management\u003c/a> could blunt some of the worst outcomes,\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1126912268\"> research shows\u003c/a>. And wildfires are not just tied to the West. This year, wildfires burned from Canada’s East to West coasts and deep into Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Migliaccio, an immunologist at the University of Montana, studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health. When he moved to Montana in 2000, wildfires weren’t top-of-mind for most people. But within the past decade, “the concern has gotten huge,” he says. “And it’s gone global.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the health impacts leak well outside the immediate realm of the fires. Smoke, and all its fine particles, can travel thousands of miles. “When you see a wildfire smoke plume, you see that pollution. Essentially, the smoke that you’re seeing is PM2.5,” says Colleen Reid, an environmental public health expert at the University of Colorado, Boulder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not yet completely clear if \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099482986/eliminating-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-would-save-about-50-000-lives-study-finds\">wildfire smoke particles\u003c/a> induce different health outcomes than PM2.5 from other sources, like roadways, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">some research points that direction\u003c/a>. But the tiny particles from fires and other pollution sources are so small they cross from lungs into the bloodstream, driving inflammation throughout the body. Even short-term exposure to wildfire smoke makes lung problems like asthma worse, as well as a panoply of other health issues, from heart attacks to neurological issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Migliaccio \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32764367/\">led a study\u003c/a> that followed Montanans exposed to extremely high doses of smoke for 49 straight days in 2017. It found their lung function was depressed for at least two years afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 41 states, air quality had been getting better between 2000 and the 2010s. But as wildfires exploded, those improvements stopped or even reversed. Smoke was responsible for just intermittent “exceedances,” when air pollution exceeds EPA’s limits, in the early part of the record. By 2020-2022, wildfire smoke was the primary cause of bad air in four western states and a major contributor in 17 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Solutions are not straightforward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are a natural and necessary ecological reality in many parts of the country. But research predicts the frequency and size of fires will\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\"> grow precipitously in coming decades\u003c/a>, increasing peoples’ exposure to smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act effectively regulates point-source pollution, like soot from power plants. It is less effective at regulating risk from smoke, which drifts across state borders and affects people far from the wildfires themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dialing back the climate pressures that exacerbate wildfires is critical, says Childs. But so is creating forest and fire management policies that reduce exposure to very high concentrations of smoke. That could be, somewhat counterintuitively, increasing the number of \u003cem>prescribed\u003c/em> fires, which can lessen the risk of catastrophic wildfires, though they also generate local smoke plumes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, people can take steps to protect themselves from inevitable smoke exposure, says Reid. Installing air filters in your home — and keeping them clean — can go a long way. Health experts recommend wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you have to go outdoors, and to avoid exercise in smoky air if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+wildfire+smoke+is+erasing+years+of+progress+toward+cleaning+up+America%27s+air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984299/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984299"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_505",
"science_524",
"science_959",
"science_3463",
"science_113"
],
"featImg": "science_1984300",
"label": "source_science_1984299"
},
"science_1984229": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984229",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984229",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1694183413000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1694183413,
"format": "standard",
"title": "In a Charred Moonscape, a Band of Hopeful Workers Try to Save the Joshua Tree",
"headTitle": "In a Charred Moonscape, a Band of Hopeful Workers Try to Save the Joshua Tree | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>“The Country since leaving the Colorado has been a dry rocky sandy Barren desert.”\u003c/em> — Jedediah Smith, 1826.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early western explorers who ventured into the Mojave Desert, like Jedediah Smith, often mischaracterized it as a barren landscape, devoid of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a closer inspection of these sweeping landscapes reveals soil-hugging carpets of springtime flowers, native grasses and fragrant shrubs, alongside the more obvious cacti and succulents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the desert lives up to its stereotype is after a wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the shadow of last month’s York Fire in California’s Mojave National Preserve, almost nothing is left amid the rocks and sand, except the charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees, and chollas. The soil is a mottled brown and black, and some plants have been reduced to mere silhouettes of char on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984232\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984232\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side-by-side,burnt desert plants in an arid landscape with blue skies behind and hills on the horizon in the left photo.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-800x594.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1020x757.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-768x570.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1536x1141.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-2048x1521.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1920x1426.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scorched Joshua tree (left) and a burned barrel cactus are remnants of the York Fire. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The moonscape is the result of a fire that burned quickly and widely, engulfing roughly 130 square miles of the preserve — including picturesque Caruthers Canyon, a boulder-strewn spot popular with campers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Caruthers Canyon is the prettiest place we had. It was a beautiful little pinyon-juniper forest up there,” says Debra Hughson, who is the preserve’s deputy superintendent. “When the pinyon-juniper burns, it doesn’t come back. Not in my lifetime. Not in your lifetime. Maybe never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>There may be no going back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This latest wildfire comes as a reminder of the unpredictable future facing some of the desert’s most iconic residents. Warmer, drier temperatures are already stressing the preserve’s spindly Joshua trees. Models predict those warming trends will leave Joshua trees with fewer suitable places to live. Scroll forward in time, Hughson says, and their range shrinks: “It melts like an ice cube on a hot sidewalk.” On top of that, in recent years wide-ranging wildfires are also pushing the succulents into greater peril.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re already living on the edge,” Hughson says. “What we’re doing here globally is we’re cranking up the temperature, and here we’re also cranking down the rainfall, the precipitation.” Joshua trees, she explains, are having a hard time keeping up with such swift climate changes. “Then you get a major stressor like this, that just erases the chalkboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984233\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984233\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Debra Hughson is the deputy superintendent at Mojave National Preserve. She says Joshua trees are struggling to keep up with such swift climate changes. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What she means is the park’s dense Joshua tree forests may never come back after a fire. A grassy savannah might rise up to replace them, with a few Joshua trees scattered throughout as a reminder of what once was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nowhere is that potential future on greater display than along Morning Star Mine Road, which cuts across the northern reaches of the preserve. On one side of the road there is a Joshua tree forest so dense it looks like a green wall at a distance, with a rich understory of drab greenish-gray bushes. On the other side there’s a graveyard of blackened Joshua trees with sun-bleached buds. The ground is mostly bare, aside from patches of grass, and the color palette is black, white and shades of tan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plant remains hang over Valley View Ranch, one of the sites that burned in the 2020 Dome Fire at Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The road was a firebreak during the 2020 Dome Fire. Flames destroyed an estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees on Cima Dome, an area that was once the park’s grandest example of dense Joshua tree woodland. The area’s relatively high elevation was supposed to serve as a sort of sanctuary — a climate refuge where Joshua trees could continue to thrive amid hotter, drier conditions elsewhere in their range. Then, the fire came – an unexpected destabilizing force that casts that long-term trajectory into question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hughson trained as a geologist. She talks about the future of the Joshua tree and what might happen at Cima Dome as if she still assesses these seismic ecological changes at the tempo of geologic time. “In the end,” she says, “the desert is going to tell us what it’s going to be and it’s going to show us what it’s going to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Replanting hope in the desert\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists are not waiting to see what the desert becomes. They’re actively intervening with an ambitious years-long project to replant some 4,000 Joshua trees at Cima Dome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biological science technician Erin Knight walks through a graveyard of dead Joshua trees, near the remains of an old cattle operation called Valley View Ranch. Some of the plants have toppled to the ground. Others still stand, but they’re falling to pieces; the branches that once stretched up to the sky now dangle and sway eerily in the desert wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984235\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984235\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erin Knight is a biological science technician at the Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Kind of our own little chandelier here in the desert,” Knight jokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small chicken wire cages are scattered throughout the grove. This is where volunteers have planted baby Joshua trees, in hopes of resurrecting the century-old giants that perished here. Knight crouches down near one of the cages, and checks a numbered tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says this seedling was planted on Nov. 6 last year, and a volunteer named it Bratislava — the capital of Slovakia. Unfortunately, this one’s dead, as are many others at this site. In fact, in the two years this project’s been underway, 80% of the roughly 1,900 Joshua trees planted in the burn scar of the Dome Fire have died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984230\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984230\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees and chollas are seen at the edge of the York Fire in San Bernardino County, California, inside Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, restoring Joshua trees is more of an art than a science, and sometimes it works out really well and sometimes it doesn’t,” Hughson says. Some of the baby Joshua trees have been eaten, especially those without a cage. Others die of thirst, though volunteers and scientists at the preserve make their best efforts to water the baby seedlings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that have participated. We even had a camel train packing water into these,” Hughson says. Restoration work in the desert, she explains, is not for the faint of heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984236\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984236\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisory park ranger Sierra Willoughby waters a baby Joshua tree, named ‘Lychee,’ inside its protective cage. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tale of failed experiments,” Hughson says. “Go look at the literature on restoration in the desert, especially the Mojave Desert. And OK, ‘Well, this didn’t work.’ Another paper on, ‘Well, that didn’t work.’ ‘OK, well, we tried this, and we failed miserably.’ And the stories of success are very rare.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, hundreds of these Joshua tree seedlings have survived. Knight’s colleague Ryan McRae found one nearby. It’s only a few inches tall, and looks like the top of a baby pineapple. Knight looks up its name, and says it’s called “Lychee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984237\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984237\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surviving Joshua tree inside the Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s still tiny, and McRae points out one of the huge challenges of restoring a forest with two-inch-tall seedlings. “These Joshua trees only grow about 1.5 to 2 inches per year. So if you can imagine a 10-foot-tall tree or so, you can get an idea of how many years or decades it would take to get to that height.” At a conservative 1.5 inches per year — it would take at least 80 years to return this area back to the way it was before the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We probably won’t see it in any of our lives,” Knight says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing for the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelso is an old railroad town in another corner of the park near a giant field of sand dunes. Behind a 1920s schoolhouse, there’s a small beige building with two bright teal doors reading BOYS and GIRLS. There’s no sign from the outside, but the GIRLS room is now a makeshift field lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984238\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984238\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seed technician Christina Sanchez stands outside the old restroom that’s been converted into a seed lab, behind the historic Kelso schoolhouse. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is our seed lab,” says Christina Sanchez, a seed technician. “This is where we’re sorting all of the Joshua tree seeds, and where we store them before they go to the nursery.” The nursery is a facility near Lake Mead, where rows of pots contain baby Joshua tree sprouts, ready to be transplanted into the wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez pulls over a big bucket, full of cream-colored Joshua tree fruits she and her team have collected. She takes one out and shakes it: “Sounds like a little rattle,” she says. The seeds are about the size of roma tomatoes, but they’re brittle and hard. She breaks one open with a crack, and reveals the black hockey-puck-like seeds inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A curious contraption that looks like a cross between an ant farm and a pinball machine hooks up to a shop vac blower. It’s a seed cleaning machine, and when Sanchez switches on the blower, the seeds flutter through the chutes inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984239\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984239\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1812\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-768x544.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1536x1087.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-2048x1449.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1920x1359.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clockwise from top left: Sanchez opens Joshua tree seed pods. Right: She then separates the seeds with a seed cleaning machine. Bottom left: Sanchez shows a handful of seeds after they have been separated. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From here, she’ll dump the viable seeds into big jars, labeled with the collection site, and put them in a big chest freezer. The freezer is already half full of jars brimming with some 300,000 Joshua tree seeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the future of the species,” Sanchez says. “This deep freezer here, this is holding our future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the Joshua tree seedlings planted so far have died, raising the question whether collecting and storing seeds is a gesture of hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to lose a species if we don’t try,” she says. “We just gotta keep trying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sanchez stands next to a chest freezer holding a jar of Joshua tree seeds that were harvested prior to the York Fire. The freezer is already half full of jars brimming with roughly 300,000 Joshua tree seeds. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debra Hughson acknowledges that the replanting effort is just a “drop in the ocean,” given the massive losses of Joshua trees here in recent years. “That’s a few hundred we’ve managed, in a landscape that had 1.3 million,” she says. “So you can do the math.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numbers aside, Hughson expresses skepticism that people really have much of a role in “rebuilding” wilderness. “I don’t think that wilderness areas can be built. They can be designated, but nature created it,” she says. “We seem to be capable of destroying it … but we can’t create something that we don’t really even understand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984241\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Banana yucca sprouts in the burned landscape near Valley View Ranch. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even so, the replanting project continues in October. The goal is to get 2,000 more Joshua trees in the ground over the next two years, and as before, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/moja/getinvolved/cima-dome-joshua-tree-forest-restoration.htm\">the preserve is relying on wilderness-savvy volunteers\u003c/a>. That human aspect, Hughson says, might be one of the most compelling reasons to do what seems very difficult, if not near impossible, on an ecological scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes us feel better. You know, psychologically, there were a lot of people that got a lot of good feelings and satisfaction from helping with the Joshua tree planting,” she says. “And to try to help makes you feel better about yourself and more hopeful about the future. And that in itself is a valuable thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=In+a+charred+moonscape%2C+a+band+of+hopeful+workers+try+to+save+the+Joshua+tree&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 2126,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 38
},
"modified": 1704845905,
"excerpt": "After flames destroyed 1.3 million Joshua trees in Mojave National Preserve, biologists began replanting seedlings. But many have died, and now another fire has torched more of the iconic succulents. ",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "After flames destroyed 1.3 million Joshua trees in Mojave National Preserve, biologists began replanting seedlings. But many have died, and now another fire has torched more of the iconic succulents. ",
"title": "In a Charred Moonscape, a Band of Hopeful Workers Try to Save the Joshua Tree | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "In a Charred Moonscape, a Band of Hopeful Workers Try to Save the Joshua Tree",
"datePublished": "2023-09-08T07:30:13-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:25-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "in-a-charred-moonscape-a-band-of-hopeful-workers-try-to-save-the-joshua-tree",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1196581569&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Thu, 07 Sep 2023 05:00:33 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Thu, 07 Sep 2023 11:12:01 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2023/09/07/1196581569/climate-change-wildfire-joshua-tree-mojave-national-preserve?ft=nprml&f=1196581569",
"nprAudio": "https://play.podtrac.com/npr-191676894/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2023/08/20230818_atc_mojave_burning.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1025&d=320&story=1196581569&awCollectionId=1&awEpisodeId=1196581569&ft=nprml&f=1196581569",
"nprImageAgency": "Krystal Ramirez for NPR",
"source": "NPR",
"nprAudioM3u": "http://api.npr.org/m3u/11196582233-658e70.m3u?orgId=1&topicId=1025&d=320&story=1196581569&ft=nprml&f=1196581569",
"nprStoryId": "1196581569",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.npr.org/",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/859339295/christopher-intagliata\">Christopher Intagliata\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Thu, 07 Sep 2023 11:12:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1984229/in-a-charred-moonscape-a-band-of-hopeful-workers-try-to-save-the-joshua-tree",
"audioUrl": "https://play.podtrac.com/npr-191676894/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2023/08/20230818_atc_mojave_burning.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1025&d=320&story=1196581569&awCollectionId=1&awEpisodeId=1196581569&ft=nprml&f=1196581569",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>“The Country since leaving the Colorado has been a dry rocky sandy Barren desert.”\u003c/em> — Jedediah Smith, 1826.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early western explorers who ventured into the Mojave Desert, like Jedediah Smith, often mischaracterized it as a barren landscape, devoid of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a closer inspection of these sweeping landscapes reveals soil-hugging carpets of springtime flowers, native grasses and fragrant shrubs, alongside the more obvious cacti and succulents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the desert lives up to its stereotype is after a wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the shadow of last month’s York Fire in California’s Mojave National Preserve, almost nothing is left amid the rocks and sand, except the charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees, and chollas. The soil is a mottled brown and black, and some plants have been reduced to mere silhouettes of char on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984232\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984232\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side-by-side,burnt desert plants in an arid landscape with blue skies behind and hills on the horizon in the left photo.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-800x594.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1020x757.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-768x570.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1536x1141.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-2048x1521.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-duo-update_custom-a3c213912e6160eaecee2d97b08fdc7b6034e2bc-1920x1426.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scorched Joshua tree (left) and a burned barrel cactus are remnants of the York Fire. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The moonscape is the result of a fire that burned quickly and widely, engulfing roughly 130 square miles of the preserve — including picturesque Caruthers Canyon, a boulder-strewn spot popular with campers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Caruthers Canyon is the prettiest place we had. It was a beautiful little pinyon-juniper forest up there,” says Debra Hughson, who is the preserve’s deputy superintendent. “When the pinyon-juniper burns, it doesn’t come back. Not in my lifetime. Not in your lifetime. Maybe never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>There may be no going back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This latest wildfire comes as a reminder of the unpredictable future facing some of the desert’s most iconic residents. Warmer, drier temperatures are already stressing the preserve’s spindly Joshua trees. Models predict those warming trends will leave Joshua trees with fewer suitable places to live. Scroll forward in time, Hughson says, and their range shrinks: “It melts like an ice cube on a hot sidewalk.” On top of that, in recent years wide-ranging wildfires are also pushing the succulents into greater peril.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re already living on the edge,” Hughson says. “What we’re doing here globally is we’re cranking up the temperature, and here we’re also cranking down the rainfall, the precipitation.” Joshua trees, she explains, are having a hard time keeping up with such swift climate changes. “Then you get a major stressor like this, that just erases the chalkboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984233\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984233\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_06_custom-1bfcaa4dc80a136adcb22d55f96c66e6c9aa9524-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Debra Hughson is the deputy superintendent at Mojave National Preserve. She says Joshua trees are struggling to keep up with such swift climate changes. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What she means is the park’s dense Joshua tree forests may never come back after a fire. A grassy savannah might rise up to replace them, with a few Joshua trees scattered throughout as a reminder of what once was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nowhere is that potential future on greater display than along Morning Star Mine Road, which cuts across the northern reaches of the preserve. On one side of the road there is a Joshua tree forest so dense it looks like a green wall at a distance, with a rich understory of drab greenish-gray bushes. On the other side there’s a graveyard of blackened Joshua trees with sun-bleached buds. The ground is mostly bare, aside from patches of grass, and the color palette is black, white and shades of tan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_09_custom-6507473b7144787a889fad9d2f2a6b59823c0e74-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plant remains hang over Valley View Ranch, one of the sites that burned in the 2020 Dome Fire at Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The road was a firebreak during the 2020 Dome Fire. Flames destroyed an estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees on Cima Dome, an area that was once the park’s grandest example of dense Joshua tree woodland. The area’s relatively high elevation was supposed to serve as a sort of sanctuary — a climate refuge where Joshua trees could continue to thrive amid hotter, drier conditions elsewhere in their range. Then, the fire came – an unexpected destabilizing force that casts that long-term trajectory into question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hughson trained as a geologist. She talks about the future of the Joshua tree and what might happen at Cima Dome as if she still assesses these seismic ecological changes at the tempo of geologic time. “In the end,” she says, “the desert is going to tell us what it’s going to be and it’s going to show us what it’s going to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Replanting hope in the desert\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists are not waiting to see what the desert becomes. They’re actively intervening with an ambitious years-long project to replant some 4,000 Joshua trees at Cima Dome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biological science technician Erin Knight walks through a graveyard of dead Joshua trees, near the remains of an old cattle operation called Valley View Ranch. Some of the plants have toppled to the ground. Others still stand, but they’re falling to pieces; the branches that once stretched up to the sky now dangle and sway eerily in the desert wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984235\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984235\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_05_custom-ddf67a8272af1d1f6982f41a639e917fbd5b81b8-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erin Knight is a biological science technician at the Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Kind of our own little chandelier here in the desert,” Knight jokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small chicken wire cages are scattered throughout the grove. This is where volunteers have planted baby Joshua trees, in hopes of resurrecting the century-old giants that perished here. Knight crouches down near one of the cages, and checks a numbered tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says this seedling was planted on Nov. 6 last year, and a volunteer named it Bratislava — the capital of Slovakia. Unfortunately, this one’s dead, as are many others at this site. In fact, in the two years this project’s been underway, 80% of the roughly 1,900 Joshua trees planted in the burn scar of the Dome Fire have died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984230\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984230\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_17-edit_custom-bbcb6de0b000d7a4b78bf4dfdc7a988596b6668a-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charred carcasses of Mojave yuccas, Joshua trees and chollas are seen at the edge of the York Fire in San Bernardino County, California, inside Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, restoring Joshua trees is more of an art than a science, and sometimes it works out really well and sometimes it doesn’t,” Hughson says. Some of the baby Joshua trees have been eaten, especially those without a cage. Others die of thirst, though volunteers and scientists at the preserve make their best efforts to water the baby seedlings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that have participated. We even had a camel train packing water into these,” Hughson says. Restoration work in the desert, she explains, is not for the faint of heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984236\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984236\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_14_custom-3ed023c31490c2b4a8b0f4afe63ddd822f9ecd46-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisory park ranger Sierra Willoughby waters a baby Joshua tree, named ‘Lychee,’ inside its protective cage. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tale of failed experiments,” Hughson says. “Go look at the literature on restoration in the desert, especially the Mojave Desert. And OK, ‘Well, this didn’t work.’ Another paper on, ‘Well, that didn’t work.’ ‘OK, well, we tried this, and we failed miserably.’ And the stories of success are very rare.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, hundreds of these Joshua tree seedlings have survived. Knight’s colleague Ryan McRae found one nearby. It’s only a few inches tall, and looks like the top of a baby pineapple. Knight looks up its name, and says it’s called “Lychee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984237\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984237\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_59_custom-a8038b813b6ae0c89086f9158f89aaae227e6e4d-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surviving Joshua tree inside the Mojave National Preserve. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s still tiny, and McRae points out one of the huge challenges of restoring a forest with two-inch-tall seedlings. “These Joshua trees only grow about 1.5 to 2 inches per year. So if you can imagine a 10-foot-tall tree or so, you can get an idea of how many years or decades it would take to get to that height.” At a conservative 1.5 inches per year — it would take at least 80 years to return this area back to the way it was before the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We probably won’t see it in any of our lives,” Knight says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing for the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelso is an old railroad town in another corner of the park near a giant field of sand dunes. Behind a 1920s schoolhouse, there’s a small beige building with two bright teal doors reading BOYS and GIRLS. There’s no sign from the outside, but the GIRLS room is now a makeshift field lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984238\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984238\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_40_custom-002484d6c789abb2a9ed1eb900b6a035bd37bd13-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seed technician Christina Sanchez stands outside the old restroom that’s been converted into a seed lab, behind the historic Kelso schoolhouse. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is our seed lab,” says Christina Sanchez, a seed technician. “This is where we’re sorting all of the Joshua tree seeds, and where we store them before they go to the nursery.” The nursery is a facility near Lake Mead, where rows of pots contain baby Joshua tree sprouts, ready to be transplanted into the wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez pulls over a big bucket, full of cream-colored Joshua tree fruits she and her team have collected. She takes one out and shakes it: “Sounds like a little rattle,” she says. The seeds are about the size of roma tomatoes, but they’re brittle and hard. She breaks one open with a crack, and reveals the black hockey-puck-like seeds inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A curious contraption that looks like a cross between an ant farm and a pinball machine hooks up to a shop vac blower. It’s a seed cleaning machine, and when Sanchez switches on the blower, the seeds flutter through the chutes inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984239\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984239\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1812\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-768x544.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1536x1087.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-2048x1449.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/mojave-fire-trio_custom-0b8a68fcf7b1839732e5970ecf3b645e51c7554e-1920x1359.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clockwise from top left: Sanchez opens Joshua tree seed pods. Right: She then separates the seeds with a seed cleaning machine. Bottom left: Sanchez shows a handful of seeds after they have been separated. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From here, she’ll dump the viable seeds into big jars, labeled with the collection site, and put them in a big chest freezer. The freezer is already half full of jars brimming with some 300,000 Joshua tree seeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the future of the species,” Sanchez says. “This deep freezer here, this is holding our future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the Joshua tree seedlings planted so far have died, raising the question whether collecting and storing seeds is a gesture of hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to lose a species if we don’t try,” she says. “We just gotta keep trying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984240\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_52_custom-5e07e098f0aa839d06d569bafc0c04cc54a3d7ed-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sanchez stands next to a chest freezer holding a jar of Joshua tree seeds that were harvested prior to the York Fire. The freezer is already half full of jars brimming with roughly 300,000 Joshua tree seeds. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Debra Hughson acknowledges that the replanting effort is just a “drop in the ocean,” given the massive losses of Joshua trees here in recent years. “That’s a few hundred we’ve managed, in a landscape that had 1.3 million,” she says. “So you can do the math.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numbers aside, Hughson expresses skepticism that people really have much of a role in “rebuilding” wilderness. “I don’t think that wilderness areas can be built. They can be designated, but nature created it,” she says. “We seem to be capable of destroying it … but we can’t create something that we don’t really even understand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984241\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/09/2023-08-joshuatressjojavedesert-kramirez_11_custom-02457637f193030b8433188b613f4e908e2d1e06-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Banana yucca sprouts in the burned landscape near Valley View Ranch. \u003ccite>(Krystal Ramirez/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even so, the replanting project continues in October. The goal is to get 2,000 more Joshua trees in the ground over the next two years, and as before, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/moja/getinvolved/cima-dome-joshua-tree-forest-restoration.htm\">the preserve is relying on wilderness-savvy volunteers\u003c/a>. That human aspect, Hughson says, might be one of the most compelling reasons to do what seems very difficult, if not near impossible, on an ecological scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes us feel better. You know, psychologically, there were a lot of people that got a lot of good feelings and satisfaction from helping with the Joshua tree planting,” she says. “And to try to help makes you feel better about yourself and more hopeful about the future. And that in itself is a valuable thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=In+a+charred+moonscape%2C+a+band+of+hopeful+workers+try+to+save+the+Joshua+tree&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984229/in-a-charred-moonscape-a-band-of-hopeful-workers-try-to-save-the-joshua-tree",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984229"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_5178",
