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"content": "\u003cp>A climate justice march led by a small group of young activists that began in Paradise ended in San Francisco on Monday, after more than 100 climate activists from the youth-led Sunrise Movement marched across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young activists are calling on California lawmakers to support the “most progressive version possible” of President Biden’s plan to retool former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era program that created jobs by putting people to work building roads and bridges, installing telephone lines and establishing campgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has proposed a $10 billion revamp called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps,\u003c/a> a program geared toward fighting climate change by employing people to restore wetlands and remove invasive species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate activists on the final leg of a march from Paradise to San Francisco on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven of the marchers began walking the 266-mile stretch \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11875863/a-266-mile-walk-youth-climate-activists-march-from-paradise-to-san-francisco\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">last month\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as part of a national campaign called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/generation-on-fire/\">Generation on Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their ranks swelled to more than 20 last week, with dozens more joining for the final leg, many of them beating drums and singing as they crossed from Marin to San Francisco over the iconic bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the marchers, Ema Govea, a 17-year-old high school student from Santa Rosa, spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt last week. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975377\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Rosa resident Ema Govea,17, speaks before the marchers by the Golden Gate Bridge on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did this idea come together? You’re walking from Paradise? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ema Govea:\u003c/em> We are really excited to have started in Paradise because it’s such a flashpoint for all the [conversations around] fire in California. And this idea really came together out of an urgency of really wanting to do something as big as we can. I was really excited to organize this march and participate in it. We walked so far because we have an opportunity right now politically, and as young people at this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paradise is a very important place to start a march like this. But I’m thinking about your feet. How are you feeling at this moment after all this walking?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The first week was over 100 degrees and I had a lot of blisters. I was really feeling it. At this point, my legs have gotten used to it. And thinking about what we’re fighting for, plans that we have for the future, and future actions has kept me going. It honestly doesn’t matter if my legs are sore or if my feet hurt, at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975381\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from Analy High School in Sebastopol sit at the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine you’ve done some travels like this through California by car on a freeway. What did you notice about the landscape as you walked?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> One thing that was especially amazing was talking to people in towns who I would have never met before. We walked through some of the reddest parts of the state and had really amazing conversations with a lot of people. Also, we passed hills that had burned, trees that were all black and didn’t have any growth on them — it really brought home what is at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When you say walking through and meeting people in some of the reddest parts of the state, I think I know what you mean. But what kinds of feedback did you get on your march from the people you met?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> We would walk by and we have these big flags. People would ask us: “What are you doing?” We would say: “We’re marching to San Francisco and we’re demanding good jobs to stop the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that would start a conversation with a lot of people. And we would talk to them about what jobs are like in their areas. A lot of times the job opportunities are not great. A lot of people, regardless of political affiliation, were really supportive of the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975382 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rally was the culmination of a 266-mile march from Paradise, California, to San Francisco led by seven youth activists. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re in this group of seven people who are around your age. And in what way does your experience growing up in California shape how you’re doing this work for climate justice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> I am really grateful for this group of seven people. And now, actually, as we’re speaking, there’s an even larger group of over 20 people who are now marching with us, who have joined us along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your group grew as you walked, is what you’re telling us?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started with a group of seven and now we’re around 30 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975383 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The young climate activists prepare to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re doing all of this while you are a high school student. I’m kind of curious how you were thinking about this issue during the pandemic?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The pandemic and the recession that has come along with it has really shown the inequalities people face in this county. I have talked to a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs and who have even more instability than they had before. And there’s a need right now for good paying jobs. And the Civilian Climate Corps would be one of those things that could provide really good paying union jobs that would also benefit society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now, you want to end this march, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco — all in support of the Civilian Climate Corps. What do you make of congressional action on the issue?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> It’s been wholly inadequate. We’re demanding that our politicians step up and be brave and pass the boldest version of the Climate Corps possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told KQED that “congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the administration to enact it in the jobs plan.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A climate justice march led by a small group of young activists that began in Paradise ended in San Francisco on Monday, after more than 100 climate activists from the youth-led Sunrise Movement marched across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young activists are calling on California lawmakers to support the “most progressive version possible” of President Biden’s plan to retool former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era program that created jobs by putting people to work building roads and bridges, installing telephone lines and establishing campgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has proposed a $10 billion revamp called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps,\u003c/a> a program geared toward fighting climate change by employing people to restore wetlands and remove invasive species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate activists on the final leg of a march from Paradise to San Francisco on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven of the marchers began walking the 266-mile stretch \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11875863/a-266-mile-walk-youth-climate-activists-march-from-paradise-to-san-francisco\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">last month\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as part of a national campaign called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/generation-on-fire/\">Generation on Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their ranks swelled to more than 20 last week, with dozens more joining for the final leg, many of them beating drums and singing as they crossed from Marin to San Francisco over the iconic bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the marchers, Ema Govea, a 17-year-old high school student from Santa Rosa, spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt last week. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975377\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Rosa resident Ema Govea,17, speaks before the marchers by the Golden Gate Bridge on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did this idea come together? You’re walking from Paradise? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ema Govea:\u003c/em> We are really excited to have started in Paradise because it’s such a flashpoint for all the [conversations around] fire in California. And this idea really came together out of an urgency of really wanting to do something as big as we can. I was really excited to organize this march and participate in it. We walked so far because we have an opportunity right now politically, and as young people at this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paradise is a very important place to start a march like this. But I’m thinking about your feet. How are you feeling at this moment after all this walking?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The first week was over 100 degrees and I had a lot of blisters. I was really feeling it. At this point, my legs have gotten used to it. And thinking about what we’re fighting for, plans that we have for the future, and future actions has kept me going. It honestly doesn’t matter if my legs are sore or if my feet hurt, at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975381\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from Analy High School in Sebastopol sit at the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine you’ve done some travels like this through California by car on a freeway. What did you notice about the landscape as you walked?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> One thing that was especially amazing was talking to people in towns who I would have never met before. We walked through some of the reddest parts of the state and had really amazing conversations with a lot of people. Also, we passed hills that had burned, trees that were all black and didn’t have any growth on them — it really brought home what is at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When you say walking through and meeting people in some of the reddest parts of the state, I think I know what you mean. But what kinds of feedback did you get on your march from the people you met?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> We would walk by and we have these big flags. People would ask us: “What are you doing?” We would say: “We’re marching to San Francisco and we’re demanding good jobs to stop the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that would start a conversation with a lot of people. And we would talk to them about what jobs are like in their areas. A lot of times the job opportunities are not great. A lot of people, regardless of political affiliation, were really supportive of the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975382 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rally was the culmination of a 266-mile march from Paradise, California, to San Francisco led by seven youth activists. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re in this group of seven people who are around your age. And in what way does your experience growing up in California shape how you’re doing this work for climate justice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> I am really grateful for this group of seven people. And now, actually, as we’re speaking, there’s an even larger group of over 20 people who are now marching with us, who have joined us along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your group grew as you walked, is what you’re telling us?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started with a group of seven and now we’re around 30 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975383 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The young climate activists prepare to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re doing all of this while you are a high school student. I’m kind of curious how you were thinking about this issue during the pandemic?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The pandemic and the recession that has come along with it has really shown the inequalities people face in this county. I have talked to a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs and who have even more instability than they had before. And there’s a need right now for good paying jobs. And the Civilian Climate Corps would be one of those things that could provide really good paying union jobs that would also benefit society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now, you want to end this march, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco — all in support of the Civilian Climate Corps. What do you make of congressional action on the issue?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> It’s been wholly inadequate. We’re demanding that our politicians step up and be brave and pass the boldest version of the Climate Corps possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told KQED that “congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the administration to enact it in the jobs plan.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds",
"headTitle": "California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In her latest investigation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lisa Song \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-climate-solution-actually-adding-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-atmosphere\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">reports\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that millions of carbon credits generated by California’s cap-and-trade program do not represent real reductions in planet-warming gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "New reporting from ProPublica questions the impact of a key component of one of California’s signature climate change policies, even as the state’s powerful Air Resource Board defends the program. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In her latest investigation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lisa Song \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-climate-solution-actually-adding-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-atmosphere\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">reports\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that millions of carbon credits generated by California’s cap-and-trade program do not represent real reductions in planet-warming gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again",
"title": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again",
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"headTitle": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many Native American tribes, tended their land with fire, keeping an ecological balance among plants, animals, river, and forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Situated along the Klamath River, in Humboldt and Siskyou counties, the Karuk are now struggling \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to renew\u003c/a> their way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, nearly 98% of the tribe’s ancestral land is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is overgrown with timber and undermanaged. Out-of-control wildfires have repeatedly decimated the area, a consequence of disallowing native people to wield the tool of intentional burning, say advocates of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scot Steinbring has seen first-hand the results of what happens when wildfire meets an overgrown forest in the area inhabited by the Karuk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, as the Slater Fire torched hillsides, Steinbring, the fire management officer for the tribe, was decidedly overmatched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974625\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scot Steinbring, fire management officer for the Karuk. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In 35 years of being in the fire service,” he said, “I had never witnessed anything like that here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driven by fierce winds, the fire tore through forests and houses. But because lots of other fires in the state were doing the same, other fire jurisdictions had precious little backup to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember getting on the radio and going, does everybody know outside what’s going on here?” Steinbring said. “I mean, we’re losing houses and they’re like, ‘We’re sorry, there’s not enough resources. It’s not a priority.