"science_182",
"science_205",
"science_112",
"science_438",
"science_113"
],
"featImg": "science_1984231",
"label": "source_science_1984229"
},
"science_1984216": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984216",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984216",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1694025646000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1694025646,
"format": "standard",
"title": "One Way to Save Coral Reefs? Deep Freeze Them for the Future",
"headTitle": "One Way to Save Coral Reefs? Deep Freeze Them for the Future | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Ocean temperatures have been extremely hot this summer, wreaking havoc on some of the world’s highly vulnerable coral reefs. With marine heat waves only expected to get worse as the climate changes, scientists are increasingly focusing on an emergency plan: collecting coral specimens and safeguarding them onshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A library of corals, brought in from the wild, could be an insurance policy in the face of climate change, providing the genetic material to restore the reefs of the future. For long-term storage, some corals could end up in the deep freezer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are working on preserving corals by cryogenically freezing them. In a new study, a team from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, UC Berkeley and the University of Hawaii at Manoa report they \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40500-w\">successfully brought a coral fragment back to life\u003c/a> after freezing it at -196 degrees Celsius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The world’s coral reefs face an existential threat from climate change, if humans don’t reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels. The reefs’ vital ecosystems support about a quarter of all marine life and provide coastal protection from waves and storm surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cryopreservation, as the freezing technique is known, could provide a safe haven for the broad range genetic material across coral species, which could be key to adapting to future conditions. In Florida, as water temperatures rose to 100 degrees Fahrenheit this summer, restoration teams raced to collect coral specimens and put them in onshore tanks to preserve the unique individuals of the reef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to gut through this,” says Mary Hagedorn, senior scientist at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “We have to do whatever is necessary to maintain the ecosystems on our planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deep freezing coral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As a cryo-preservationist, Hagedorn gets questions that border science fiction, where humans seek to preserve themselves for centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They think of head freezers,” she says, laughing. “They think of all this weird stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, her work is much closer to human fertility treatments, where eggs and sperm are frozen to use later. Marine scientists have used the technique on coral sperm and young coral larvae, but freezing a living animal is much more complex.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Mary Hagedorn, senior scientist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the University of Hawaii\"]‘We have to gut through this. … We have to do whatever is necessary to maintain the ecosystems on our planet.’[/pullquote]Collecting coral sperm is tricky, however, since most corals only spawn only one or two days a year. Since they’re fastened to the sea floor, they release their genetic material all at once in big underwater clouds. To capture it, scientists have to be in the right place at the right time, often in remote and challenging conditions. Preserving living pieces of coral would allow more opportunities to collect specimens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would allow us to go out almost every day of the year and collect material throughout the world,” Hagedorn says. “It would speed up our ability to secure the genetic diversity of corals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With coral fragments from Hawaii, Hagedorn and her colleagues froze them at extremely cold temperatures in special chambers that prevent damaging ice crystals from forming. They were then able to thaw them and show the corals were still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making the corals healthy again after thawing is the next challenge, especially given that corals have roommates. Photosynthetic algae live in their tissue, creating food for the coral. But when stressed, the corals lose their algae, turning them white. Hagedorn says goring forward, restoring the algae will be key to reviving coral that can reproduce again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Genetic library of coral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As marine heat waves become more common and intense, a global effort is underway to preserve the genetic diversity of corals. The \u003ca href=\"https://nationalzoo.si.edu/center-for-species-survival/coral-biobank-alliance\">Coral Biobank Alliance\u003c/a> is seeking to collect specimens from all over the world. Hagedorn says cryopreservation could be a vital strategy for building a library of corals, which hopefully one day could repopulate reefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Noah’s ark only brought two,” she says. “We’re doing way more than that.”[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"science_29852,science_29756,science_14466\"]Reefs can recover from a bleaching event, but repeated marine heat waves make it less likely for corals to survive or reproduce successfully. The oceans are also acidifying as they absorb carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, which can harm corals and make it difficult for them to build their skeletons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Corals will continue to die and unless we are replacing them with restoration, there won’t be corals available in the future, even if we were to fix all of the threats,” says Jennifer Moore, coral recovery coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As temperatures peaked on Florida’s reefs this summer, Moore says some corals died outright from the heat. Research teams raced to preserve specimens from key coral species, collecting 150 elkhorn coral and 300 staghorn coral samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s less than one percent of their previous population,” she says. “So we’re already in a diminished state of genetic diversity. We can’t afford to lose anything that we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having those specimens could help breed the reefs of the future, since it’s unknown what combination of genes could make corals more resistant to the threats they may face, be it heat or disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore says cryopreservation could be a key piece of the puzzle in bringing reefs back. But the success of restoration depends on curbing the emissions from burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not a foregone conclusion,” Moore says. “There are still things that can be done to combat climate change so that we are not forced to be on a trajectory to a place where there are no more coral reefs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=One+way+to+save+coral+reefs%3F+Deep+freeze+them+for+the+future&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1022,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 22
},
"modified": 1704845907,
"excerpt": "As oceans get hotter, coral reefs are suffering. Scientists are working on ways to preserve coral by freezing and then reviving them to restore reefs someday.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "As oceans get hotter, coral reefs are suffering. Scientists are working on ways to preserve coral by freezing and then reviving them to restore reefs someday.",
"title": "One Way to Save Coral Reefs? Deep Freeze Them for the Future | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "One Way to Save Coral Reefs? Deep Freeze Them for the Future",
"datePublished": "2023-09-06T11:40:46-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:27-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "one-way-to-save-coral-reefs-deep-freeze-them-for-the-future",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1197792650&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Wed, 06 Sep 2023 07:42:46 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Wed, 06 Sep 2023 07:42:46 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197792650/coral-reefs-bleaching-restoration-climate?ft=nprml&f=1197792650",
"nprImageAgency": "Getty Images",
"source": "NPR",
"nprStoryId": "1197792650",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.npr.org/",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/803934365/lauren-sommer\">Lauren Sommer\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"nprImageCredit": "Donald Miralle",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Wed, 06 Sep 2023 07:42:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1984216/one-way-to-save-coral-reefs-deep-freeze-them-for-the-future",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ocean temperatures have been extremely hot this summer, wreaking havoc on some of the world’s highly vulnerable coral reefs. With marine heat waves only expected to get worse as the climate changes, scientists are increasingly focusing on an emergency plan: collecting coral specimens and safeguarding them onshore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A library of corals, brought in from the wild, could be an insurance policy in the face of climate change, providing the genetic material to restore the reefs of the future. For long-term storage, some corals could end up in the deep freezer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are working on preserving corals by cryogenically freezing them. In a new study, a team from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, UC Berkeley and the University of Hawaii at Manoa report they \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40500-w\">successfully brought a coral fragment back to life\u003c/a> after freezing it at -196 degrees Celsius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The world’s coral reefs face an existential threat from climate change, if humans don’t reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels. The reefs’ vital ecosystems support about a quarter of all marine life and provide coastal protection from waves and storm surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cryopreservation, as the freezing technique is known, could provide a safe haven for the broad range genetic material across coral species, which could be key to adapting to future conditions. In Florida, as water temperatures rose to 100 degrees Fahrenheit this summer, restoration teams raced to collect coral specimens and put them in onshore tanks to preserve the unique individuals of the reef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to gut through this,” says Mary Hagedorn, senior scientist at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “We have to do whatever is necessary to maintain the ecosystems on our planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deep freezing coral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As a cryo-preservationist, Hagedorn gets questions that border science fiction, where humans seek to preserve themselves for centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They think of head freezers,” she says, laughing. “They think of all this weird stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, her work is much closer to human fertility treatments, where eggs and sperm are frozen to use later. Marine scientists have used the technique on coral sperm and young coral larvae, but freezing a living animal is much more complex.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "‘We have to gut through this. … We have to do whatever is necessary to maintain the ecosystems on our planet.’",
"name": "pullquote",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"align": "right",
"size": "medium",
"citation": "Mary Hagedorn, senior scientist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and the University of Hawaii",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Collecting coral sperm is tricky, however, since most corals only spawn only one or two days a year. Since they’re fastened to the sea floor, they release their genetic material all at once in big underwater clouds. To capture it, scientists have to be in the right place at the right time, often in remote and challenging conditions. Preserving living pieces of coral would allow more opportunities to collect specimens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would allow us to go out almost every day of the year and collect material throughout the world,” Hagedorn says. “It would speed up our ability to secure the genetic diversity of corals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With coral fragments from Hawaii, Hagedorn and her colleagues froze them at extremely cold temperatures in special chambers that prevent damaging ice crystals from forming. They were then able to thaw them and show the corals were still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making the corals healthy again after thawing is the next challenge, especially given that corals have roommates. Photosynthetic algae live in their tissue, creating food for the coral. But when stressed, the corals lose their algae, turning them white. Hagedorn says goring forward, restoring the algae will be key to reviving coral that can reproduce again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Genetic library of coral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As marine heat waves become more common and intense, a global effort is underway to preserve the genetic diversity of corals. The \u003ca href=\"https://nationalzoo.si.edu/center-for-species-survival/coral-biobank-alliance\">Coral Biobank Alliance\u003c/a> is seeking to collect specimens from all over the world. Hagedorn says cryopreservation could be a vital strategy for building a library of corals, which hopefully one day could repopulate reefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Noah’s ark only brought two,” she says. “We’re doing way more than that.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "Related Stories ",
"postid": "science_29852,science_29756,science_14466"
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Reefs can recover from a bleaching event, but repeated marine heat waves make it less likely for corals to survive or reproduce successfully. The oceans are also acidifying as they absorb carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, which can harm corals and make it difficult for them to build their skeletons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Corals will continue to die and unless we are replacing them with restoration, there won’t be corals available in the future, even if we were to fix all of the threats,” says Jennifer Moore, coral recovery coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As temperatures peaked on Florida’s reefs this summer, Moore says some corals died outright from the heat. Research teams raced to preserve specimens from key coral species, collecting 150 elkhorn coral and 300 staghorn coral samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s less than one percent of their previous population,” she says. “So we’re already in a diminished state of genetic diversity. We can’t afford to lose anything that we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having those specimens could help breed the reefs of the future, since it’s unknown what combination of genes could make corals more resistant to the threats they may face, be it heat or disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore says cryopreservation could be a key piece of the puzzle in bringing reefs back. But the success of restoration depends on curbing the emissions from burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not a foregone conclusion,” Moore says. “There are still things that can be done to combat climate change so that we are not forced to be on a trajectory to a place where there are no more coral reefs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=One+way+to+save+coral+reefs%3F+Deep+freeze+them+for+the+future&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984216/one-way-to-save-coral-reefs-deep-freeze-them-for-the-future",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984216"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_182",
"science_205",
"science_1003"
],
"featImg": "science_1984217",
"label": "source_science_1984216"
},
"science_1984149": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984149",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984149",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1693578600000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1693578600,
"format": "standard",
"title": "As Klamath Dams Come Down, a Once-in-a-Generation River Restoration Begins",
"headTitle": "As Klamath Dams Come Down, a Once-in-a-Generation River Restoration Begins | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]O[/dropcap]shun O’Rourke waded into the dark green water, splashing toward a net that her colleagues gently closed around a cluster of finger-length fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Klamath River is wide and still here, making its final turn north to the coast as it winds through the Yurok reservation in Humboldt County. About 150 baby chinook salmon, on their long journey to the Pacific, were resting in cool waters that poured down from the forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke’s colleagues hoisted the net into a mesh-sided bin in the shallows to sort through their catch, in search of young chinook to test for a parasite \u003ca href=\"https://microbiology.oregonstate.edu.prod.acquia.cosine.oregonstate.edu/research/aquatic-microbiology-ecology/monitoring-studies\">that can rot fish from the inside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, during a deepening drought, most \u003ca href=\"https://kbmp.net/images/stories/pdf/KFHAT/2022/Final_KR21_Report_1-31-22.pdf\">salmon captured for testing (PDF)\u003c/a> during peak migration were infected with the lethal parasite. One tribal leader called it “\u003ca href=\"https://www.yuroktribe.org/post/catastrophic-juvenile-fish-kill-unfolds-in-real-time-on-the-klamath-river#:~:text=On%20May%204%2C%202021%2C%20the,will%20be%20dead%20within%20days.\">an absolute worst-case scenario\u003c/a>” for the Yurok, who rely on salmon for their food, culture and economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke and fisheries biologist Leanne Knutson laid out 20 small dead fish on paper towels, then wrapped them in plastic to send to a lab that will check for the parasite. The rest were released back into the river, where they will swim for days to reach the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years from now, when these fish return as adults ready to spawn, it will be to a Klamath remade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These ones will return either as 3- or 4-year-olds,” O’Rourke said, standing barefoot on the riverbank flecked with fool’s gold and crossed by an otter’s footprints. “And the dams will be gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">more than a hundred years (PDF)\u003c/a>, dams have \u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Full%20SDOR%20accessible%20022216.pdf\">stilled the Klamath’s flows (PDF)\u003c/a>, jeopardizing the salmon and other fish, and creating \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/688342\">ideal conditions for the parasite to spread\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now these vestiges of an early \u003ca href=\"https://energyhistory.yale.edu/the-big-dam-era/\">20th-century approach to water and power\u003c/a> are being dismantled: The \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/klamath-dam-removal-studies#:~:text=Klamath%20River%2C%20California&text=The%20planned%20removal%20of%20four,restoration%20efforts%20in%20US%20history.\">world’s largest dam removal project\u003c/a> is now underway on the Klamath River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/project-materials/\">the end of 2024\u003c/a>, four aging hydroelectric dams spanning the California-Oregon state line will be gone. One hundred thousand cubic yards of concrete, 1.3 million cubic yards of earth and 2,000 tons of steel will be hauled out of the river’s path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tribal members, researchers, rural residents near the dams, conservationists and the fishing industry are all anxiously waiting to see how this river, dammed for decades, will change — and with it, its fish, wildlife and human neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an existential question for rivers, especially in a region where water left in nature is often deemed wasted: “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6327834/\">experts ask\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many uncertainties remain as the Klamath reemerges: Will sediment from the demolition harm the river and its inhabitants? Will healthy numbers of salmon finally return? Will it flood its banks more readily? What will the riverfront look like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984165\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984165\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young chinook salmon are collected for lab testing on the Klamath River near Weitchpec on July 20, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984188\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1985px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984188 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1.png\" alt=\"On left: Gilbert Myers, Oshun O’Rourke, Keenan O’Rourke and Leanne Knutson. In middle: Keenan O’Rourke. On right: The technicians open a probe to collect tracking data. \" width=\"1985\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1.png 1985w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-800x175.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1020x223.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-160x35.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-768x168.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1536x336.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1920x420.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1985px) 100vw, 1985px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fisheries biologists and technicians from the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath program are collecting salmon on the Klamath River. On left: Gilbert Myers, Oshun O’Rourke, Keenan O’Rourke and Leanne Knutson. In middle: Keenan O’Rourke. On right: The technicians open a probe to collect tracking data. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For O’Rourke, 31, a Yurok tribal member, the Klamath is more than a study subject — it’s home for her and her team, and the lifeblood of their tribe, which has inhabited this region since time immemorial. From the research boat, she gestures to the stretch of river where she grew up in her ancestral village, fishing with her father.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke is hopeful that tearing down the dams will mean her son will have salmon to fish, too. But, as a scientist, she plans to investigate, seeking evidence that the river will rebound for the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to say for sure,” she said, “what things will be like in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘To fix a place and right past wrongs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Klamath is often described \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/habitat-conservation/klamath-river-basin\">as an upside-down river\u003c/a>. It’s born in the high deserts of eastern Oregon \u003ca href=\"https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart/bsp/docs/klamath/fullreport.pdf\">as a trickle (PDF)\u003c/a>, and by the time it reaches the Pacific more than 250 miles later, it swells with water drained from more than 12,000 square miles of land, spanning \u003ca href=\"https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart/bsp/docs/klamath/fullreport.pdf\">five national forests and seven counties across two states (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a stretch of river, crossing the California-Oregon state line, where feral horses pick their way up pine-studded slopes and osprey nest on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">in 1918 (PDF)\u003c/a>, a power company began operating the first of its hydroelectric dams on the river to light the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">towns and power the farms, mines and mills (PDF)\u003c/a> of California’s far north and Oregon beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where dam construction dispossessed \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Exhibit_E_Cultural_Resources.pdf\">the Shasta people (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/klamath-dam-removal-studies#overview\">blockaded salmon runs and stewed the river’s water\u003c/a> into a warm, algal brew — drawing decades of activism from tribes and conservationists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where demolition has begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than 20 years, four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath have been \u003ca href=\"https://bringthesalmonhome.org/understanding-dam-removal/\">at the center of a fight\u003c/a> to restore the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Iron Gate dam, one of 3 hydroelectric dams being removed on the Klamath River, on July 17, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984190\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1990px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984190 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1990\" height=\"642\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2.png 1990w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-800x258.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1020x329.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-768x248.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1536x496.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1920x619.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1990px) 100vw, 1990px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On left: Copco Number 1 Dam. On right: Copco Number 2 Dam. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dams weren’t built to store water for drinking, irrigation, or to stop floods. They generated electricity for PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, producing less than 2% of its customers’ power supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one side are Native tribes in California and Oregon, conservationists and the fishing industry — all fighting to restore native salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey that have dwindled \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A7-Full-SDOR-accessible-022216.pdf\">under the combined threats (PDF)\u003c/a> of changing ocean conditions, farming and ranching, timber harvesting, mining, overfishing and dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side are \u003ca href=\"https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lamalfa-comments-on-klamath-dam-removal-announcement\">nearby residents and their politicians\u003c/a>, who see demolition as another way for state and federal agencies to impose their environmental wills on their rural way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the middle is PacifiCorp. The company had planned to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/habitat-conservation/hydroelectric-management-and-dam-removal-activities\">continue operating the dams to generate electricity after its license expired in 2006\u003c/a>. But by 2010, facing growing protests and \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11616\">hundreds of millions of dollars\u003c/a> in federally mandated updates to make them less dangerous to fish, PacifiCorp agreed to demolish them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984172\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984172 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Klamath River near Happy Camp on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Deals between the company, California, Oregon, the Secretary of the Interior and others were struck, blocked in Congress, and remade until, last \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/Newsroom/Page-Content/News-List/Federal-Energy-regulator-gives-final-go-ahead-for-historic-Klamath-Dam-removal-plan\">November, when federal energy regulators gave their final blessing\u003c/a> to demolish the dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about damn time we got this done,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7rACSwN4g4\">said in December at the fish hatchery below Iron Gate dam\u003c/a>, the most downstream of the dams slated for demolition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California taxpayers will cover $250 million of the roughly $450–$500 million bill with funds from the Proposition 1 water bond approved by voters in 2014. Another $200 million comes from \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/khsa-implementation/implementation-plans/2021-10-21_2020-KHSA-Impl-Rpt.pdf\">surcharges that PacifiCorp customers (PDF)\u003c/a>, mostly in Oregon, have already paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California officials, the cost of demolishing a private company’s infrastructure is worth the benefit of a more free-flowing river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, the need to do something so bold — to fix a place and right past wrongs — means you have to sit down and just be pragmatic on how you’re going to get a deal done,” \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Director\">Chuck Bonham\u003c/a>, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Native tribes and scientists see demolition as a victory for the river’s first peoples and the fish they depend on for their food, cultures and livelihoods. Chinook populations have crashed, so much so that the 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2023/03/california-salmon-fishery-shut-down/\">fishing season was cancelled statewide\u003c/a>. The river’s spring-run chinook are listed as threatened under California endangered species law, while coho are listed under both the state and federal laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984191\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984191 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Polmateer, a Karuk fisheries field supervisor, at Horse Creek along the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Removing the dams is expected to reopen more than 400 miles of habitat for steelhead and other threatened and iconic fish, and restore flows that can better flush away toxic algae and disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.siskiyoucountywaterusersassociation.org/\">residents\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/natural_resources/page/7851/nr-20190313_siskiyou_county_comments_definite_plan.pdf\">officials (PDF)\u003c/a> in Siskiyou County worry about the sediment that the project will unleash into the river and the consequences of losing a reservoir to re-feed groundwater wells, fight fires and recreate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Landowners mourn lakeside property that will no longer be waterfront as reservoirs vanish and the exposed land becomes the property of the state of California or a designated third party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘It’s hard to say for sure what things will be like in the future,’ said Oshun O’Rourke, a senior fisheries biologist with the Yurok Tribe who is shown near a study site along the Klamath River near Weitchpec. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What is clear is that the Klamath won’t return to the river it once was. Designated as a wild and scenic river, the Klamath has long been the nexus of some of the \u003ca href=\"https://islandpress.org/books/water-war-klamath-basin\">West’s fiercest water wars\u003c/a>, and removing PacifiCorp’s hydroelectric dams ends only some of the battles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other dams will remain upriver in Oregon, where the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation controls flows from Upper Klamath Lake — portioning out too little water to satisfy tribes, wildlife refuges, lake, river, farms and fish. The battle over water allocation will continue, as will the \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drought/scott_shasta_rivers/docs/2023/petition-minimum-flows.pdf\">fights over tributaries (PDF)\u003c/a> downstream of the dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The work is not done, by any means,” O’Rourke said, the Klamath River rushing beside her. “There’s still so much to do after the dams come out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>As construction begins, ‘there is no going back’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The smallest of the four dams, the \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/the-project/\">33-foot Copco Number 2\u003c/a>, located in Siskiyou County, is already almost gone. Water rushed past it by mid-July, and only a concrete and steel structure on the river’s bank remained visible from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quite a remarkable sight to see and feeling to feel,” said Mark Bransom, CEO of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the nonprofit formed to oversee the removal effort. “Knowing that we’ve broken ground and allowed for the river to start that healing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time last year, Bransom said, the riverbed was dry, the water diverted to generate power. Trees now crowd the canyon floor where they sprouted from a riverbed long absent its river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By October of 2024, the river will flow freely past the other three dams as well — the J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and the Copco Number 1 and Iron Gate dams in California’s Siskiyou County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Bransom said, “there is no going back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984151\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984151\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Bransom, chief executive officer of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, stands above the Copco Number 1 Dam, one of four hydroelectric dams being removed on the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Driving around the mirror-still reservoirs reveals clusters of activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neon-vested workers on the hillsides collect seeds to replant the bare landscape exposed by drained reservoirs. Overlooking Copco Number 1 dam, the pop-pop-pop of target practice in the distance is audible over the din of drilling for a new groundwater monitoring well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a hillside above Iron Gate dam, Bransom explains the \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/LKP-FERC-Definite-Plan.pdf\">vast undertaking (PDF)\u003c/a> that is unmaking four dams and a century of environmental interference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in January 2024, contractor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kiewit.com/pages/opportunities/klamath-river-renewal-project/\">Kiewit Infrastructure West\u003c/a> will use explosives to blast out concrete walls beneath the spillway at J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and remove the last plug of concrete from a tunnel drilled into the Copco Number 1 dam downstream. Water will flow into Iron Gate reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A yellow front-end loader trundles to a tunnel at the base of the Iron Gate dam, next to the spillway. This tunnel is where every drop of muddy water will pour into the river starting in January, draining Iron Gate reservoir by up to about 5 feet a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20 million cubic yards of sediment have collected behind the dams over decades — enough to fill about 2 million dump trucks, though only about a quarter to a third of it is expected to end up in the river, Bransom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sediment can choke salmon and other life, and cause oxygen levels in the river to drop. But the work will be timed to avoid migrations, and the ill effects are expected to diminish with time and distance. Federal officials report that ultimately the new conditions will be beneficial to the river and its fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From June through October, excavators will dig into the earthen parts of J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and use the material to fill in an eroded riverbank and the canal diverting water to the powerhouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1984152\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-800x618.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-800x618.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1020x788.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1536x1187.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-2048x1582.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1920x1484.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contractors will use explosives to break up the concrete of the Copco Number 1 dam into chunks and cart it away. Iron Gate will be unzipped from top to bottom by excavators that will deposit the earth in the spillway and a scar left by the dam’s construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Klamath_Brochure_Restoring_Habitat_May2021.pdf\">Restoration (PDF)\u003c/a> will also start when the reservoirs are drained, replanting the newly exposed land and restoring habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking down at Iron Gate dam, where water still churns from the turbines generating power, Bransom said he thinks of the river as a creature exploring new territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m most curious and excited to basically watch the river emerge, and to see where the river wants to find its way back through this area where it’s been so constrained for 100 years,” Bransom said. “There’ll be some curiosities and trepidation, but it will be only forward progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Neighbors living in limbo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, newlyweds Francis Gill and Danny Fontaine are living in limbo in the Copco Lake community, built on the reservoir, soon to vanish, formed by the Copco Number 1 dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gill, chief of the Copco Lake volunteer fire department, and Fontaine, a realtor, own a home, rental properties, the long-empty Copco Lake store and a workshop next door. Gill estimates that around 75 to 85 people live in the community full time — double that when those with vacation homes are there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Gill and Fontaine’s workshop, a sign on the wall lists Lake Rules. “Go barefoot,” reads one. “Jump off the dock.” But the water has already lowered enough during deconstruction that the dock now rests on the reservoir’s grassy bank, foreshadowing the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984192\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984192 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-800x261.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1020x333.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-768x251.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1536x502.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1920x627.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francis Gill, left, and his husband Danny Fontaine, right, in front of their lakefront property on Copco Lake on July 17, 2023. Their property will no longer be lakeside when the dams come down, since the reservoir will disappear. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At first, when the deal was finalized, they were angry — a feeling that \u003ca href=\"https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressmen-lamalfa-and-bentz-klamath-dams-are-engines-of-energy-and\">reverberates across Siskiyou County\u003c/a>, which has long chafed against the reach of state and federal agencies meddling with local industries. County residents \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Klamath_River_Dam_Removal_Advisory_Vote,_Measure_G_(November_2010)\">overwhelmingly voted to keep the dams\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with dam removal starting in earnest, Gill and Fontaine are feeling more resigned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like a facelift,” Fontaine said. “What’s it going to look like? I hope it looks good!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I really trust this doctor?” Gill joked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/water_quality_cert/lower_klamath_ferc14803_deir.html\">State\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22_0826-3006_P-14803-Final-EIS-Lower-Klamath-Hydrpelectric-Project.pdf\">federal (PDF)\u003c/a> environmental assessments spell out the potential impacts on local residents, including the loss of lakewater for firefighting, some unstable lakeside slopes and a drop in groundwater levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downstream of the dams, floodwaters could rise as much as 20 inches higher during extreme, 100-year floods, with levels dropping back down to normal 19 miles downstream, \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22_0826-3006_P-14803-Final-EIS-Lower-Klamath-Hydrpelectric-Project.pdf\">according to federal projections (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the money in the budget — the dam removal corporation won’t say how much — has been set aside for \u003ca href=\"https://klamathmitigation.org/faqs\">an independently managed mitigation fund\u003c/a> that residents can apply to, provided they agree not to sue. CalFire \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/fire-management-plan/\">has also signed off\u003c/a> on a plan \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Fire-Plan-Dec-2022-FERC-14803.pdf\">to address local firefighting capacity (PDF)\u003c/a>, which includes dry hydrants and a camera network to spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gill and Fontaine fear they will lose access to the water their community was built around. They are holding out hope that at least the river will be close, feeling for the bottom of the lake when they go swimming and measuring it with a depth probe, looking for the river’s original channel. Fontaine thinks he discovered it while swimming off of the store’s boat ramp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of exciting, that maybe it could be right there. But we don’t know,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984155\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984155\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Docks lay on the banks of a receding shoreline of Copco Lake on July 17, 2023. This land will soon be riverfront as the reservoir disappears when the dams are removed. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They are clear-eyed about the algae that turns the lake green every summer. But the two aren’t convinced that removing the dams will fix it. Gill said he heard that before the dams were constructed, the river would slow to a trickle between puddles of algae in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The river’s flows will \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/water_quality_cert/docs/lower_klamath_ferc14803_deir/3_6.pdf\">continue to be controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (PDF)\u003c/a>, which declined to answer CalMatters’ questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original locals, the Shasta Indian Nation, also have mixed feelings about the dam removal. Though they support the river’s restoration, they’re bracing for what deconstruction and drainage will reveal. Dispossessed by the dam’s construction, the Shasta Indian Nation now faces disturbance once again of burials and other cultural sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are consequences with the construction of the dams,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.shastaindiannation.org/tribal-council.html\">Sami Jo Difuntorum\u003c/a>, culture preservation officer of the Shasta Indian Nation. “And now with the dams coming out, we have consequences that are unique to our people — the disruption and disturbance to our sacred sites.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘More than just a river to us’: Awaiting return of healthy salmon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Richard Marshall, president of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.siskiyoucountywaterusersassociation.org/board\">Siskiyou County Water Users Association\u003c/a>, which opposes dam removal, doubts the disruption will be worth it. The idea that demolition is going to “automatically create salmon,” he said, “is simply not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marshall suspects that warm water upriver, underwater barriers to fish migration and predators have always made the upper basin inhospitable to salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal scientists disagree. They \u003ca href=\"https://fisheries.org/docs/fisheries_magazine_archive/fisheries_3004.pdf\">point to historical descriptions of chinook (PDF)\u003c/a>, steelhead, coho salmon and lamprey above the dams. A photograph from the Klamath County Historical Society from 1891 shows men in suits, ties and hats displaying their salmon catch on the Link River, which flows from Upper Klamath Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a matter of timing, said Jim Simondet, Klamath branch supervisor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division. Temperatures should be cold enough and flows sufficient for spring-run chinook salmon, \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=109405&inline\">a state-protected species\u003c/a>, to migrate above the dams in the spring, but should also support fall-run chinook migrating after the heat of the summer subsides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simondet said scientists will be keeping a close watch for any bottlenecks that might prevent fish from reaching the upper basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of fish that are bumping their heads up against Iron Gate Dam currently,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The river’s coho salmon, listed as threatened at the \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=109405&inline\">state and federal level\u003c/a>, are also expected to use about 70 miles of habitat above the former dam sites after demolition, Simondet said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juvenile coho salmon collected for tagging in Horse Creek along the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike Polmateer is helping the Karuk tribe track them — if and when they do return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe wholeheartedly that once the dams come down, the fish will return,” said Polmateer, a field supervisor with the Karuk Tribal Fisheries Program. The Karuk and the Yurok downriver are the largest tribes in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer is also a traditional fisherman and a fatawana, which he describes as a medicine man. He’s been protesting the dams for years, after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/exhibits/docs/PCFFA&IGFR/part2/pcffa_155.pdf\">massive fish die-off on the lower Klamath in 2002 (PDF)\u003c/a> catalyzed the \u003ca href=\"https://bringthesalmonhome.org/understanding-dam-removal/\">movement to restore the river\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s still the water that runs through my veins. We only want it to be taken care of,” Polmateer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984157\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984157\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1920x1281.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Polmateer, a fisheries field supervisor and member of the Karuk tribe, at a pond built as a refuge for coho. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984193\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"635\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-160x51.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-768x244.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1536x488.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1920x610.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Juvenile coho salmon are weighed and measured before tagging in Horse Creek. Right: Fisheries technician Clay Tuttle injects a tag into a coho salmon. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Highway 96 unfurls along the river from the dry volcanic slopes downstream of the dams to wooded canyons downriver. And just off the highway, tucked away down a bumpy dirt road where horned cattle rest in the shade, is a clear blue pond built as a refuge for young coho salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer meets his team there — three younger men in wetsuits who wade into the pond to capture the small silver fish for tagging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation takes seconds: The fish, less than three inches long, are sedated in a bucket of water laced with clove oil and something more, then weighed, measured and scanned for existing tags. Then, a deft poke into the fish’s abdomen with a needle, and a tag, no bigger than a grain of rice, is slipped inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagged, these coho can be tracked on their way to the ocean and as they return, after the dams are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer, now 63, will be retired by then, but he hopes that his crew, the next generation, will continue the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s more than just a river to us. It’s more than just something that harbors fish,” Polmateer said. “It’s who we are as a people. We’re fix-the-world-people, Karuk people are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hunting bugs — a critical link in the river’s food web\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Green gobbets of algae raced down the Klamath about 11 miles downriver of Iron Gate dam. Big rigs roared in the opposite direction on Interstate 5 above, rumbling towards Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the middle of the river, water up to his knees, stood Yurok fisheries technician Gilbert Meyers, a net plunged into the gravel and muck. A team of researchers was there to take the river’s pulse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to do that, said Meyers’ boss, Jamie Holt, is by capturing bugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fish eat bugs, so it directly equates to fish food,” said Holt, a senior fisheries technician with the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984160\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilbert Myers, a fisheries technician with the Yurok Tribe, collects mayflies and other aquatic bugs from the Klamath River near I-5 on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984197\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984197\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"649\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-800x260.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1020x331.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-768x249.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1536x498.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1920x623.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Dragonfly larvae collected from the Klamath River. Right: A fly perched on a branch at Tree of Heaven Campground.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Monitoring which insects like mayflies, caddisflies and salmon flies are living where, and in what numbers, offers a real-time view into the river’s health before and after the dams come down. The work, \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/view/lusardi-lab/research?pli=1\">a collaboration with UC Davis and California Trout\u003c/a>, spans the basin, fingerprinting conditions on the Klamath over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew’s next sampling location, at a campground downriver, is more scenic than the site under I-5. But here, too, algae clogs the sampling nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A flotilla of children on rafts have scared away the fish the team tries to survey, and they break for food — salmon that Yurok fisheries technician Keenan O’Rourke caught, smoked and jarred last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, salmon projections are so dismal that federal officials and the Yurok tribe canceled commercial and subsistence fisheries, a devastating decision for people with an average income of \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/25200US4760R-yurok-reservation/\">less than $21,000 a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie Holt, a Yurok senior fisheries technician, examines insects taken from the Klamath River on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Holt warns that the dam removal won’t be a panacea as the federal government will still control flows upriver. But she’s optimistic about all the ways it will improve the river’s health. “It’s just going to harbor far more life … It’s going to hatch all kinds of bugs, which grow bigger fish,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holt’s been hearing about demolition of the dams for so long that it doesn’t seem real that they’ll soon be gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I kind of joked around for a lot of years that I’ll believe it when I’m floating over where they used to stand,” she said. “And it still kind of holds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 4259,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 102
},
"modified": 1704845908,
"excerpt": "As four aging hydroelectric dams are demolished, tribes and communities along the Klamath River wait anxiously to see what the future holds. “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” experts ask.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "As four aging hydroelectric dams are demolished, tribes and communities along the Klamath River wait anxiously to see what the future holds. “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” experts ask.",
"title": "As Klamath Dams Come Down, a Once-in-a-Generation River Restoration Begins | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "As Klamath Dams Come Down, a Once-in-a-Generation River Restoration Begins",
"datePublished": "2023-09-01T07:30:00-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:28-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "as-klamath-dams-come-down-a-once-in-a-generation-river-restoration-begins",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "https://calmatters.org/",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/rachel-becker/\">Rachel Becker\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"source": "calmatters",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1984149/as-klamath-dams-come-down-a-once-in-a-generation-river-restoration-begins",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>shun O’Rourke waded into the dark green water, splashing toward a net that her colleagues gently closed around a cluster of finger-length fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Klamath River is wide and still here, making its final turn north to the coast as it winds through the Yurok reservation in Humboldt County. About 150 baby chinook salmon, on their long journey to the Pacific, were resting in cool waters that poured down from the forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke’s colleagues hoisted the net into a mesh-sided bin in the shallows to sort through their catch, in search of young chinook to test for a parasite \u003ca href=\"https://microbiology.oregonstate.edu.prod.acquia.cosine.oregonstate.edu/research/aquatic-microbiology-ecology/monitoring-studies\">that can rot fish from the inside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years ago, during a deepening drought, most \u003ca href=\"https://kbmp.net/images/stories/pdf/KFHAT/2022/Final_KR21_Report_1-31-22.pdf\">salmon captured for testing (PDF)\u003c/a> during peak migration were infected with the lethal parasite. One tribal leader called it “\u003ca href=\"https://www.yuroktribe.org/post/catastrophic-juvenile-fish-kill-unfolds-in-real-time-on-the-klamath-river#:~:text=On%20May%204%2C%202021%2C%20the,will%20be%20dead%20within%20days.\">an absolute worst-case scenario\u003c/a>” for the Yurok, who rely on salmon for their food, culture and economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke and fisheries biologist Leanne Knutson laid out 20 small dead fish on paper towels, then wrapped them in plastic to send to a lab that will check for the parasite. The rest were released back into the river, where they will swim for days to reach the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years from now, when these fish return as adults ready to spawn, it will be to a Klamath remade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These ones will return either as 3- or 4-year-olds,” O’Rourke said, standing barefoot on the riverbank flecked with fool’s gold and crossed by an otter’s footprints. “And the dams will be gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">more than a hundred years (PDF)\u003c/a>, dams have \u003ca href=\"https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Full%20SDOR%20accessible%20022216.pdf\">stilled the Klamath’s flows (PDF)\u003c/a>, jeopardizing the salmon and other fish, and creating \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/688342\">ideal conditions for the parasite to spread\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now these vestiges of an early \u003ca href=\"https://energyhistory.yale.edu/the-big-dam-era/\">20th-century approach to water and power\u003c/a> are being dismantled: The \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/klamath-dam-removal-studies#:~:text=Klamath%20River%2C%20California&text=The%20planned%20removal%20of%20four,restoration%20efforts%20in%20US%20history.\">world’s largest dam removal project\u003c/a> is now underway on the Klamath River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/project-materials/\">the end of 2024\u003c/a>, four aging hydroelectric dams spanning the California-Oregon state line will be gone. One hundred thousand cubic yards of concrete, 1.3 million cubic yards of earth and 2,000 tons of steel will be hauled out of the river’s path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tribal members, researchers, rural residents near the dams, conservationists and the fishing industry are all anxiously waiting to see how this river, dammed for decades, will change — and with it, its fish, wildlife and human neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an existential question for rivers, especially in a region where water left in nature is often deemed wasted: “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6327834/\">experts ask\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many uncertainties remain as the Klamath reemerges: Will sediment from the demolition harm the river and its inhabitants? Will healthy numbers of salmon finally return? Will it flood its banks more readily? What will the riverfront look like?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984165\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984165\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_12.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young chinook salmon are collected for lab testing on the Klamath River near Weitchpec on July 20, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984188\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1985px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984188 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1.png\" alt=\"On left: Gilbert Myers, Oshun O’Rourke, Keenan O’Rourke and Leanne Knutson. In middle: Keenan O’Rourke. On right: The technicians open a probe to collect tracking data. \" width=\"1985\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1.png 1985w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-800x175.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1020x223.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-160x35.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-768x168.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1536x336.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters1-1920x420.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1985px) 100vw, 1985px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fisheries biologists and technicians from the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath program are collecting salmon on the Klamath River. On left: Gilbert Myers, Oshun O’Rourke, Keenan O’Rourke and Leanne Knutson. In middle: Keenan O’Rourke. On right: The technicians open a probe to collect tracking data. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For O’Rourke, 31, a Yurok tribal member, the Klamath is more than a study subject — it’s home for her and her team, and the lifeblood of their tribe, which has inhabited this region since time immemorial. From the research boat, she gestures to the stretch of river where she grew up in her ancestral village, fishing with her father.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Rourke is hopeful that tearing down the dams will mean her son will have salmon to fish, too. But, as a scientist, she plans to investigate, seeking evidence that the river will rebound for the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to say for sure,” she said, “what things will be like in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘To fix a place and right past wrongs’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Klamath is often described \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/habitat-conservation/klamath-river-basin\">as an upside-down river\u003c/a>. It’s born in the high deserts of eastern Oregon \u003ca href=\"https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart/bsp/docs/klamath/fullreport.pdf\">as a trickle (PDF)\u003c/a>, and by the time it reaches the Pacific more than 250 miles later, it swells with water drained from more than 12,000 square miles of land, spanning \u003ca href=\"https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart/bsp/docs/klamath/fullreport.pdf\">five national forests and seven counties across two states (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a stretch of river, crossing the California-Oregon state line, where feral horses pick their way up pine-studded slopes and osprey nest on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">in 1918 (PDF)\u003c/a>, a power company began operating the first of its hydroelectric dams on the river to light the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Appendix_E_6D_Historic_Context.pdf\">towns and power the farms, mines and mills (PDF)\u003c/a> of California’s far north and Oregon beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where dam construction dispossessed \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/relicensing/klamath-final-license-application/Exhibit_E_Cultural_Resources.pdf\">the Shasta people (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/california-water-science-center/science/klamath-dam-removal-studies#overview\">blockaded salmon runs and stewed the river’s water\u003c/a> into a warm, algal brew — drawing decades of activism from tribes and conservationists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where demolition has begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than 20 years, four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath have been \u003ca href=\"https://bringthesalmonhome.org/understanding-dam-removal/\">at the center of a fight\u003c/a> to restore the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_05-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Iron Gate dam, one of 3 hydroelectric dams being removed on the Klamath River, on July 17, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984190\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1990px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984190 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1990\" height=\"642\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2.png 1990w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-800x258.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1020x329.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-768x248.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1536x496.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters2-1920x619.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1990px) 100vw, 1990px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On left: Copco Number 1 Dam. On right: Copco Number 2 Dam. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dams weren’t built to store water for drinking, irrigation, or to stop floods. They generated electricity for PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, producing less than 2% of its customers’ power supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one side are Native tribes in California and Oregon, conservationists and the fishing industry — all fighting to restore native salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey that have dwindled \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A7-Full-SDOR-accessible-022216.pdf\">under the combined threats (PDF)\u003c/a> of changing ocean conditions, farming and ranching, timber harvesting, mining, overfishing and dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side are \u003ca href=\"https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lamalfa-comments-on-klamath-dam-removal-announcement\">nearby residents and their politicians\u003c/a>, who see demolition as another way for state and federal agencies to impose their environmental wills on their rural way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the middle is PacifiCorp. The company had planned to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/habitat-conservation/hydroelectric-management-and-dam-removal-activities\">continue operating the dams to generate electricity after its license expired in 2006\u003c/a>. But by 2010, facing growing protests and \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11616\">hundreds of millions of dollars\u003c/a> in federally mandated updates to make them less dangerous to fish, PacifiCorp agreed to demolish them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984172\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984172 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_28.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Klamath River near Happy Camp on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Deals between the company, California, Oregon, the Secretary of the Interior and others were struck, blocked in Congress, and remade until, last \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/Newsroom/Page-Content/News-List/Federal-Energy-regulator-gives-final-go-ahead-for-historic-Klamath-Dam-removal-plan\">November, when federal energy regulators gave their final blessing\u003c/a> to demolish the dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about damn time we got this done,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7rACSwN4g4\">said in December at the fish hatchery below Iron Gate dam\u003c/a>, the most downstream of the dams slated for demolition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California taxpayers will cover $250 million of the roughly $450–$500 million bill with funds from the Proposition 1 water bond approved by voters in 2014. Another $200 million comes from \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/klamath-river/khsa-implementation/implementation-plans/2021-10-21_2020-KHSA-Impl-Rpt.pdf\">surcharges that PacifiCorp customers (PDF)\u003c/a>, mostly in Oregon, have already paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California officials, the cost of demolishing a private company’s infrastructure is worth the benefit of a more free-flowing river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, the need to do something so bold — to fix a place and right past wrongs — means you have to sit down and just be pragmatic on how you’re going to get a deal done,” \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Director\">Chuck Bonham\u003c/a>, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Native tribes and scientists see demolition as a victory for the river’s first peoples and the fish they depend on for their food, cultures and livelihoods. Chinook populations have crashed, so much so that the 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2023/03/california-salmon-fishery-shut-down/\">fishing season was cancelled statewide\u003c/a>. The river’s spring-run chinook are listed as threatened under California endangered species law, while coho are listed under both the state and federal laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984191\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984191 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_01-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Polmateer, a Karuk fisheries field supervisor, at Horse Creek along the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Removing the dams is expected to reopen more than 400 miles of habitat for steelhead and other threatened and iconic fish, and restore flows that can better flush away toxic algae and disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.siskiyoucountywaterusersassociation.org/\">residents\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/natural_resources/page/7851/nr-20190313_siskiyou_county_comments_definite_plan.pdf\">officials (PDF)\u003c/a> in Siskiyou County worry about the sediment that the project will unleash into the river and the consequences of losing a reservoir to re-feed groundwater wells, fight fires and recreate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Landowners mourn lakeside property that will no longer be waterfront as reservoirs vanish and the exposed land becomes the property of the state of California or a designated third party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/072023_Yurok-Salmon-Counting_SN_CM_25.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘It’s hard to say for sure what things will be like in the future,’ said Oshun O’Rourke, a senior fisheries biologist with the Yurok Tribe who is shown near a study site along the Klamath River near Weitchpec. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What is clear is that the Klamath won’t return to the river it once was. Designated as a wild and scenic river, the Klamath has long been the nexus of some of the \u003ca href=\"https://islandpress.org/books/water-war-klamath-basin\">West’s fiercest water wars\u003c/a>, and removing PacifiCorp’s hydroelectric dams ends only some of the battles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other dams will remain upriver in Oregon, where the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation controls flows from Upper Klamath Lake — portioning out too little water to satisfy tribes, wildlife refuges, lake, river, farms and fish. The battle over water allocation will continue, as will the \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drought/scott_shasta_rivers/docs/2023/petition-minimum-flows.pdf\">fights over tributaries (PDF)\u003c/a> downstream of the dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The work is not done, by any means,” O’Rourke said, the Klamath River rushing beside her. “There’s still so much to do after the dams come out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>As construction begins, ‘there is no going back’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The smallest of the four dams, the \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/the-project/\">33-foot Copco Number 2\u003c/a>, located in Siskiyou County, is already almost gone. Water rushed past it by mid-July, and only a concrete and steel structure on the river’s bank remained visible from above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quite a remarkable sight to see and feeling to feel,” said Mark Bransom, CEO of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the nonprofit formed to oversee the removal effort. “Knowing that we’ve broken ground and allowed for the river to start that healing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time last year, Bransom said, the riverbed was dry, the water diverted to generate power. Trees now crowd the canyon floor where they sprouted from a riverbed long absent its river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By October of 2024, the river will flow freely past the other three dams as well — the J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and the Copco Number 1 and Iron Gate dams in California’s Siskiyou County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Bransom said, “there is no going back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984151\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984151\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_25.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Bransom, chief executive officer of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, stands above the Copco Number 1 Dam, one of four hydroelectric dams being removed on the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Driving around the mirror-still reservoirs reveals clusters of activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neon-vested workers on the hillsides collect seeds to replant the bare landscape exposed by drained reservoirs. Overlooking Copco Number 1 dam, the pop-pop-pop of target practice in the distance is audible over the din of drilling for a new groundwater monitoring well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a hillside above Iron Gate dam, Bransom explains the \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/LKP-FERC-Definite-Plan.pdf\">vast undertaking (PDF)\u003c/a> that is unmaking four dams and a century of environmental interference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in January 2024, contractor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kiewit.com/pages/opportunities/klamath-river-renewal-project/\">Kiewit Infrastructure West\u003c/a> will use explosives to blast out concrete walls beneath the spillway at J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and remove the last plug of concrete from a tunnel drilled into the Copco Number 1 dam downstream. Water will flow into Iron Gate reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A yellow front-end loader trundles to a tunnel at the base of the Iron Gate dam, next to the spillway. This tunnel is where every drop of muddy water will pour into the river starting in January, draining Iron Gate reservoir by up to about 5 feet a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20 million cubic yards of sediment have collected behind the dams over decades — enough to fill about 2 million dump trucks, though only about a quarter to a third of it is expected to end up in the river, Bransom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sediment can choke salmon and other life, and cause oxygen levels in the river to drop. But the work will be timed to avoid migrations, and the ill effects are expected to diminish with time and distance. Federal officials report that ultimately the new conditions will be beneficial to the river and its fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From June through October, excavators will dig into the earthen parts of J.C. Boyle dam in Oregon and use the material to fill in an eroded riverbank and the canal diverting water to the powerhouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1984152\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-800x618.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-800x618.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1020x788.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1536x1187.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-2048x1582.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/Klamath-River_dam-removal-scaled-1-1920x1484.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contractors will use explosives to break up the concrete of the Copco Number 1 dam into chunks and cart it away. Iron Gate will be unzipped from top to bottom by excavators that will deposit the earth in the spillway and a scar left by the dam’s construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Klamath_Brochure_Restoring_Habitat_May2021.pdf\">Restoration (PDF)\u003c/a> will also start when the reservoirs are drained, replanting the newly exposed land and restoring habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking down at Iron Gate dam, where water still churns from the turbines generating power, Bransom said he thinks of the river as a creature exploring new territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m most curious and excited to basically watch the river emerge, and to see where the river wants to find its way back through this area where it’s been so constrained for 100 years,” Bransom said. “There’ll be some curiosities and trepidation, but it will be only forward progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Neighbors living in limbo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, newlyweds Francis Gill and Danny Fontaine are living in limbo in the Copco Lake community, built on the reservoir, soon to vanish, formed by the Copco Number 1 dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gill, chief of the Copco Lake volunteer fire department, and Fontaine, a realtor, own a home, rental properties, the long-empty Copco Lake store and a workshop next door. Gill estimates that around 75 to 85 people live in the community full time — double that when those with vacation homes are there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Gill and Fontaine’s workshop, a sign on the wall lists Lake Rules. “Go barefoot,” reads one. “Jump off the dock.” But the water has already lowered enough during deconstruction that the dock now rests on the reservoir’s grassy bank, foreshadowing the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984192\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984192 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-800x261.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1020x333.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-768x251.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1536x502.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters3-1920x627.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Francis Gill, left, and his husband Danny Fontaine, right, in front of their lakefront property on Copco Lake on July 17, 2023. Their property will no longer be lakeside when the dams come down, since the reservoir will disappear. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At first, when the deal was finalized, they were angry — a feeling that \u003ca href=\"https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressmen-lamalfa-and-bentz-klamath-dams-are-engines-of-energy-and\">reverberates across Siskiyou County\u003c/a>, which has long chafed against the reach of state and federal agencies meddling with local industries. County residents \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Klamath_River_Dam_Removal_Advisory_Vote,_Measure_G_(November_2010)\">overwhelmingly voted to keep the dams\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with dam removal starting in earnest, Gill and Fontaine are feeling more resigned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like a facelift,” Fontaine said. “What’s it going to look like? I hope it looks good!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I really trust this doctor?” Gill joked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/water_quality_cert/lower_klamath_ferc14803_deir.html\">State\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22_0826-3006_P-14803-Final-EIS-Lower-Klamath-Hydrpelectric-Project.pdf\">federal (PDF)\u003c/a> environmental assessments spell out the potential impacts on local residents, including the loss of lakewater for firefighting, some unstable lakeside slopes and a drop in groundwater levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downstream of the dams, floodwaters could rise as much as 20 inches higher during extreme, 100-year floods, with levels dropping back down to normal 19 miles downstream, \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22_0826-3006_P-14803-Final-EIS-Lower-Klamath-Hydrpelectric-Project.pdf\">according to federal projections (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the money in the budget — the dam removal corporation won’t say how much — has been set aside for \u003ca href=\"https://klamathmitigation.org/faqs\">an independently managed mitigation fund\u003c/a> that residents can apply to, provided they agree not to sue. CalFire \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/fire-management-plan/\">has also signed off\u003c/a> on a plan \u003ca href=\"https://klamathrenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Fire-Plan-Dec-2022-FERC-14803.pdf\">to address local firefighting capacity (PDF)\u003c/a>, which includes dry hydrants and a camera network to spot fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gill and Fontaine fear they will lose access to the water their community was built around. They are holding out hope that at least the river will be close, feeling for the bottom of the lake when they go swimming and measuring it with a depth probe, looking for the river’s original channel. Fontaine thinks he discovered it while swimming off of the store’s boat ramp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of exciting, that maybe it could be right there. But we don’t know,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984155\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984155\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071723_Dam-Tour-and-Copco-Lake_SN_CM_31.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Docks lay on the banks of a receding shoreline of Copco Lake on July 17, 2023. This land will soon be riverfront as the reservoir disappears when the dams are removed. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They are clear-eyed about the algae that turns the lake green every summer. But the two aren’t convinced that removing the dams will fix it. Gill said he heard that before the dams were constructed, the river would slow to a trickle between puddles of algae in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The river’s flows will \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/water_quality_cert/docs/lower_klamath_ferc14803_deir/3_6.pdf\">continue to be controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (PDF)\u003c/a>, which declined to answer CalMatters’ questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original locals, the Shasta Indian Nation, also have mixed feelings about the dam removal. Though they support the river’s restoration, they’re bracing for what deconstruction and drainage will reveal. Dispossessed by the dam’s construction, the Shasta Indian Nation now faces disturbance once again of burials and other cultural sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are consequences with the construction of the dams,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.shastaindiannation.org/tribal-council.html\">Sami Jo Difuntorum\u003c/a>, culture preservation officer of the Shasta Indian Nation. “And now with the dams coming out, we have consequences that are unique to our people — the disruption and disturbance to our sacred sites.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘More than just a river to us’: Awaiting return of healthy salmon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Richard Marshall, president of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.siskiyoucountywaterusersassociation.org/board\">Siskiyou County Water Users Association\u003c/a>, which opposes dam removal, doubts the disruption will be worth it. The idea that demolition is going to “automatically create salmon,” he said, “is simply not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marshall suspects that warm water upriver, underwater barriers to fish migration and predators have always made the upper basin inhospitable to salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal scientists disagree. They \u003ca href=\"https://fisheries.org/docs/fisheries_magazine_archive/fisheries_3004.pdf\">point to historical descriptions of chinook (PDF)\u003c/a>, steelhead, coho salmon and lamprey above the dams. A photograph from the Klamath County Historical Society from 1891 shows men in suits, ties and hats displaying their salmon catch on the Link River, which flows from Upper Klamath Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a matter of timing, said Jim Simondet, Klamath branch supervisor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division. Temperatures should be cold enough and flows sufficient for spring-run chinook salmon, \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=109405&inline\">a state-protected species\u003c/a>, to migrate above the dams in the spring, but should also support fall-run chinook migrating after the heat of the summer subsides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simondet said scientists will be keeping a close watch for any bottlenecks that might prevent fish from reaching the upper basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of fish that are bumping their heads up against Iron Gate Dam currently,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The river’s coho salmon, listed as threatened at the \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=109405&inline\">state and federal level\u003c/a>, are also expected to use about 70 miles of habitat above the former dam sites after demolition, Simondet said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_16.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juvenile coho salmon collected for tagging in Horse Creek along the Klamath River. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike Polmateer is helping the Karuk tribe track them — if and when they do return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe wholeheartedly that once the dams come down, the fish will return,” said Polmateer, a field supervisor with the Karuk Tribal Fisheries Program. The Karuk and the Yurok downriver are the largest tribes in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer is also a traditional fisherman and a fatawana, which he describes as a medicine man. He’s been protesting the dams for years, after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/exhibits/docs/PCFFA&IGFR/part2/pcffa_155.pdf\">massive fish die-off on the lower Klamath in 2002 (PDF)\u003c/a> catalyzed the \u003ca href=\"https://bringthesalmonhome.org/understanding-dam-removal/\">movement to restore the river\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s still the water that runs through my veins. We only want it to be taken care of,” Polmateer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984157\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984157\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02-1920x1281.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071823_Karuk-Fish-Tagging_SN_CM_02.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Polmateer, a fisheries field supervisor and member of the Karuk tribe, at a pond built as a refuge for coho. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984193\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"635\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-160x51.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-768x244.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1536x488.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters-4-1920x610.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Juvenile coho salmon are weighed and measured before tagging in Horse Creek. Right: Fisheries technician Clay Tuttle injects a tag into a coho salmon. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Highway 96 unfurls along the river from the dry volcanic slopes downstream of the dams to wooded canyons downriver. And just off the highway, tucked away down a bumpy dirt road where horned cattle rest in the shade, is a clear blue pond built as a refuge for young coho salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer meets his team there — three younger men in wetsuits who wade into the pond to capture the small silver fish for tagging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation takes seconds: The fish, less than three inches long, are sedated in a bucket of water laced with clove oil and something more, then weighed, measured and scanned for existing tags. Then, a deft poke into the fish’s abdomen with a needle, and a tag, no bigger than a grain of rice, is slipped inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagged, these coho can be tracked on their way to the ocean and as they return, after the dams are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polmateer, now 63, will be retired by then, but he hopes that his crew, the next generation, will continue the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s more than just a river to us. It’s more than just something that harbors fish,” Polmateer said. “It’s who we are as a people. We’re fix-the-world-people, Karuk people are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hunting bugs — a critical link in the river’s food web\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Green gobbets of algae raced down the Klamath about 11 miles downriver of Iron Gate dam. Big rigs roared in the opposite direction on Interstate 5 above, rumbling towards Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the middle of the river, water up to his knees, stood Yurok fisheries technician Gilbert Meyers, a net plunged into the gravel and muck. A team of researchers was there to take the river’s pulse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to do that, said Meyers’ boss, Jamie Holt, is by capturing bugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fish eat bugs, so it directly equates to fish food,” said Holt, a senior fisheries technician with the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984160\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_02.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilbert Myers, a fisheries technician with the Yurok Tribe, collects mayflies and other aquatic bugs from the Klamath River near I-5 on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984197\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984197\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"649\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-800x260.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1020x331.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-768x249.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1536x498.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/calmatters5-1920x623.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Dragonfly larvae collected from the Klamath River. Right: A fly perched on a branch at Tree of Heaven Campground.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Monitoring which insects like mayflies, caddisflies and salmon flies are living where, and in what numbers, offers a real-time view into the river’s health before and after the dams come down. The work, \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/view/lusardi-lab/research?pli=1\">a collaboration with UC Davis and California Trout\u003c/a>, spans the basin, fingerprinting conditions on the Klamath over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew’s next sampling location, at a campground downriver, is more scenic than the site under I-5. But here, too, algae clogs the sampling nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A flotilla of children on rafts have scared away the fish the team tries to survey, and they break for food — salmon that Yurok fisheries technician Keenan O’Rourke caught, smoked and jarred last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, salmon projections are so dismal that federal officials and the Yurok tribe canceled commercial and subsistence fisheries, a devastating decision for people with an average income of \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/25200US4760R-yurok-reservation/\">less than $21,000 a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1984163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/071923_Yurok-Bug-Sampling_SN_CM_12.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie Holt, a Yurok senior fisheries technician, examines insects taken from the Klamath River on July 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Semantha Norris/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Holt warns that the dam removal won’t be a panacea as the federal government will still control flows upriver. But she’s optimistic about all the ways it will improve the river’s health. “It’s just going to harbor far more life … It’s going to hatch all kinds of bugs, which grow bigger fish,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holt’s been hearing about demolition of the dams for so long that it doesn’t seem real that they’ll soon be gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I kind of joked around for a lot of years that I’ll believe it when I’m floating over where they used to stand,” she said. “And it still kind of holds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984149/as-klamath-dams-come-down-a-once-in-a-generation-river-restoration-begins",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984149"
],
"categories": [
"science_2874",
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_4414",
"science_247"
],
"featImg": "science_1984164",
"label": "source_science_1984149"
},
"science_1984200": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1984200",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1984200",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1693567814000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1693567814,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Climate Change Makes Wildfires in California More Extreme",
"headTitle": "Climate Change Makes Wildfires in California More Extreme | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>During some of the worst hours in Camp Fire, which in 2018 burned the town of Paradise, California to the ground, the fire was growing so fast it \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/us/california-wildfires-superlatives-wcx/index.html\">ate up 10,000 acres\u003c/a> within just 90 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires like the\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/667315613/californias-camp-fire-becomes-the-deadliest-in-state-history\"> Camp\u003c/a> Fire that intensify and spread enormously within a\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/09/777801169/the-camp-fire-destroyed-11-000-homes-a-year-later-only-11-have-been-rebuilt\"> single day, hour, or even minutes\u003c/a>, keep fire experts up at night. Now a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06444-3\">new study\u003c/a>, published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>, uses a machine-learning model to show that climate change has nudged the risk of fast-spreading fires up by about 25% on average in California. That’s compared to a time before humans heated up Earth’s atmosphere by burning vast amounts of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing the impact of climate change for the first time on that high-resolution fire behavior,” says Patrick Brown, the study’s lead author and a climate scientist at Berkeley’s Breakthrough Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dangers didn’t increase evenly. Of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics\">18,000 California fires\u003c/a> that sprang to life from 2003 to 2020, 380 of them included at least one day when they grew by at least 10,000 acres — an area as big as most of Manhattan. Climate change ramped up the likelihood of that growth for most of the fires–but not all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team found there were critical thresholds governing fire behavior. For fires burning near the thresholds, climate change could tip them into a more dangerous state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like if you’re wondering if growing a couple inches will help you dunk,” Brown explains. If you’re really tall already, he says, a few extra inches won’t make a big difference. But if you’re 5′ 10″, a little boost could get you over the rim. “We see the same thing with wildfires. If you’re right on the precipice of these thresholds, then warming causes them to cross over that threshold and increase the risk of danger,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The atmosphere is a thirstier sponge\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The thresholds were primarily associated with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/08/24/159848194/in-southwest-worst-case-fire-scenario-plays-out\">vapor pressure deficit\u003c/a>, a fancy term for how air pulls water out of dead or live plants and other burnable materials. Hotter air –one of the hallmarks of human-caused climate change–sucks moisture more strongly out of those pieces of potential tinder. \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019EF001210\">Years of prior research\u003c/a> has shown that fires can grow much bigger and more intense when they have plenty of dry, crispy fuel to burn, a factor heavily influenced by big vapor pressure deficits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research substantiates those earlier findings, showing fires to be nearly five times likely to burn explosively if those thresholds were crossed. But when the weather was already extremely hot and dry, or by contrast very moist, climate change’s extra nudge didn’t make as big a difference to fire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As much influence as a heated-up atmosphere can have, it’s far from the only factor at play. “Explosive growth of fires is almost always in some way correlated with high winds,” which whips small fires into enormous ones, points out Max Moritz, a fire expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wasn’t involved in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where fires start, and how, affects their behavior as well. Fires act differently in forests than in grass or shrublands, or in areas full of houses. “The things we need to continue to keep in mind are the factors alongside climate that are equally if not more important: how is the land use going to change, and how is vegetation going to change?,” says Alexandra Syphard, a fire scientist with the Corvallis, Oregon-based nonprofit Conservation Biology Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers trained a machine learning model on California’s 18,000 fires over the past two decades and the weather conditions under which they burned so that the model could pick out the weather factors that influence fire behavior. Using climate models, they simulated that same world, but minus human-caused climate change. Then they compared fire behavior in the simulated, un-warmed world with the real, overheated one.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Controlling risks for the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Risks of explosively growing fires are almost certainly going up, the research found, even if global emissions are reduced quickly and decisively. Global temperatures will continue to rise even after emissions slow or stop, continuing to push fires into more dangerous territory. The number of fast-growing fires could almost double by the end of the century, the researchers found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, says Brown, those climate-driven increases in risk can be nearly — or entirely — offset by smarter management of the non-climate parts of the fire story. Clearing extra fuel from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/27/1119428879/why-suppressing-wildfires-may-be-making-the-western-fire-crisis-worse\">overcrowded forests\u003c/a> via strategies like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/06/07/1101257256/neighbors-use-prescribed-fire-to-restore-great-plains-grasslands\"> prescribed fire\u003c/a>, for example, means there’s less fuel to burn. More than \u003ca href=\"https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm20/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/765573\">80% of U.S. fires\u003c/a> are started by people, and those fires burn\u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617394114\"> faster and wider than naturally ignited ones\u003c/a>. Getting that number in check could greatly lessen risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Mortiz, the challenge now is partly about considering climate’s influence on wildfire risk while figuring out how to minimize the risks of fire for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1098813861/wildfire-home-real-estate-risk-climate-change\">people and their homes\u003c/a> and communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His research group has looked at how human-scale decisions, like neighborhood design or house placement, affects \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924507691/millions-of-homes-are-at-risk-of-wildfires-but-its-rarely-disclosed\">wildfire risks to communities\u003c/a>. “We realized the strength of housing densities on fire activity rivals the strength of climate variables in some parts of California,” he says. Those choices are well within peoples’ ability to control, through zoning policy, or building codes, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941685/this-california-neighborhood-was-built-to-survive-a-wildfire-and-it-worked\">fire-smart neighborhood design\u003c/a>. “We have to be more holistic in our understanding of ‘risk,’ to look at the human side as well,” Mortiz says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+change+makes+wildfires+in+California+more+explosive+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 996,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 17
},
"modified": 1704845910,
"excerpt": "A new study pins about 25% of the extra risk on human-caused climate change. ",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A new study pins about 25% of the extra risk on human-caused climate change. ",
"title": "Climate Change Makes Wildfires in California More Extreme | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Climate Change Makes Wildfires in California More Extreme",
"datePublished": "2023-09-01T04:30:14-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:30-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "climate-change-makes-wildfires-in-california-more-extreme",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1196637141&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Wed, 30 Aug 2023 11:42:54 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:44:17 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/2023/08/30/1196637141/climate-change-makes-wildfires-in-california-more-explosive?ft=nprml&f=1196637141",
"nprImageAgency": "Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images",
"source": "NPR",
"nprStoryId": "1196637141",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.npr.org/",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1193795778/alejandra-borunda\">Alejandra Borunda\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:44:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1984200/climate-change-makes-wildfires-in-california-more-extreme",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>During some of the worst hours in Camp Fire, which in 2018 burned the town of Paradise, California to the ground, the fire was growing so fast it \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/us/california-wildfires-superlatives-wcx/index.html\">ate up 10,000 acres\u003c/a> within just 90 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires like the\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/13/667315613/californias-camp-fire-becomes-the-deadliest-in-state-history\"> Camp\u003c/a> Fire that intensify and spread enormously within a\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/09/777801169/the-camp-fire-destroyed-11-000-homes-a-year-later-only-11-have-been-rebuilt\"> single day, hour, or even minutes\u003c/a>, keep fire experts up at night. Now a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06444-3\">new study\u003c/a>, published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>, uses a machine-learning model to show that climate change has nudged the risk of fast-spreading fires up by about 25% on average in California. That’s compared to a time before humans heated up Earth’s atmosphere by burning vast amounts of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing the impact of climate change for the first time on that high-resolution fire behavior,” says Patrick Brown, the study’s lead author and a climate scientist at Berkeley’s Breakthrough Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dangers didn’t increase evenly. Of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics\">18,000 California fires\u003c/a> that sprang to life from 2003 to 2020, 380 of them included at least one day when they grew by at least 10,000 acres — an area as big as most of Manhattan. Climate change ramped up the likelihood of that growth for most of the fires–but not all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team found there were critical thresholds governing fire behavior. For fires burning near the thresholds, climate change could tip them into a more dangerous state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like if you’re wondering if growing a couple inches will help you dunk,” Brown explains. If you’re really tall already, he says, a few extra inches won’t make a big difference. But if you’re 5′ 10″, a little boost could get you over the rim. “We see the same thing with wildfires. If you’re right on the precipice of these thresholds, then warming causes them to cross over that threshold and increase the risk of danger,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The atmosphere is a thirstier sponge\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The thresholds were primarily associated with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/08/24/159848194/in-southwest-worst-case-fire-scenario-plays-out\">vapor pressure deficit\u003c/a>, a fancy term for how air pulls water out of dead or live plants and other burnable materials. Hotter air –one of the hallmarks of human-caused climate change–sucks moisture more strongly out of those pieces of potential tinder. \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019EF001210\">Years of prior research\u003c/a> has shown that fires can grow much bigger and more intense when they have plenty of dry, crispy fuel to burn, a factor heavily influenced by big vapor pressure deficits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research substantiates those earlier findings, showing fires to be nearly five times likely to burn explosively if those thresholds were crossed. But when the weather was already extremely hot and dry, or by contrast very moist, climate change’s extra nudge didn’t make as big a difference to fire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As much influence as a heated-up atmosphere can have, it’s far from the only factor at play. “Explosive growth of fires is almost always in some way correlated with high winds,” which whips small fires into enormous ones, points out Max Moritz, a fire expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wasn’t involved in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where fires start, and how, affects their behavior as well. Fires act differently in forests than in grass or shrublands, or in areas full of houses. “The things we need to continue to keep in mind are the factors alongside climate that are equally if not more important: how is the land use going to change, and how is vegetation going to change?,” says Alexandra Syphard, a fire scientist with the Corvallis, Oregon-based nonprofit Conservation Biology Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers trained a machine learning model on California’s 18,000 fires over the past two decades and the weather conditions under which they burned so that the model could pick out the weather factors that influence fire behavior. Using climate models, they simulated that same world, but minus human-caused climate change. Then they compared fire behavior in the simulated, un-warmed world with the real, overheated one.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Controlling risks for the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Risks of explosively growing fires are almost certainly going up, the research found, even if global emissions are reduced quickly and decisively. Global temperatures will continue to rise even after emissions slow or stop, continuing to push fires into more dangerous territory. The number of fast-growing fires could almost double by the end of the century, the researchers found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, says Brown, those climate-driven increases in risk can be nearly — or entirely — offset by smarter management of the non-climate parts of the fire story. Clearing extra fuel from \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/27/1119428879/why-suppressing-wildfires-may-be-making-the-western-fire-crisis-worse\">overcrowded forests\u003c/a> via strategies like\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/06/07/1101257256/neighbors-use-prescribed-fire-to-restore-great-plains-grasslands\"> prescribed fire\u003c/a>, for example, means there’s less fuel to burn. More than \u003ca href=\"https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm20/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/765573\">80% of U.S. fires\u003c/a> are started by people, and those fires burn\u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617394114\"> faster and wider than naturally ignited ones\u003c/a>. Getting that number in check could greatly lessen risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Mortiz, the challenge now is partly about considering climate’s influence on wildfire risk while figuring out how to minimize the risks of fire for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1098813861/wildfire-home-real-estate-risk-climate-change\">people and their homes\u003c/a> and communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His research group has looked at how human-scale decisions, like neighborhood design or house placement, affects \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924507691/millions-of-homes-are-at-risk-of-wildfires-but-its-rarely-disclosed\">wildfire risks to communities\u003c/a>. “We realized the strength of housing densities on fire activity rivals the strength of climate variables in some parts of California,” he says. Those choices are well within peoples’ ability to control, through zoning policy, or building codes, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941685/this-california-neighborhood-was-built-to-survive-a-wildfire-and-it-worked\">fire-smart neighborhood design\u003c/a>. “We have to be more holistic in our understanding of ‘risk,’ to look at the human side as well,” Mortiz says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+change+makes+wildfires+in+California+more+explosive+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1984200/climate-change-makes-wildfires-in-california-more-extreme",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1984200"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_4877",
"science_3820",
"science_182",
"science_194",
"science_112"
],
"featImg": "science_1984201",
"label": "source_science_1984200"
},
"science_1983983": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1983983",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983983",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1692385409000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1692385409,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Wildfire Prevention Strategies Maui Can Adopt From California",
"headTitle": "Wildfire Prevention Strategies Maui Can Adopt From California | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>As the community in West Maui begins a slow recovery after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in the last century, one of the biggest questions is how a similar tragedy can be prevented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawaii may not have to look far. Other states, like California, have adopted strategies that are known to reduce the risk that a wildfire will spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of them are no secret to Hawaii state officials. The government’s own reports have shown that West Maui is at severe risk for wildfire, its foothills covered in dry, invasive grasses that are highly flammable. Previous recommendations included improving evacuation plans, managing dry vegetation around towns and clearing defensible space around houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Western states have mandated those policies after their own histories with destructive wildfires. Despite the recommendations, Hawaii fire experts say little was accomplished to do wildfire prevention in West Maui. Like so many communities, it struggled to find funding to clear large areas of vegetation and maintain them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No precautions are guaranteed to stop a fire, especially in extreme winds. However, fire experts say the tragedy shows communities cannot ignore their own warnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My hope would be that what just happened in Hawaii is really a wake-up call, so that any state that has fire risk of this sort is planning ahead to keep their citizens safe,” says Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Hawaii takes a close look at its wildfire policies, there are three core strategies it could adopt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Use better evacuation technology\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many residents in downtown Lahaina, the only warning to leave was seeing the flames race toward their home. In the aftermath of the fire, many are angry that the town’s network of warning sirens weren’t turned on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I would have heard the siren that morning, I would have at least prepared, packed something in my car, called my parents,” says Alex Calma, a Lahaina resident who lost his home.[aside postID='news_11957996,science_1983909' label='Related coverage']Instead, he and his neighbors drove away with little time to spare, jamming one of the only roads out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government officials instead turned on the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which blasts a message to people’s phones, like AMBER Alerts for missing children. Many residents NPR spoke to didn’t receive it. High winds, power outages and flames took out the cell service network. A similar thing happened in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/County-officials-failed-to-use-cell-phone-alerts-13400300.php\">California’s deadly Camp Fire in 2018\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at how often it doesn’t work — how often cell phone towers like in Paradise and Maui get burned right away,” says Thomas Cova, a professor of geography who studies evacuations at the University of Utah. “That’s the first thing that happens is the fire burns the cell phone tower.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maui officials defended their choice not to turn on the sirens, saying the public would have been confused. People, they say, associate the sirens with tsunami warnings and could have run into the hills instead. That’s despite the fact that it was the direction the flames were coming from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To clarify the alerts, a number of cities have installed new siren networks that can also broadcast voice messages, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofmillvalley.org/213/Warnings-Alerts\">Mill Valley, California\u003c/a>, where wildfires are a danger. In Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpb.us/emergency-mgmt/oem/50-borough/emergency-management/491-sirens\">sirens play pre-recorded messages\u003c/a> to tell residents what kind of threat they’re alerting about, like a volcano, tsunami or storm, then instruct residents to tune into the radio for more details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Disaster response experts stress that cities need to have multiple strategies to alert and evacuate people safely, especially ones that don’t rely entirely on cell networks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pass a requirement to clear flammable brush and grass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As one of the people who has worked to prevent fires near Lahaina, it’s not easy for Gordon Firestein to look at the view from his house: a dark black burn scar and the blue Pacific Ocean beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983985\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983985\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a light brown t-shirt and sunglasses stands in front of a mountain shadowed by white clouds above it. In the background there are a few palm trees, with a view of the ocean, dry grass, and plants.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93.jpg 1499w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For years, Gordon Firestein has worked with neighbors to make Lahaina safer from wildfires. He’s hopeful the state will pass mandatory policies to clear vegetation. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once a California resident, Firestein moved to West Maui 15 years ago and found the golden hillsides were all too reminiscent of his home state. Former sugarcane fields have been abandoned and overrun with invasive grasses. He banded together with a few neighbors to join \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Firewise-USA\">the FireWise program\u003c/a>. Run by the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association, it provides a blueprint for communities to become better prepared for wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firestein says they’ve educated neighbors about trimming the dry vegetation directly around a home to create defensible space. But Hawaii doesn’t have mandatory rules that compel homeowners to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>States like California \u003ca href=\"https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-ready/defensible-space/\">require homeowners in high risk areas to clear brush\u003c/a> and inspections are done by both city and state fire agencies. In San Diego, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\">if a homeowner doesn’t comply, the city hires a contractor\u003c/a> to do the work and puts a lien on the property to recoup the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I certainly hope that’s part of the post-fire process — that we begin to look seriously at California, for example, as a model,” Firestein says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger areas at the edges of towns also need to be cleared of dry grass to act as a buffer against fire. On the outskirts of Lahaina, rows of houses are nestled in the hills. After the fire, some residents said the problem had been ignored for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need some accountability,” says Chris Arnold, a Lahaina resident who lost his home. “Give us some fire breaks and I don’t want to hear any more excuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983986\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Image shows destruction caused in a town after a wildfire. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4.jpg 1598w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After the destruction in Lahaina, Hawaii, fire experts say they’re hopeful the state will take a hard look at its wildfire policies. \u003ccite>(Deanne Fitzmaurice for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Almost a decade ago, a \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5254fbe2e4b04bbc53b57821/t/54ff533ee4b0d8debf83ed8d/1426019167515/Western+Maui+CWPP+Final+with+Appendices.pdf\">community protection plan (PDF)\u003c/a> was written for Western Maui, which found wildfire was an extreme risk there. It recommended managing invasive grasses, creating defensible space and working with private landowners to create fire breaks. Another \u003ca href=\"https://www.mauicounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/129493/Report-on-Wildfire-Prevention--Cost-Recovery-on-Maui---Part-1-Report--Exhibits-A-B-33-MB\">Maui county report (PDF)\u003c/a> two years ago made similar recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the projects were completed, but not the majority, especially given that grasses grow back and must be maintained every year. West Maui, like other fire-prone regions, has struggled to find the funding to manage vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scope and level and amount that needed to get done was never really reached, because we actually really never found funds or capacity to do the full scale of what we’d like to have done,” says Elizabeth Pickett with the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a nonprofit that helped write the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rebuild homes to resist wildfire embers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Residents who fled Lahaina describe leaving in a rain of embers from the sky. In most wildfires, houses catch on fire because of these embers, not because of the advancing flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/04/02/704854496/step-1-build-a-house-step-2-set-it-on-fire\">Fire researchers have documented\u003c/a> how embers can get caught on wood-shingled roofs and siding, fall into gutters with leaves or even get blown into attic vents, igniting the building from the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California and a handful of other states have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\">passed wildfire building codes\u003c/a>, requiring new homes to use fire-resistant materials if they’re built in risky areas. The rules cover roofs, siding, windows and ventilation, since attic vents can be protected by covering them with a fine mesh screen. Research shows for new construction, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114242871/fireproofing-your-home-isnt-very-expensive-but-few-states-require-it\">it’s not substantially more expensive\u003c/a> to build that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While residents in Lahaina will have the option to build this way, fire experts say using mandatory building codes ensures all new buildings have a better chance of surviving and are less likely to spread fire to other structures. For older homes that are already built, some communities \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924507691/millions-of-homes-are-at-risk-of-wildfires-but-its-rarely-disclosed\">offer home inspections\u003c/a> to give homeowners a specific list of recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Communities need to start investing in those strategies and perhaps recognizing that everyone is in this together, that people need to be given assistance to do these things,” Wara says. “They also need to be pushed to take the steps that will protect the whole community from a wildfire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire building codes \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\">have faced pushback in some states\u003c/a> that have proposed them, especially from home building associations. Fire experts in Hawaii say they’re hopeful that, given the heavy toll of Maui’s fires, lawmakers will embrace change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really want to believe that we will rally the way that we do so well as an island state and use this toward progress, improvement, and all the things that felt too big to deal with,” Pickett says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=3+strategies+Maui+can+adopt+from+other+states+to+help+prevent+dangerous+wildfires+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1503,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 33
},
"modified": 1704845921,
"excerpt": "In preparing for future fires, Maui doesn't have to look far. States like California have passed wildfire policies to reduce the risk that a community will be destroyed. ",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "In preparing for future fires, Maui doesn't have to look far. States like California have passed wildfire policies to reduce the risk that a community will be destroyed. ",
"title": "Wildfire Prevention Strategies Maui Can Adopt From California | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Wildfire Prevention Strategies Maui Can Adopt From California",
"datePublished": "2023-08-18T12:03:29-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:41-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "wildfire-prevention-strategies-maui-can-adopt-from-california",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1194505306&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Fri, 18 Aug 2023 06:00:31 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:08:25 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194505306/3-strategies-maui-can-adopt-from-other-states-to-help-prevent-dangerous-wildfire?ft=nprml&f=1194505306",
"nprImageAgency": "Deanne Fitzmaurice for NPR",
"source": "NPR",
"nprStoryId": "1194505306",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.npr.org/",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/803934365/lauren-sommer\">Lauren Sommer\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:08:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1983983/wildfire-prevention-strategies-maui-can-adopt-from-california",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the community in West Maui begins a slow recovery after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in the last century, one of the biggest questions is how a similar tragedy can be prevented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawaii may not have to look far. Other states, like California, have adopted strategies that are known to reduce the risk that a wildfire will spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of them are no secret to Hawaii state officials. The government’s own reports have shown that West Maui is at severe risk for wildfire, its foothills covered in dry, invasive grasses that are highly flammable. Previous recommendations included improving evacuation plans, managing dry vegetation around towns and clearing defensible space around houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Western states have mandated those policies after their own histories with destructive wildfires. Despite the recommendations, Hawaii fire experts say little was accomplished to do wildfire prevention in West Maui. Like so many communities, it struggled to find funding to clear large areas of vegetation and maintain them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No precautions are guaranteed to stop a fire, especially in extreme winds. However, fire experts say the tragedy shows communities cannot ignore their own warnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My hope would be that what just happened in Hawaii is really a wake-up call, so that any state that has fire risk of this sort is planning ahead to keep their citizens safe,” says Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Hawaii takes a close look at its wildfire policies, there are three core strategies it could adopt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Use better evacuation technology\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many residents in downtown Lahaina, the only warning to leave was seeing the flames race toward their home. In the aftermath of the fire, many are angry that the town’s network of warning sirens weren’t turned on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I would have heard the siren that morning, I would have at least prepared, packed something in my car, called my parents,” says Alex Calma, a Lahaina resident who lost his home.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_11957996,science_1983909",
"label": "Related coverage "
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Instead, he and his neighbors drove away with little time to spare, jamming one of the only roads out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government officials instead turned on the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which blasts a message to people’s phones, like AMBER Alerts for missing children. Many residents NPR spoke to didn’t receive it. High winds, power outages and flames took out the cell service network. A similar thing happened in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/County-officials-failed-to-use-cell-phone-alerts-13400300.php\">California’s deadly Camp Fire in 2018\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at how often it doesn’t work — how often cell phone towers like in Paradise and Maui get burned right away,” says Thomas Cova, a professor of geography who studies evacuations at the University of Utah. “That’s the first thing that happens is the fire burns the cell phone tower.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maui officials defended their choice not to turn on the sirens, saying the public would have been confused. People, they say, associate the sirens with tsunami warnings and could have run into the hills instead. That’s despite the fact that it was the direction the flames were coming from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To clarify the alerts, a number of cities have installed new siren networks that can also broadcast voice messages, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofmillvalley.org/213/Warnings-Alerts\">Mill Valley, California\u003c/a>, where wildfires are a danger. In Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpb.us/emergency-mgmt/oem/50-borough/emergency-management/491-sirens\">sirens play pre-recorded messages\u003c/a> to tell residents what kind of threat they’re alerting about, like a volcano, tsunami or storm, then instruct residents to tune into the radio for more details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Disaster response experts stress that cities need to have multiple strategies to alert and evacuate people safely, especially ones that don’t rely entirely on cell networks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pass a requirement to clear flammable brush and grass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As one of the people who has worked to prevent fires near Lahaina, it’s not easy for Gordon Firestein to look at the view from his house: a dark black burn scar and the blue Pacific Ocean beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983985\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983985\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a light brown t-shirt and sunglasses stands in front of a mountain shadowed by white clouds above it. In the background there are a few palm trees, with a view of the ocean, dry grass, and plants.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gordon-fire-eb3237a6ffc83a4ee304e8e5be8e5a0e5920fb93.jpg 1499w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For years, Gordon Firestein has worked with neighbors to make Lahaina safer from wildfires. He’s hopeful the state will pass mandatory policies to clear vegetation. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once a California resident, Firestein moved to West Maui 15 years ago and found the golden hillsides were all too reminiscent of his home state. Former sugarcane fields have been abandoned and overrun with invasive grasses. He banded together with a few neighbors to join \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Wildfire/Firewise-USA\">the FireWise program\u003c/a>. Run by the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association, it provides a blueprint for communities to become better prepared for wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firestein says they’ve educated neighbors about trimming the dry vegetation directly around a home to create defensible space. But Hawaii doesn’t have mandatory rules that compel homeowners to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>States like California \u003ca href=\"https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-ready/defensible-space/\">require homeowners in high risk areas to clear brush\u003c/a> and inspections are done by both city and state fire agencies. In San Diego, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\">if a homeowner doesn’t comply, the city hires a contractor\u003c/a> to do the work and puts a lien on the property to recoup the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I certainly hope that’s part of the post-fire process — that we begin to look seriously at California, for example, as a model,” Firestein says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larger areas at the edges of towns also need to be cleared of dry grass to act as a buffer against fire. On the outskirts of Lahaina, rows of houses are nestled in the hills. After the fire, some residents said the problem had been ignored for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need some accountability,” says Chris Arnold, a Lahaina resident who lost his home. “Give us some fire breaks and I don’t want to hear any more excuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983986\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Image shows destruction caused in a town after a wildfire. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/lahaina-town-a3deb94d8652b208c556c0430e55fb6d74640ba4.jpg 1598w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After the destruction in Lahaina, Hawaii, fire experts say they’re hopeful the state will take a hard look at its wildfire policies. \u003ccite>(Deanne Fitzmaurice for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Almost a decade ago, a \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5254fbe2e4b04bbc53b57821/t/54ff533ee4b0d8debf83ed8d/1426019167515/Western+Maui+CWPP+Final+with+Appendices.pdf\">community protection plan (PDF)\u003c/a> was written for Western Maui, which found wildfire was an extreme risk there. It recommended managing invasive grasses, creating defensible space and working with private landowners to create fire breaks. Another \u003ca href=\"https://www.mauicounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/129493/Report-on-Wildfire-Prevention--Cost-Recovery-on-Maui---Part-1-Report--Exhibits-A-B-33-MB\">Maui county report (PDF)\u003c/a> two years ago made similar recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the projects were completed, but not the majority, especially given that grasses grow back and must be maintained every year. West Maui, like other fire-prone regions, has struggled to find the funding to manage vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scope and level and amount that needed to get done was never really reached, because we actually really never found funds or capacity to do the full scale of what we’d like to have done,” says Elizabeth Pickett with the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a nonprofit that helped write the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rebuild homes to resist wildfire embers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Residents who fled Lahaina describe leaving in a rain of embers from the sky. In most wildfires, houses catch on fire because of these embers, not because of the advancing flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/04/02/704854496/step-1-build-a-house-step-2-set-it-on-fire\">Fire researchers have documented\u003c/a> how embers can get caught on wood-shingled roofs and siding, fall into gutters with leaves or even get blown into attic vents, igniting the building from the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California and a handful of other states have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\">passed wildfire building codes\u003c/a>, requiring new homes to use fire-resistant materials if they’re built in risky areas. The rules cover roofs, siding, windows and ventilation, since attic vents can be protected by covering them with a fine mesh screen. Research shows for new construction, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114242871/fireproofing-your-home-isnt-very-expensive-but-few-states-require-it\">it’s not substantially more expensive\u003c/a> to build that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While residents in Lahaina will have the option to build this way, fire experts say using mandatory building codes ensures all new buildings have a better chance of surviving and are less likely to spread fire to other structures. For older homes that are already built, some communities \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924507691/millions-of-homes-are-at-risk-of-wildfires-but-its-rarely-disclosed\">offer home inspections\u003c/a> to give homeowners a specific list of recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Communities need to start investing in those strategies and perhaps recognizing that everyone is in this together, that people need to be given assistance to do these things,” Wara says. “They also need to be pushed to take the steps that will protect the whole community from a wildfire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire building codes \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\">have faced pushback in some states\u003c/a> that have proposed them, especially from home building associations. Fire experts in Hawaii say they’re hopeful that, given the heavy toll of Maui’s fires, lawmakers will embrace change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really want to believe that we will rally the way that we do so well as an island state and use this toward progress, improvement, and all the things that felt too big to deal with,” Pickett says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=3+strategies+Maui+can+adopt+from+other+states+to+help+prevent+dangerous+wildfires+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1983983/wildfire-prevention-strategies-maui-can-adopt-from-california",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1983983"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_4877",
"science_182",
"science_194",
"science_113",
"science_1498"
],
"featImg": "science_1983984",
"label": "source_science_1983983"
},
"science_1983909": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1983909",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983909",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1692126030000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1692126030,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Maui Fires Now Among Deadliest US Wildfires Ever. Here Are Some Others",
"headTitle": "Maui Fires Now Among Deadliest US Wildfires Ever. Here Are Some Others | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The wildfires that tore through western Maui last week have already earned the tragic distinction of being among the deadliest in modern U.S. history — and the death toll is only expected to climb as recovery efforts continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawaii officials confirmed 99 fatalities as of late Monday, and have warned that number is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/12/1193614596/death-toll-on-maui-climbs-to-80-as-questions-over-islands-emergency-response-gro\">likely to keep rising\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/us/maui-wildfires-what-we-know/index.html#:~:text=The%20Maui%20wildfires%20are%20the,the%20National%20Fire%20Protection%20Association.\">over the weekend\u003c/a>. “It’s going to also be a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week’s wildfires — which destroyed the historic town of Lahaina and left thousands of residents without homes — also constitute the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. They surpass the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., which killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/datawrapper/henz5/1/?initialWidth=953&childId=responsive-embed-henz5&parentTitle=Maui%20joins%20the%20list%20of%20deadliest%20wildfires%20in%20recorded%20U.S.%20history%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F08%2F15%2F1193710165%2Fmaui-wildfires-deadliest-us-history\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Maui fire now ranks among the top 10 deadliest U.S. wildfires on record since 1871, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/WUI/Wildland-Fires-in-the-US-history-with-10-or-more-deaths.ashx\">National Fire Protection Association\u003c/a> (NFPA), a global nonprofit focused on eliminating loss due to fire hazards. Four of them — Maui included — have happened in the years since 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is increasing the risk of major wildfires across the U.S., and more people are moving to fire-prone areas without realizing it, as \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/us-wildfires-impact-environment-climate-change/\">NPR has reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the most devastating wildfires in U.S. history ravaged western states. But others — including the 1871 Peshtigo Fire, the deadliest on record — have struck elsewhere, including in the Midwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a look at some of the other tragedies on that list, and some lessons learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Peshtigo Fire, 1871\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983911\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-800x595.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration shows people trying to flee a fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-800x595.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1020x759.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-768x571.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1536x1143.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-2048x1524.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1920x1429.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration shows people trying to flee the fire of Peshtigo in Wisconsin in 1871. \u003ccite>(Bettmann/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The deadliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire\">wildfire in U.S. history\u003c/a> tore through northeastern Wisconsin in October 1871 — the exact same day as, and only about 250 miles away from, the better known \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/10/08/great-chicago-fire\">Great Chicago Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Peshtigo fire scorched about 1.5 million acres, leaving only one building standing. It killed at least 1,152 people, injured about 1,500 and left another 3,000 homeless, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1750\">Wisconsin Historical Society\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Peshtigo was home to many immigrants working in the lumbering and railroad industries — and a lot of wood, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.peshtigofiremuseum.com/fire/\">Peshtigo Fire Museum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It boasted the world’s largest woodenware factory, as well as one of the country’s largest sawmills. The town was surrounded by pine forests, most of its structures and sidewalks were made of wood and the streets were covered in sawdust from the factory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumberjacks and railroad construction crews regularly set fires in the area to clear debris, the museum explains, so it wasn’t unusual for the air to be filled with smoke (or for ships to navigate by compass during the day, or for schools to close, or for people to get sick).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The citizens of Peshtigo had become used to the smell of ashes and thought nothing amiss when they retired on the night of October 8, 1871,” reads the historical society’s website. “Suddenly ‘all hell rode into town on the back of a wind.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fire spread, some people hid in water wells while others rushed to the river, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/07/1013898724/the-deadliest-fire-in-american-history-happened-in-a-place-you-wouldnt-expect\">as NPR has reported\u003c/a>. Of those that survived the initial fire, many died of drowning and hypothermia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire2#:~:text=Fire%20reached%20Peshtigo%20during%20the,the%20fire%20(Figure%201).\">National Weather Service\u003c/a> attributes the fire to several factors, including prolonged drought, a strong autumn storm system, logging and clearing of land for agriculture and the “ignorance and indifference of the population,” as timber was often discarded with little regard for its flammability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy, it adds, was an important wake-up call about land-use practices of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thumb Fire, 1881\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Thumb Fire swept through central Michigan in September 1881. It burned a million acres in Sanilac and Huron Counties alone, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=160706\">historical marker\u003c/a> near Bay Port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small fires were burning in the forests of the Thumb, tinder-dry after a long, hot summer, when a gale swept in from the southwest on Sept. 5, 1881,” it reads. “Fanned into an inferno, the fires raged for three days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://news.umich.edu/fires-ravaged-michigans-thumb-in-1871-1881/\">University of Michigan\u003c/a> says the fire killed at least 300 people (NFPA puts the death toll at 282), destroyed 1,521 dwellings and left more than 14,000 people dependent on public aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many residents were left either temporarily or permanently blinded by the smoke and flying ashes that “traveled faster than a whirlwind and blotted out the sun for days,” according to \u003ca href=\"https://thumbwind.com/2021/09/04/1881-michigan-fire/\">Thumbwind.com\u003c/a>. It adds that yellow smoke made its way east, where it darkened the skies over all six New England states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Red Cross, which had been founded earlier that year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v5-4-19-23.pdf\">collected funds and clothing (PDF)\u003c/a> to support victims — marking its first-ever official disaster relief effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Great Fire, 1910\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983912\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983912\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-800x588.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white photograph of a town destroyed by fires. \" width=\"800\" height=\"588\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1020x750.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-768x564.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1536x1129.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-2048x1505.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1920x1411.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Wallace, Idaho, destroyed by forest fires in 1910. \u003ccite>(HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Great Fire of 1910 was a \u003ca href=\"https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/famous-fires/the-1910-fires/\">series of forest fires\u003c/a> that burned through Idaho, Montana and Washington between April and August, culminating in the so-called “Big Blowup.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurricane-force winds arrived on Aug. 20, whipping the small fires into flames hundreds of feet high. Forester Edward Stahl \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/your-national-forests-magazine/blazing-battles-the-1910-fire-and-its-legacy\">described them\u003c/a> as being “fanned by a tornado wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire lasted for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">two days and two nights (PDF)\u003c/a>, devastating more than 3 million acres of timberland in the Northern Rockies. The exact death toll varies, with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">U.S. Forest Service (PDF)\u003c/a> putting it at 86, saying most were firefighters on the front lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, the Forest Service had only existed for five years by this point. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/your-national-forests-magazine/blazing-battles-the-1910-fire-and-its-legacy\">National Forest Foundation\u003c/a> says the fire “left not only scars on the land, but also lasting and fervent opinions about how forests and wildfire should be managed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cloquet and Moose Lake Fires, 1918\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Cloquet and Moose Lake fires of 1918 (which were actually made up of \u003ca href=\"https://mndigital.org/projects/primary-source-sets/natural-disasters-minnesota#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20worst%20natural,provided%20fuel%20for%20the%20fires.\">50 blazes\u003c/a>) remain one of the deadliest natural disasters in Minnesota history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/dlh/MooseLake_Cloquet_1918Fires\">National Weather Service\u003c/a> show Northeast Minnesota was experiencing its “driest season in 48 years” when sparks from a passing train, fueled by gusty winds, ignited fires that lasted for several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire consumed approximately 1,500 square miles and killed more than 450 people, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://mndigital.org/projects/primary-source-sets/natural-disasters-minnesota#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20worst%20natural,provided%20fuel%20for%20the%20fires.\">Minnesota Digital Library\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly half of the victims were from the Moose Lake area. Many of them died trying to escape in cars or suffocating in root cellars and wells, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/10/12/moose-lake-fire-no-less-horrible-100-years-later\">MPR News\u003c/a> reported on the 100th anniversary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie Frohrip, the vice president of the Moose Lake Area Historical Society, told the station that her mother-in-law, a teenager at the time, had survived the fire by wading into the lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said that when she had been in Sunday school, she had learned that when the end of the world came, the stars were going to fall out of the sky,” Frohrip said. “And so when they came down the hill and saw all the sparks, she was sure this was going to be the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Griffith Park Fire, 1933\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983913\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983913\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people plant a pine tree. \" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1536x1019.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-2048x1359.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1920x1274.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Loa (right), a survivor of the 1933 Griffith Park fire, helped plant a pine tree in memoriam in 2007, at the age of 96. \u003ccite>(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Griffith Park fire was once the deadliest fire in California history, killing 29 people in 1933. But it burned a relatively small 47 acres and damaged no property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the victims of the fire were civilians who had been doing cleanup and assistance work in the Los Angeles park for 40 cents an hour through a Depression-era government program, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705774/remembering-l-a-s-1933-griffith-park-fire-the-states-deadliest-fire-until-now\">member station KQED reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were 3,784 workers in the park when a brush fire broke out on the afternoon of Oct. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accounts differ on whether workers were ordered by their foremen to head down into Mineral Wells Canyon to fight the fire or whether they were simply asked to help put out the flames,” KQED reported. “Either way, into the canyon they went, with only shovels, their hands and the earth at their feet to work with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire department had arrived relatively quickly but was \u003ca href=\"https://friendsofgriffithpark.org/griffith-parks-1933-fire/\">reportedly overwhelmed\u003c/a> by the thousands of amateurs crowding the scene. Then a sudden change in the winds sent the fire up the canyon, \u003ca href=\"https://lafire.com/famous_fires/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire.htm\">killing 29 workers\u003c/a> of thermal burns and injuring more than 150 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporter Caroline Walker \u003ca href=\"https://lafire.com/famous_fires/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire.htm\">wrote in the Oct. 4, 1933 issue\u003c/a> of the \u003cem>Los Angeles Herald-Express\u003c/em> of the men, that “in their hearts a little candle of hope had been burning again because they had a chance to earn a little money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was only a brush fire that they were asked to extinguish. It was the sort that skilled fireworkers know how to handle. But the men in the park weren’t fire fighters. They did not know that canyons become flutes in a brush fire, or that flames travel with such deadly swiftness over grass and trees grown brittle with the summer drought. It was work. That was all that mattered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Camp Fire, 2018\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Crosses are seen lined up at a memorial.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crosses line the road to remember the people who died as a result of the Camp Fire in Paradise, Butte County. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Camp Fire broke out in Northern California in November 2018, sweeping through the towns of Paradise and Concow — which each lost about 95% of their structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It spanned an area of 153,336 acres, and eventually killed at least 85 people, injuring 12 civilians and five firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A yearlong investigation found that the fire had been ignited by outdated power lines. Pacific Gas & Electric \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/879008760/pg-e-pleads-guilty-on-2018-california-camp-fire-our-equipment-started-that-fire\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in 2020 to 84 separate counts of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires, which have killed \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092259419/california-wildfires-pacific-gas-electric-55-million\">more than 100 people since 2017\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California Fire Siege, 2020\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 8,600 wildfires burned across California in 2020, scorching some 4.2 million acres — a state record — and killing 33 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The 2020 California wildfire year was characterized by record-setting wildfires that burned across the state of California as measured during the modern era of wildfire management and record keeping,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020\">California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The years 2020 and 2021 together burned more area than the previous seven years combined, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/californias-2020-wildfire-season-numbers\">University of California, Davis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials described 2020 as a “fire siege” because it saw 18 of the state’s 20 most destructive fires on record, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/californias-2020-wildfires-negated-years-of-emission-cuts/\">\u003cem>Scientific American\u003c/em>\u003c/a> explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mendocino/home/?cid=FSEPRD860382\">August Complex\u003c/a> fire, which officials called the first “gigafire” since it burned more than 1 million acres. It was ignited by lightning in mid-August and burned for four months, scorching an area larger than the state of Rhode Island to become the largest fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Maui%27s+wildfires+are+among+the+deadliest+on+record+in+the+U.S.+Here+are+some+others&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": true,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1923,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [
"https://apps.npr.org/datawrapper/henz5/1/"
],
"paragraphCount": 51
},
"modified": 1704845926,
"excerpt": "The wildfires that killed at least 99 people in Maui are the deadliest to hit the US in more than a century. Here's a look back at some of the country's most lethal blazes and lessons learned.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "The wildfires that killed at least 99 people in Maui are the deadliest to hit the US in more than a century. Here's a look back at some of the country's most lethal blazes and lessons learned.",
"title": "Maui Fires Now Among Deadliest US Wildfires Ever. Here Are Some Others | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Maui Fires Now Among Deadliest US Wildfires Ever. Here Are Some Others",
"datePublished": "2023-08-15T12:00:30-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-09T16:18:46-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "maui-fires-now-among-uss-deadliest-wildfires-ever-here-are-some-others",
"status": "publish",
"nprApiLink": "http://api.npr.org/query?id=1193710165&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004",
"nprStoryDate": "Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:00:38 -0400",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"nprLastModifiedDate": "Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:00:38 -0400",
"nprHtmlLink": "https://www.npr.org/2023/08/15/1193710165/maui-wildfires-deadliest-us-history?ft=nprml&f=1193710165",
"nprImageAgency": "AFP via Getty Images",
"source": "NPR",
"nprStoryId": "1193710165",
"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/776048102/rachel-treisman\">Rachel Treisman\u003c/a>",
"sticky": false,
"nprImageCredit": "Patrick T. Fallon",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"nprRetrievedStory": "1",
"nprPubDate": "Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0400",
"path": "/science/1983909/maui-fires-now-among-uss-deadliest-wildfires-ever-here-are-some-others",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The wildfires that tore through western Maui last week have already earned the tragic distinction of being among the deadliest in modern U.S. history — and the death toll is only expected to climb as recovery efforts continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawaii officials confirmed 99 fatalities as of late Monday, and have warned that number is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/12/1193614596/death-toll-on-maui-climbs-to-80-as-questions-over-islands-emergency-response-gro\">likely to keep rising\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/us/maui-wildfires-what-we-know/index.html#:~:text=The%20Maui%20wildfires%20are%20the,the%20National%20Fire%20Protection%20Association.\">over the weekend\u003c/a>. “It’s going to also be a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week’s wildfires — which destroyed the historic town of Lahaina and left thousands of residents without homes — also constitute the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. They surpass the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., which killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/datawrapper/henz5/1/?initialWidth=953&childId=responsive-embed-henz5&parentTitle=Maui%20joins%20the%20list%20of%20deadliest%20wildfires%20in%20recorded%20U.S.%20history%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F08%2F15%2F1193710165%2Fmaui-wildfires-deadliest-us-history\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Maui fire now ranks among the top 10 deadliest U.S. wildfires on record since 1871, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/WUI/Wildland-Fires-in-the-US-history-with-10-or-more-deaths.ashx\">National Fire Protection Association\u003c/a> (NFPA), a global nonprofit focused on eliminating loss due to fire hazards. Four of them — Maui included — have happened in the years since 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change is increasing the risk of major wildfires across the U.S., and more people are moving to fire-prone areas without realizing it, as \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/us-wildfires-impact-environment-climate-change/\">NPR has reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the most devastating wildfires in U.S. history ravaged western states. But others — including the 1871 Peshtigo Fire, the deadliest on record — have struck elsewhere, including in the Midwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a look at some of the other tragedies on that list, and some lessons learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Peshtigo Fire, 1871\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983911\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-800x595.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration shows people trying to flee a fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-800x595.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1020x759.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-768x571.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1536x1143.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-2048x1524.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-517220336_custom-36b3960e4206c18876faf4e6df40069608991ea9-1920x1429.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration shows people trying to flee the fire of Peshtigo in Wisconsin in 1871. \u003ccite>(Bettmann/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The deadliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire\">wildfire in U.S. history\u003c/a> tore through northeastern Wisconsin in October 1871 — the exact same day as, and only about 250 miles away from, the better known \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/10/08/great-chicago-fire\">Great Chicago Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Peshtigo fire scorched about 1.5 million acres, leaving only one building standing. It killed at least 1,152 people, injured about 1,500 and left another 3,000 homeless, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1750\">Wisconsin Historical Society\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Peshtigo was home to many immigrants working in the lumbering and railroad industries — and a lot of wood, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.peshtigofiremuseum.com/fire/\">Peshtigo Fire Museum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It boasted the world’s largest woodenware factory, as well as one of the country’s largest sawmills. The town was surrounded by pine forests, most of its structures and sidewalks were made of wood and the streets were covered in sawdust from the factory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lumberjacks and railroad construction crews regularly set fires in the area to clear debris, the museum explains, so it wasn’t unusual for the air to be filled with smoke (or for ships to navigate by compass during the day, or for schools to close, or for people to get sick).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The citizens of Peshtigo had become used to the smell of ashes and thought nothing amiss when they retired on the night of October 8, 1871,” reads the historical society’s website. “Suddenly ‘all hell rode into town on the back of a wind.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fire spread, some people hid in water wells while others rushed to the river, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/07/1013898724/the-deadliest-fire-in-american-history-happened-in-a-place-you-wouldnt-expect\">as NPR has reported\u003c/a>. Of those that survived the initial fire, many died of drowning and hypothermia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/grb/peshtigofire2#:~:text=Fire%20reached%20Peshtigo%20during%20the,the%20fire%20(Figure%201).\">National Weather Service\u003c/a> attributes the fire to several factors, including prolonged drought, a strong autumn storm system, logging and clearing of land for agriculture and the “ignorance and indifference of the population,” as timber was often discarded with little regard for its flammability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy, it adds, was an important wake-up call about land-use practices of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thumb Fire, 1881\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Thumb Fire swept through central Michigan in September 1881. It burned a million acres in Sanilac and Huron Counties alone, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=160706\">historical marker\u003c/a> near Bay Port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small fires were burning in the forests of the Thumb, tinder-dry after a long, hot summer, when a gale swept in from the southwest on Sept. 5, 1881,” it reads. “Fanned into an inferno, the fires raged for three days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://news.umich.edu/fires-ravaged-michigans-thumb-in-1871-1881/\">University of Michigan\u003c/a> says the fire killed at least 300 people (NFPA puts the death toll at 282), destroyed 1,521 dwellings and left more than 14,000 people dependent on public aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many residents were left either temporarily or permanently blinded by the smoke and flying ashes that “traveled faster than a whirlwind and blotted out the sun for days,” according to \u003ca href=\"https://thumbwind.com/2021/09/04/1881-michigan-fire/\">Thumbwind.com\u003c/a>. It adds that yellow smoke made its way east, where it darkened the skies over all six New England states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Red Cross, which had been founded earlier that year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/enterprise-assets/about-us/history/history-clara-barton-v5-4-19-23.pdf\">collected funds and clothing (PDF)\u003c/a> to support victims — marking its first-ever official disaster relief effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Great Fire, 1910\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983912\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983912\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-800x588.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white photograph of a town destroyed by fires. \" width=\"800\" height=\"588\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1020x750.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-768x564.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1536x1129.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-2048x1505.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1354519558_custom-2150f760df2bd256c6bd8f7a8842f848f4107737-1920x1411.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Wallace, Idaho, destroyed by forest fires in 1910. \u003ccite>(HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Great Fire of 1910 was a \u003ca href=\"https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/famous-fires/the-1910-fires/\">series of forest fires\u003c/a> that burned through Idaho, Montana and Washington between April and August, culminating in the so-called “Big Blowup.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurricane-force winds arrived on Aug. 20, whipping the small fires into flames hundreds of feet high. Forester Edward Stahl \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/your-national-forests-magazine/blazing-battles-the-1910-fire-and-its-legacy\">described them\u003c/a> as being “fanned by a tornado wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire lasted for \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">two days and two nights (PDF)\u003c/a>, devastating more than 3 million acres of timberland in the Northern Rockies. The exact death toll varies, with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">U.S. Forest Service (PDF)\u003c/a> putting it at 86, saying most were firefighters on the front lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, the Forest Service had only existed for five years by this point. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/your-national-forests-magazine/blazing-battles-the-1910-fire-and-its-legacy\">National Forest Foundation\u003c/a> says the fire “left not only scars on the land, but also lasting and fervent opinions about how forests and wildfire should be managed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cloquet and Moose Lake Fires, 1918\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Cloquet and Moose Lake fires of 1918 (which were actually made up of \u003ca href=\"https://mndigital.org/projects/primary-source-sets/natural-disasters-minnesota#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20worst%20natural,provided%20fuel%20for%20the%20fires.\">50 blazes\u003c/a>) remain one of the deadliest natural disasters in Minnesota history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/dlh/MooseLake_Cloquet_1918Fires\">National Weather Service\u003c/a> show Northeast Minnesota was experiencing its “driest season in 48 years” when sparks from a passing train, fueled by gusty winds, ignited fires that lasted for several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire consumed approximately 1,500 square miles and killed more than 450 people, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://mndigital.org/projects/primary-source-sets/natural-disasters-minnesota#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20worst%20natural,provided%20fuel%20for%20the%20fires.\">Minnesota Digital Library\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly half of the victims were from the Moose Lake area. Many of them died trying to escape in cars or suffocating in root cellars and wells, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/10/12/moose-lake-fire-no-less-horrible-100-years-later\">MPR News\u003c/a> reported on the 100th anniversary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie Frohrip, the vice president of the Moose Lake Area Historical Society, told the station that her mother-in-law, a teenager at the time, had survived the fire by wading into the lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said that when she had been in Sunday school, she had learned that when the end of the world came, the stars were going to fall out of the sky,” Frohrip said. “And so when they came down the hill and saw all the sparks, she was sure this was going to be the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Griffith Park Fire, 1933\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983913\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983913\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people plant a pine tree. \" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1536x1019.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-2048x1359.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-564024413_custom-46d66869284461412635fcaa8442688a9cc40b97-1920x1274.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Loa (right), a survivor of the 1933 Griffith Park fire, helped plant a pine tree in memoriam in 2007, at the age of 96. \u003ccite>(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Griffith Park fire was once the deadliest fire in California history, killing 29 people in 1933. But it burned a relatively small 47 acres and damaged no property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the victims of the fire were civilians who had been doing cleanup and assistance work in the Los Angeles park for 40 cents an hour through a Depression-era government program, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705774/remembering-l-a-s-1933-griffith-park-fire-the-states-deadliest-fire-until-now\">member station KQED reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were 3,784 workers in the park when a brush fire broke out on the afternoon of Oct. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accounts differ on whether workers were ordered by their foremen to head down into Mineral Wells Canyon to fight the fire or whether they were simply asked to help put out the flames,” KQED reported. “Either way, into the canyon they went, with only shovels, their hands and the earth at their feet to work with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire department had arrived relatively quickly but was \u003ca href=\"https://friendsofgriffithpark.org/griffith-parks-1933-fire/\">reportedly overwhelmed\u003c/a> by the thousands of amateurs crowding the scene. Then a sudden change in the winds sent the fire up the canyon, \u003ca href=\"https://lafire.com/famous_fires/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire.htm\">killing 29 workers\u003c/a> of thermal burns and injuring more than 150 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporter Caroline Walker \u003ca href=\"https://lafire.com/famous_fires/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire/1933-1003_GriffithParkFire.htm\">wrote in the Oct. 4, 1933 issue\u003c/a> of the \u003cem>Los Angeles Herald-Express\u003c/em> of the men, that “in their hearts a little candle of hope had been burning again because they had a chance to earn a little money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was only a brush fire that they were asked to extinguish. It was the sort that skilled fireworkers know how to handle. But the men in the park weren’t fire fighters. They did not know that canyons become flutes in a brush fire, or that flames travel with such deadly swiftness over grass and trees grown brittle with the summer drought. It was work. That was all that mattered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Camp Fire, 2018\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Crosses are seen lined up at a memorial.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/gettyimages-1177682049-26f322515b8f907ddecb5aef035dd77b47bd1e33-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crosses line the road to remember the people who died as a result of the Camp Fire in Paradise, Butte County. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Camp Fire broke out in Northern California in November 2018, sweeping through the towns of Paradise and Concow — which each lost about 95% of their structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It spanned an area of 153,336 acres, and eventually killed at least 85 people, injuring 12 civilians and five firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A yearlong investigation found that the fire had been ignited by outdated power lines. Pacific Gas & Electric \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/879008760/pg-e-pleads-guilty-on-2018-california-camp-fire-our-equipment-started-that-fire\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> in 2020 to 84 separate counts of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires, which have killed \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092259419/california-wildfires-pacific-gas-electric-55-million\">more than 100 people since 2017\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California Fire Siege, 2020\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 8,600 wildfires burned across California in 2020, scorching some 4.2 million acres — a state record — and killing 33 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The 2020 California wildfire year was characterized by record-setting wildfires that burned across the state of California as measured during the modern era of wildfire management and record keeping,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020\">California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The years 2020 and 2021 together burned more area than the previous seven years combined, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/californias-2020-wildfire-season-numbers\">University of California, Davis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials described 2020 as a “fire siege” because it saw 18 of the state’s 20 most destructive fires on record, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/californias-2020-wildfires-negated-years-of-emission-cuts/\">\u003cem>Scientific American\u003c/em>\u003c/a> explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mendocino/home/?cid=FSEPRD860382\">August Complex\u003c/a> fire, which officials called the first “gigafire” since it burned more than 1 million acres. It was ignited by lightning in mid-August and burned for four months, scorching an area larger than the state of Rhode Island to become the largest fire in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Maui%27s+wildfires+are+among+the+deadliest+on+record+in+the+U.S.+Here+are+some+others&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1983909/maui-fires-now-among-uss-deadliest-wildfires-ever-here-are-some-others",
"authors": [
"byline_science_1983909"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_182",
"science_194",
"science_4414",
"science_112",
"science_2184",
"science_113"
],
"featImg": "science_1983910",
"label": "source_science_1983909"
},
"science_1983775": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_1983775",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1983775",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1691175286000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets",
"title": "Algal Blooms in the Bay Area: What You Need to Know About Swimming Safety",
"publishDate": 1691175286,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Algal Blooms in the Bay Area: What You Need to Know About Swimming Safety | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"content": "\u003cp>The red tide that killed an immeasurable number of fish in San Francisco Bay last year has again emerged, covering parts of the bay in a light brown sheen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency in charge of regulating flows into the bay held a press conference in early August alerting the public about the return of the tea-colored water. This alert came after an environmental watchdog group, San Francisco Baykeeper, received a series of calls at the end of July about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983631/last-summers-fish-killing-algae-bloom-is-back-in-the-bay\">a reddish-brown film floating on the surface of the water in places like Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany and Tiburon\u003c/a>.[aside postID=science_1983631 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Environmental scientists believe the algal bloom, while a natural occurrence and likely not harmful to human health, is fueled by treated sewage put out by wastewater treatment plants across the Bay Area — and could be worsened by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists aren’t sure how large this bloom will grow or how many fish will die, but they are examining the organism closely. Still, scientists are sure of one thing: Humans are a big part of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#algaebloomsafepets\">Is the red tide harmful to humans or pets?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#reportalgaebloom\">What should I do if I find a red tide or a dead fish?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#algaesafetofish\">Can I still fish in the bay?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#redtideclimatechange\">How is the red tide related to climate change?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost all about us to blame,” said Peter Roopnarine, curator of invertebrate zoology & geology at the California Academy of Sciences. “The bay is kind of a gigantic laboratory flask in some ways where you can put in ingredients, can mix them and it’s not easy for those to have an outside influence from the ocean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what you need to know about this latest algal bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ominous sounding, the term red tide is broadly defined. It typically means anytime a bloom of phytoplankton — microscopic plant-like organisms that are the base of the marine food web — discolor a body of water to the point it is visible to the human eye.[aside postID='news_11910495,science_1983522,news_11953853,news_11953794' label='More Outdoor Guides From KQED']Red tides aren’t always red. They can in fact range from rusty orange to brown to green, but millions (if not billions or trillions) of these little creatures are needed for a red tide to be visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not every red tide, or algal bloom, is toxic — although they can be. The species behind the recurring algal bloom in San Francisco Bay is called \u003ca href=\"https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/toxicity-toxic-alga-heterosigma-akashiwo-puget-sound/\">Heterosigma akashiwo\u003c/a> and \u003cem>isn’t\u003c/em> known at this time to be toxic to humans (see more below). The microscopic critter looks like a swimming potato chip with a tail, said Raphael Kudela, a phytoplankton ecologist at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the organism thrives in the bay because the shallow water warms up quickly. Plus, it’s full of tasty treats it likes to fill up on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really happy when it’s in the bay,” he said. “As long as it’s happy, it’s just going to keep going, and going, and going. And that’s basically what a red tide is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983659\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"White sailboats float in reddish brown water.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reddish-brown water due to an algae bloom can be seen in the Berkeley Marina on July 31, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"algaebloomsafepets\">\u003c/a>Is the red tide harmful to humans or pets??\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t think the red tide in the bay harms human health or pets, but they are hesitant to say that for certain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, experts do not recommend swimming in — or otherwise coming into contact with — murky water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Senn, senior scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, (SFEI) said there’s very little information available about the toxicity of the algae on people when they come in contact with it. That’s why the general guidance is: Don’t take a dip into areas of the bay where blooms are present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense to avoid discolored water in general, particularly in this case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is known is that an algae bloom of this nature often kills fish by eliminating the oxygen they need to breathe in the water. (Jump to more information about \u003ca href=\"#reportalgaebloom\">what to do if you find a dead fish or other organism near a red tide.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983788\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-1020x511.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-1536x769.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo submitted by Damon Tighe to inaturalist.org, showing a dead bat ray found in Emeryville. \u003ccite>(Damon Tighe via inaturalist.org)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there is a caveat for humans, said Kudela at UC Santa Cruz. Dense red tides are often accompanied by organic material and bacteria, which \u003cem>can\u003c/em> harm human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Heterosigma is not going to harm humans or dogs. But just being in that organic soup, you could be exposed to pathogenic bacteria or other things,” he said. “If the water is super thick and red, you probably don’t want to be in it anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short: While the risks are probably low, it’s just a good idea to keep yourself — and your pets — out of a body of water that has a red tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"reportalgaebloom\">\u003c/a>What do I do if I spot a red tide??\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To report a red tide or algae bloom you can reach SF Baykeeper’s pollution hotline by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Calling 1-800-KEEP-Bay.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:hotline@baykeeper.org\">hotline@baykeeper.org.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/content/report-pollution\">Filling out a form online\u003c/a> to submit a confidential pollution tip.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Algal blooms can also be reported to the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Freshwater and Estuarine Harmful Algal Bloom (FHAB) Program. You can reach the agency hotline by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Calling 1-844-729-6466.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:CyanoHAB.Reports@waterboards.ca.gov\">CyanoHAB.Reports@waterboards.ca.gov.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Filling out\u003ca href=\"https://mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/do/bloomreport.html\"> a digital form to submit an algal bloom report\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you’re reporting a red tide, be sure to include the time, date, location and a description of what you saw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spotted a dead fish near a red tide?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To report a dead fish in an area where there is red tide present, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\">download the app iNaturalist\u003c/a>. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is collecting \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sf-bay-harmful-algae-bloom-2023\">these observations of dead organisms related to the algae bloom\u003c/a> in San Francisco Bay, so make sure you log a photo, location and (if possible) species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/08/03/harmful-algae-bloom-red-tide-bay-area-lake-merritt-inaturalist-project-research/\">Read more about how to report dead fish using iNaturalist from The Oaklandside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983783\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1062\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-800x443.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-1020x564.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-768x425.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-1536x850.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-672x372.jpg 672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of the Bay Area on inaturalist.org showing user reports of dead organisms around a red tide \u003ccite>(inaturalist.org)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"algaesafetofish\">\u003c/a>Can I continue fishing in the bay with the algae present?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>UC Santa Cruz’s Kudela said it’s perfectly fine to continue fishing in the bay, even in areas where the algae bloom is present because the algae do not contaminate the meat of the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘While it can kill the fish, if you’re eating the meat and cleaning it, there’s no risk,” Kudela said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s up to you whether you want to fish or eat stressed fish, but there’s nothing wrong with fishing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for more background on the 2023 algal bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is causing this year’s algal bloom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Heterosigma akashiwo got lucky in 2023 — for the second year in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of environmental conditions are allowing this minuscule creature to show up en masse. This organism needs four things to flourish: light, warm water, relatively calm water and oodles of food. It got all four this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the organism deposited itself in sediment under the bay after it died off last year, acting like a dormant seed until the right conditions allow it to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board has confirmed the organism in bay waters near Emeryville, Albany, the Berkeley Marina, Richardson Bay and Belvedere Cove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the bay’s east side is often shallow — water heats up faster there than in other parts of the region — the red tide was first spotted there, likely because it’s an ideal place for the algae to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: Is there another guide to something you’d like to read?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely responding to warm temperatures,” said UC Santa Cruz’s Kudela. The organisms swim near the water’s surface during daytime hours to gather more light and swim toward nutrients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With winter storms long in the rearview mirror, tides in the bay also are at their mellowest point of the year, which decreases ocean water circulation into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The algae also have a lot to eat for several reasons. They munch on tiny particles, nutrients of nitrogen and phosphorus. While naturally occurring, there is an influx of these nutrients into the bay from 37 wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated sewage into the bay. This rush of nutrients provides a buffet for the algae to feast upon, allowing them to grow voraciously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco Bay has some of the highest levels of nutrient pollution of any estuary in the world,” said Jon Rosenfield, senior scientist with SF Baykeeper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983657\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983657\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Dark reddish-orange looking water splashes agains rocks in the foreground with the San Francisco skyline in the distance.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An algae bloom in the San Francisco Bay near the Berkeley Marina on July 31, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>When will the red tide go away?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the near term, scientists say nothing can be done to stop a red tide once it shows up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just have to wait for conditions to change,” said Kudela.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The options are limited. The algae can consume all the nutrients like PAC-MAN eating dots in a video game until there isn’t enough left to support the organism. Or a heavy rain storm or a wind event can churn up the bay, altering the water’s temperature, and reversing the conditions that can support it. Some scientists think that’s what caused the red tide to dissipate last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had some really big wind events, and it was gone,” said William Cochlan, a marine biologist and an emeritus professor at San Francisco State University. “The winds stir up the whole system, they don’t get enough light and that’s usually the end of the bloom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the algae, in this case, are tricksters. Scientists believe that when their conditions change, they produce a cyst and embed themselves into the sediment at the bottom of the bay, not emerging again until the right conditions persist for them to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFEI’s Senn said they don’t yet know what triggers the cysts to hatch. His team is testing the bay’s water and monitoring satellite imagery to see if the bloom is expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What struck the match last year was a mystery. But once the match was struck, it was enough for this organism to get a toehold and then it had fuel to continue to grow,” said Senn.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are scientists and officials doing to address the red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the long term, the region’s 37 wastewater treatment plants can limit the nutrient pollution they dump into the San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These plants regularly discharge treated sewage water full of tiny particles, which algae love to devour. Cochlan said these plants contribute “the vast majority” of the nutrients (or algae food) into the bay, especially during the summer when the water is warmer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next year, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board will consider changing its rules for these plants, when their permits are up for renewal. This is an opportunity for regulators to clamp down on the nutrient load the plants are allowed to release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these plants treat the sewage, most do not filter out all the nutrients before discharging the water into the bay. Fixing the problem could cost at least $12 billion and maybe twice that much, according to Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, which represent local water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some plants are already redesigning their facilities to reduce the amount of nutrients released into the bay, said Eileen White, the water board executive officer. But not all plants are doing that — and there is currently no formal requirement for plant operators to reduce the discharged nutrient loads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists also say red tides will likely occur more often as the climate warms and raises water temperatures. The even bigger fix is addressing climate change at its root by ending the burning of fossil fuels that cause global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"redtideclimatechange\">\u003c/a>What does climate change have to do with red tides?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Climate change will likely increase the frequency of red tides because the bay and ocean will be warmer. The bay could also absorb more runoff during significant wet years and less water during periods of drought. This off-and-on cycle could accentuate the warm and relatively calm conditions the algae proliferate in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could expect more unpredictable and more frequent algal blooms of all kinds,” said Kudela at UC Santa Cruz. “It’s not surprising that we’re seeing bigger and longer-lasting blooms as the climate shifts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increasing water temperature is critical to the algae’s lifespan, and a warming climate only increases the odds of the species thriving in the bay, said San Francisco State University’s Cochlan.\u003cbr>\n“We may be exacerbating these plumes, making them more frequent, of greater duration and more intense by increasing temperature through climate change,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to expect to see these changes in the bay or the coast with climate change,” Cochlan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleaning up what the treatment plants dump into the bay and warming water is “like a one-two punch — and we really need to tackle both of the problems,” said Emily Jeffers, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the one that we can address more readily and more quickly is the nutrient loads from the wastewater-treatment facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is the Bay Area red tide related to the algal bloom off the Southern California coast?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The red tide in San Francisco Bay is unrelated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-07/as-toxic-algae-bloom-afflicts-california-coast-wildlife-care-center-calls-for-aid\">the algal bloom in the Pacific Ocean, currently off the coast of Southern California\u003c/a>. The organism causing the death of dolphins and sea lions is \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/toxic-algal-bloom-suspected-dolphin-and-sea-lion-deaths-southern-california\">a different type of algae, Pseudo-nitzschia\u003c/a>, that causes the production of a neurotoxin called domoic acid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That toxin is transmitted via the complex food web. Birds and marine mammals can die when ingesting the toxin in animals and fish that they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They get a big dose of domoic acid; it causes brain damage,” said Kudela. “Humans can get the same thing, but almost nobody in California gets sick because it’s super well regulated. But it can get into the shellfish and things like spiny lobster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The algae bloom in the bay and in the Pacific Ocean are similar because they’re both phytoplankton blooms and flourish in relatively warmer water, although at somewhat different temperatures. The more dangerous algae currently circulating in the Pacific Ocean could spread into the bay if the conditions are right. But Kudela said the likelihood of that happening is slim because the bay is consistently too warm for the species.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "That 'red tide' is back in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's what you need to know about swimming near it, pet safety and how this 2023 algae is related to climate change.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1749131232,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": true,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 65,
"wordCount": 2723
},
"headData": {
"title": "Algal Blooms and Swimming Safety in the Bay Area | KQED",
"description": "Find out if swimming is safe for both humans and pets, and what precautions to take to stay protected As algal blooms return to the Bay Area.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialTitle": "Algal Blooms and Swimming Safety in the Bay Area | KQED",
"socialDescription": "Find out if swimming is safe for both humans and pets, and what precautions to take to stay protected As algal blooms return to the Bay Area.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Algal Blooms in the Bay Area: What You Need to Know About Swimming Safety",
"datePublished": "2023-08-04T11:54:46-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-06-05T06:47:12-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sticky": false,
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The red tide that killed an immeasurable number of fish in San Francisco Bay last year has again emerged, covering parts of the bay in a light brown sheen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency in charge of regulating flows into the bay held a press conference in early August alerting the public about the return of the tea-colored water. This alert came after an environmental watchdog group, San Francisco Baykeeper, received a series of calls at the end of July about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983631/last-summers-fish-killing-algae-bloom-is-back-in-the-bay\">a reddish-brown film floating on the surface of the water in places like Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany and Tiburon\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "science_1983631",
"hero": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Environmental scientists believe the algal bloom, while a natural occurrence and likely not harmful to human health, is fueled by treated sewage put out by wastewater treatment plants across the Bay Area — and could be worsened by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists aren’t sure how large this bloom will grow or how many fish will die, but they are examining the organism closely. Still, scientists are sure of one thing: Humans are a big part of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#algaebloomsafepets\">Is the red tide harmful to humans or pets?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#reportalgaebloom\">What should I do if I find a red tide or a dead fish?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#algaesafetofish\">Can I still fish in the bay?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#redtideclimatechange\">How is the red tide related to climate change?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost all about us to blame,” said Peter Roopnarine, curator of invertebrate zoology & geology at the California Academy of Sciences. “The bay is kind of a gigantic laboratory flask in some ways where you can put in ingredients, can mix them and it’s not easy for those to have an outside influence from the ocean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what you need to know about this latest algal bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ominous sounding, the term red tide is broadly defined. It typically means anytime a bloom of phytoplankton — microscopic plant-like organisms that are the base of the marine food web — discolor a body of water to the point it is visible to the human eye.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_11910495,science_1983522,news_11953853,news_11953794",
"label": "More Outdoor Guides From KQED "
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Red tides aren’t always red. They can in fact range from rusty orange to brown to green, but millions (if not billions or trillions) of these little creatures are needed for a red tide to be visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not every red tide, or algal bloom, is toxic — although they can be. The species behind the recurring algal bloom in San Francisco Bay is called \u003ca href=\"https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/toxicity-toxic-alga-heterosigma-akashiwo-puget-sound/\">Heterosigma akashiwo\u003c/a> and \u003cem>isn’t\u003c/em> known at this time to be toxic to humans (see more below). The microscopic critter looks like a swimming potato chip with a tail, said Raphael Kudela, a phytoplankton ecologist at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the organism thrives in the bay because the shallow water warms up quickly. Plus, it’s full of tasty treats it likes to fill up on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really happy when it’s in the bay,” he said. “As long as it’s happy, it’s just going to keep going, and going, and going. And that’s basically what a red tide is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983659\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"White sailboats float in reddish brown water.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67416_230731-RedTideAlgae-08-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reddish-brown water due to an algae bloom can be seen in the Berkeley Marina on July 31, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"algaebloomsafepets\">\u003c/a>Is the red tide harmful to humans or pets??\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t think the red tide in the bay harms human health or pets, but they are hesitant to say that for certain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, experts do not recommend swimming in — or otherwise coming into contact with — murky water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Senn, senior scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, (SFEI) said there’s very little information available about the toxicity of the algae on people when they come in contact with it. That’s why the general guidance is: Don’t take a dip into areas of the bay where blooms are present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense to avoid discolored water in general, particularly in this case,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is known is that an algae bloom of this nature often kills fish by eliminating the oxygen they need to breathe in the water. (Jump to more information about \u003ca href=\"#reportalgaebloom\">what to do if you find a dead fish or other organism near a red tide.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983788\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-1020x511.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/bat-ray-1536x769.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo submitted by Damon Tighe to inaturalist.org, showing a dead bat ray found in Emeryville. \u003ccite>(Damon Tighe via inaturalist.org)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there is a caveat for humans, said Kudela at UC Santa Cruz. Dense red tides are often accompanied by organic material and bacteria, which \u003cem>can\u003c/em> harm human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Heterosigma is not going to harm humans or dogs. But just being in that organic soup, you could be exposed to pathogenic bacteria or other things,” he said. “If the water is super thick and red, you probably don’t want to be in it anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short: While the risks are probably low, it’s just a good idea to keep yourself — and your pets — out of a body of water that has a red tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"reportalgaebloom\">\u003c/a>What do I do if I spot a red tide??\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To report a red tide or algae bloom you can reach SF Baykeeper’s pollution hotline by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Calling 1-800-KEEP-Bay.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:hotline@baykeeper.org\">hotline@baykeeper.org.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/content/report-pollution\">Filling out a form online\u003c/a> to submit a confidential pollution tip.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Algal blooms can also be reported to the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Freshwater and Estuarine Harmful Algal Bloom (FHAB) Program. You can reach the agency hotline by:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Calling 1-844-729-6466.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Emailing \u003ca href=\"mailto:CyanoHAB.Reports@waterboards.ca.gov\">CyanoHAB.Reports@waterboards.ca.gov.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Filling out\u003ca href=\"https://mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/do/bloomreport.html\"> a digital form to submit an algal bloom report\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you’re reporting a red tide, be sure to include the time, date, location and a description of what you saw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spotted a dead fish near a red tide?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To report a dead fish in an area where there is red tide present, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\">download the app iNaturalist\u003c/a>. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is collecting \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sf-bay-harmful-algae-bloom-2023\">these observations of dead organisms related to the algae bloom\u003c/a> in San Francisco Bay, so make sure you log a photo, location and (if possible) species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/08/03/harmful-algae-bloom-red-tide-bay-area-lake-merritt-inaturalist-project-research/\">Read more about how to report dead fish using iNaturalist from The Oaklandside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983783\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1062\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-800x443.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-1020x564.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-768x425.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-1536x850.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/algal-bloom-map-672x372.jpg 672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map of the Bay Area on inaturalist.org showing user reports of dead organisms around a red tide \u003ccite>(inaturalist.org)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"algaesafetofish\">\u003c/a>Can I continue fishing in the bay with the algae present?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>UC Santa Cruz’s Kudela said it’s perfectly fine to continue fishing in the bay, even in areas where the algae bloom is present because the algae do not contaminate the meat of the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘While it can kill the fish, if you’re eating the meat and cleaning it, there’s no risk,” Kudela said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s up to you whether you want to fish or eat stressed fish, but there’s nothing wrong with fishing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for more background on the 2023 algal bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is causing this year’s algal bloom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Heterosigma akashiwo got lucky in 2023 — for the second year in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of environmental conditions are allowing this minuscule creature to show up en masse. This organism needs four things to flourish: light, warm water, relatively calm water and oodles of food. It got all four this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the organism deposited itself in sediment under the bay after it died off last year, acting like a dormant seed until the right conditions allow it to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board has confirmed the organism in bay waters near Emeryville, Albany, the Berkeley Marina, Richardson Bay and Belvedere Cove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the bay’s east side is often shallow — water heats up faster there than in other parts of the region — the red tide was first spotted there, likely because it’s an ideal place for the algae to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: Is there another guide to something you’d like to read?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely responding to warm temperatures,” said UC Santa Cruz’s Kudela. The organisms swim near the water’s surface during daytime hours to gather more light and swim toward nutrients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With winter storms long in the rearview mirror, tides in the bay also are at their mellowest point of the year, which decreases ocean water circulation into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The algae also have a lot to eat for several reasons. They munch on tiny particles, nutrients of nitrogen and phosphorus. While naturally occurring, there is an influx of these nutrients into the bay from 37 wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated sewage into the bay. This rush of nutrients provides a buffet for the algae to feast upon, allowing them to grow voraciously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco Bay has some of the highest levels of nutrient pollution of any estuary in the world,” said Jon Rosenfield, senior scientist with SF Baykeeper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983657\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983657\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Dark reddish-orange looking water splashes agains rocks in the foreground with the San Francisco skyline in the distance.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67422_230731-RedTideAlgae-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An algae bloom in the San Francisco Bay near the Berkeley Marina on July 31, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>When will the red tide go away?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the near term, scientists say nothing can be done to stop a red tide once it shows up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just have to wait for conditions to change,” said Kudela.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The options are limited. The algae can consume all the nutrients like PAC-MAN eating dots in a video game until there isn’t enough left to support the organism. Or a heavy rain storm or a wind event can churn up the bay, altering the water’s temperature, and reversing the conditions that can support it. Some scientists think that’s what caused the red tide to dissipate last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had some really big wind events, and it was gone,” said William Cochlan, a marine biologist and an emeritus professor at San Francisco State University. “The winds stir up the whole system, they don’t get enough light and that’s usually the end of the bloom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the algae, in this case, are tricksters. Scientists believe that when their conditions change, they produce a cyst and embed themselves into the sediment at the bottom of the bay, not emerging again until the right conditions persist for them to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFEI’s Senn said they don’t yet know what triggers the cysts to hatch. His team is testing the bay’s water and monitoring satellite imagery to see if the bloom is expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What struck the match last year was a mystery. But once the match was struck, it was enough for this organism to get a toehold and then it had fuel to continue to grow,” said Senn.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are scientists and officials doing to address the red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the long term, the region’s 37 wastewater treatment plants can limit the nutrient pollution they dump into the San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These plants regularly discharge treated sewage water full of tiny particles, which algae love to devour. Cochlan said these plants contribute “the vast majority” of the nutrients (or algae food) into the bay, especially during the summer when the water is warmer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next year, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board will consider changing its rules for these plants, when their permits are up for renewal. This is an opportunity for regulators to clamp down on the nutrient load the plants are allowed to release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these plants treat the sewage, most do not filter out all the nutrients before discharging the water into the bay. Fixing the problem could cost at least $12 billion and maybe twice that much, according to Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, which represent local water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some plants are already redesigning their facilities to reduce the amount of nutrients released into the bay, said Eileen White, the water board executive officer. But not all plants are doing that — and there is currently no formal requirement for plant operators to reduce the discharged nutrient loads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists also say red tides will likely occur more often as the climate warms and raises water temperatures. The even bigger fix is addressing climate change at its root by ending the burning of fossil fuels that cause global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"redtideclimatechange\">\u003c/a>What does climate change have to do with red tides?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Climate change will likely increase the frequency of red tides because the bay and ocean will be warmer. The bay could also absorb more runoff during significant wet years and less water during periods of drought. This off-and-on cycle could accentuate the warm and relatively calm conditions the algae proliferate in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could expect more unpredictable and more frequent algal blooms of all kinds,” said Kudela at UC Santa Cruz. “It’s not surprising that we’re seeing bigger and longer-lasting blooms as the climate shifts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increasing water temperature is critical to the algae’s lifespan, and a warming climate only increases the odds of the species thriving in the bay, said San Francisco State University’s Cochlan.\u003cbr>\n“We may be exacerbating these plumes, making them more frequent, of greater duration and more intense by increasing temperature through climate change,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to expect to see these changes in the bay or the coast with climate change,” Cochlan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleaning up what the treatment plants dump into the bay and warming water is “like a one-two punch — and we really need to tackle both of the problems,” said Emily Jeffers, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the one that we can address more readily and more quickly is the nutrient loads from the wastewater-treatment facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is the Bay Area red tide related to the algal bloom off the Southern California coast?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The red tide in San Francisco Bay is unrelated to \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-07/as-toxic-algae-bloom-afflicts-california-coast-wildlife-care-center-calls-for-aid\">the algal bloom in the Pacific Ocean, currently off the coast of Southern California\u003c/a>. The organism causing the death of dolphins and sea lions is \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/toxic-algal-bloom-suspected-dolphin-and-sea-lion-deaths-southern-california\">a different type of algae, Pseudo-nitzschia\u003c/a>, that causes the production of a neurotoxin called domoic acid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That toxin is transmitted via the complex food web. Birds and marine mammals can die when ingesting the toxin in animals and fish that they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They get a big dose of domoic acid; it causes brain damage,” said Kudela. “Humans can get the same thing, but almost nobody in California gets sick because it’s super well regulated. But it can get into the shellfish and things like spiny lobster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The algae bloom in the bay and in the Pacific Ocean are similar because they’re both phytoplankton blooms and flourish in relatively warmer water, although at somewhat different temperatures. The more dangerous algae currently circulating in the Pacific Ocean could spread into the bay if the conditions are right. But Kudela said the likelihood of that happening is slim because the bay is consistently too warm for the species.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "hearken",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"id": "10483",
"src": "https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets",
"authors": [
"11746"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_40",
"science_4450"
],
"tags": [
"science_323",
"science_1413",
"science_747",
"science_4992",
"science_4417",
"science_3243"
],
"featImg": "science_1983791",
"label": "science"
}
},
"podcastsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"podcasts": {}
},
"radioProgramsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"radioPrograms": {}
},
"radioSearchSegmentsReducer": {},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9a90d476-aa04-455d-9a4c-0871ed6216d4/bay-curious",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"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",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"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",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"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": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/44420f75-3b0e-4301-ab3b-16da6b09e543/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"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",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"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/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"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",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"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": {
"site": "radio",
"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"
}
},
"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": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Snap Judgment",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Spooked",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d800ea4c-7a2c-42f2-b861-edaf78a5db0b/the-bay",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026Reducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/science?category=climate": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 276,
"size": 12
},
"vitalsOnly": false,
"totalRequested": 12,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 1578,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"science_1984697",
"science_1984593",
"science_1984507",
"science_1984319",
"science_1984299",
"science_1984229",
"science_1984216",
"science_1984149",
"science_1984200",
"science_1983983",
"science_1983909",
"science_1983775"
],
"complete": true
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"newslettersReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"newsletters": {},
"isSubscribing": false,
"isUnsubscribing": false,
"subscribedNewsletters": {}
},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"careers": {
"name": "Careers",
"type": "terms",
"id": "careers",
"slug": "careers",
"link": "/careers",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"newsletters": {
"name": "newsletters",
"type": "terms",
"id": "newsletters",
"slug": "newsletters",
"link": "/newsletters",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science_category_climate": {
"isLoading": true
},
"science_31": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_31",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "31",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/climate"
},
"source_science_1984697": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984697",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "Sold Out",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984593": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984593",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "Wildfire",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984507": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984507",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "STAT",
"link": "https://www.statnews.com/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984299": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984299",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"link": "https://www.kqed.org/news/affiliate/npr",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984229": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984229",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"link": "https://www.npr.org/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984216": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984216",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"link": "https://www.npr.org/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984149": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984149",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "calmatters",
"link": "https://calmatters.org/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1984200": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1984200",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"link": "https://www.npr.org/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1983983": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1983983",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"link": "https://www.npr.org/",
"isLoading": false
},
"source_science_1983909": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_science_1983909",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "NPR",
"isLoading": false
},
"science_5140": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5140",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5140",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "SOLD OUT",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "program",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "SOLD OUT Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5140,
"slug": "sold-out",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/program/sold-out"
},
"science_35": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_35",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "35",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Environment Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 37,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/environment"
},
"science_40": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_40",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "40",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 42,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/news"
},
"science_5141": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5141",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5141",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Podcast",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Podcast Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5141,
"slug": "podcast",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/podcast"
},
"science_4450": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4450",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4450",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Science Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4450,
"slug": "science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/science"
},
"science_194": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_194",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "194",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "climate change",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "climate change Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 198,
"slug": "climate-change",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/climate-change"
},
"science_3448": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3448",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3448",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "flood",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "flood Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3448,
"slug": "flood",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/flood"
},
"science_2184": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_2184",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "2184",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "heat",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "heat Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2196,
"slug": "heat",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/heat"
},
"science_5072": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5072",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5072",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Sold Out",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Sold Out Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5072,
"slug": "sold-out",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/sold-out"
},
"science_5094": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5094",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5094",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "sold out season 3",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "sold out season 3 Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5094,
"slug": "sold-out-season-3",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/sold-out-season-3"
},
"science_5073": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5073",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5073",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "soldout",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "soldout Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5073,
"slug": "soldout",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/soldout"
},
"science_113": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_113",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "113",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "wildfire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "wildfire Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 117,
"slug": "wildfire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/wildfire"
},
"science_5194": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5194",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5194",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "CAL FIRE",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "CAL FIRE Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5194,
"slug": "cal-fire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/cal-fire"
},
"science_1627": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1627",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1627",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "carbon emissions",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "carbon emissions Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1636,
"slug": "carbon-emissions",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/carbon-emissions"
},
"science_3541": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3541",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3541",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "drugs",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "drugs Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3541,
"slug": "drugs",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/drugs"
},
"science_354": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_354",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "354",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "emissions",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "emissions Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 360,
"slug": "emissions",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/emissions"
},
"science_4154": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4154",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4154",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Medical science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Medical science Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4154,
"slug": "medical-science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/medical-science"
},
"science_2918": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_2918",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "2918",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "medicine",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "medicine Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2918,
"slug": "medicine",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/medicine"
},
"science_670": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_670",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "670",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "restoration",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "restoration Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 676,
"slug": "restoration",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/restoration"
},
"science_109": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_109",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "109",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "sierra nevada",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "sierra nevada Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 113,
"slug": "sierra-nevada",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/sierra-nevada"
},
"science_505": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_505",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "505",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "air pollution",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "air pollution Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 511,
"slug": "air-pollution",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/air-pollution"
},
"science_524": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_524",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "524",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "air quality",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "air quality Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 530,
"slug": "air-quality",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/air-quality"
},
"science_959": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_959",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "959",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "prescribed burning",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "prescribed burning Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 966,
"slug": "prescribed-burning",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/prescribed-burning"
},
"science_3463": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3463",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3463",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "smoke",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "smoke Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3463,
"slug": "smoke",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/smoke"
},
"science_5178": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5178",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5178",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5178,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/california"
},
"science_182": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_182",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "182",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 186,
"slug": "climate-2",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/climate-2"
},
"science_205": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_205",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "205",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "conservation",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "conservation Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 209,
"slug": "conservation",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/conservation"
},
"science_112": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_112",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "112",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "fire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "fire Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 116,
"slug": "fire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/fire"
},
"science_438": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_438",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "438",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Mojave",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Mojave Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 444,
"slug": "mojave",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/mojave"
},
"science_1003": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1003",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1003",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "coral",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "coral Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1011,
"slug": "coral",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/coral"
},
"science_2874": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_2874",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "2874",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Animals",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Animals Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2874,
"slug": "animals",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/animals"
},
"science_4414": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4414",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4414",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "featured-science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "featured-science Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4414,
"slug": "featured-science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/featured-science"
},
"science_247": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_247",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "247",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "salmon",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "salmon Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 251,
"slug": "salmon",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/salmon"
},
"science_4877": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4877",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4877",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California Wildfire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Wildfire Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4877,
"slug": "california-wildfire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/california-wildfire"
},
"science_3820": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3820",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3820",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "camp fire",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "camp fire Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3820,
"slug": "camp-fire",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/camp-fire"
},
"science_1498": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1498",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1498",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "wildfire prevention",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "wildfire prevention Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1507,
"slug": "wildfire-prevention",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/wildfire-prevention"
},
"science_323": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_323",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "323",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "algae",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "algae Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 329,
"slug": "algae",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/algae"
},
"science_1413": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1413",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1413",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "algae bloom",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "algae bloom Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1422,
"slug": "algae-bloom",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/algae-bloom"
},
"science_747": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_747",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "747",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "algal blooms",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "algal blooms Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 754,
"slug": "algal-blooms",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/algal-blooms"
},
"science_4992": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4992",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4992",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "audience-news",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "audience-news Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4992,
"slug": "audience-news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/audience-news"
},
"science_4417": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_4417",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "4417",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "featured-news",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "featured-news Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 4417,
"slug": "featured-news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/featured-news"
},
"science_3243": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_3243",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "3243",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "toxic algae",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "toxic algae Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 3243,
"slug": "toxic-algae",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/toxic-algae"
}
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {
"region": {
"key": "Restaurant Region",
"filters": [
"Any Region"
]
},
"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
}
}