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near a road in the town of Happy Camp, where the fire roared down a hillside and destroyed homes on land belonging to the tribal trust, Will Harling was also firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His assessment of the situation: “There was just no chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Saved by Fire\" postID=\"science_1973138,science_1973159\"]He indicated a spot across the street where the home of another local firefighter once stood. As the Slater Fire approached, the man frantically tried to pump his pool to wet down the house in a last-ditch effort to save it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember we were down there,” Harling said, pointing down the hill, “engaged at the fire’s edge, and he drove back up here through the flames and came back out five minutes later, just tears streaming down his face. ‘It’s all gone, it’s all gone.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rural community of Happy Camp, population about 850, lost a staggering 200 homes and two lives during the Slater Fire. About half of the families in the community, many of them Karuk, lost their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sad thing is we had started 20 years ago preparing for this fire,” Harling said. “We knew it was going to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974627\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harling directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mkwc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mid Klamath Watershed Council\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to ecologically restoring the area. He says it wasn’t just the wind working against the small band of firefighters that day. Decades of suppressing fires had left the forests overgrown and primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time to do this work is five, ten years before that fire comes,” he said. “Do the fuels-work, follow it up with prescribed fire, get the fuels in a condition where we can actually save homes and not be in the state where we have to just fall back and watch everything burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Fix the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local nonprofits and federal and tribal governments know what would make the situation better, because the Karuk \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/chapter-1-traditional-knowledge-knowledge-sovereignty-and-climate-change-as-strategic-opportunity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kept these forests healthy\u003c/a> for thousands of years with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribal knowledge carried on in this place and it teaches us how us humans are meant to be in a place,” Harling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But native burning, used primarily to increase food supply but also to deprive the land of fuel in anticipation of a wildfire, has been outlawed or suppressed since at least the middle of the 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In its first couple of years of statehood, California spent at least two million dollars in state funds to exterminate native people. Miners and white settlers didn’t understand the role fire played in the ecosystem. They stopped, and even shot, Karuk people who lit fires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in the 1850s, the Karuk negotiated a treaty with the federal government. Under pressure from the California governor, Congress refused to ratify it, leaving the tribe without the treaty’s protections, lands and rights. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That legacy is still with the tribe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Karuk people being stripped from their relationship with fire has had profound effects,” said Bill Tripp, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Natural Resources\u003c/a> for the Karuk. “It’s effectively still pushing us out of our ability to live in our aboriginal homelands. And it continues to function in a manner of systematic colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-establishing this \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traditional relationship\u003c/a> with fire, the Karuk say, is the key to revitalizing the area. That’s true economically, they say, with good jobs to be had in fire and forest management in an area that’s otherwise struggling. It’s also true ecologically: Controlled fire supports salmon, elk, forage plants and the systems they are enmeshed with. And it’s true culturally and spiritually, says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/introduction-karuk-traditional-ecological-knowledge-climate-change-and-knowledge-sovereignty/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">culturally founded\u003c/a> fire regime in place on our landscape at one time, and we have an opportunity to put that back into place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp is part of a community along the Klamath working to increase traditional burning practices on the Six Rivers and Klamath national forests. Effectively, everyone interested in the health of forests in the area agrees the land needs more management. Yet prescribed fire advocates describe frustration at the slow pace of progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinbring, who has state and federal burn boss qualifications, says the tribe has identified priority projects and received grants to carry them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking to myself, well, NGOs, the tribes, we all have the funding to do this kind of implementation work. We’re coming to the table asking, can we do it? And we’re getting shunned. And that’s the frustrating part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem lies in how the collaboration has gone — so far — between the partners: the tribe, the non-profits and the U.S. government. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted a level of collaboration where we were all in it together,” Harling said. “And you know, the people who control fire in California aren’t ready to share that power and that decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp spells it out: “When it comes to burning, itself, we can’t get past this idea that the agency is the only one that can light a fire out there in the forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency” is the one that controls most aboriginal Karuk land — the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Appling, who as a fire management officer for the Klamath National Forest, agrees: Working together hasn’t been simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s a challenge,” Appling says. “I think it’s just a matter of putting our heads together and sitting down and figuring out how to be effective together. Because we do need to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers Maintaining the Status Quo\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barriers here are deeply systemic, even with shared values of wanting to protect the forest and the people around it. Appling agrees the land does need more prescribed burns, but says the National Forest’s ability to act is constrained by the responsibilities of the agency overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974630 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed fire burn training, from 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough blend,” he says, “when you’ve got 42 million people in the state of California today and a bunch of mixed ownerships and such and a number of different contributing factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those factors is that the Forest Service is fundamentally not in the business of lighting prescribed fires to prevent destructive blazes in the future. Core to its mission is putting fires out, as well as managing timber sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These resources that we have are all funded to be available to suppress fires,” says Appling. “Oftentimes, 11 months out of the year, there are suppression needs in other parts of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last few years in late fall — normally a good time for burning — Appling has seen Forest Service management put holds on intentional burns because the necessary equipment is on standby for emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They put us at our drawdown, and we have to have our engines available,” he said, “and by available that means not committed to a prescribed burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second contributing factor: liability. The Forest Service doesn’t bear legal responsibility if a wildfire takes out vast swaths of forest. But if a controlled burn gets out of hand — which is very rare, but still a risk — the agency can take the blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling says that’s the wrong way to look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not managing fuels correctly is the criminal act,” he says. “And really, it’s what came down to all these homes burning down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the incentives all work against the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927354/controlled-burns-can-help-solve-californias-fire-problem-so-why-arent-there-more-of-them\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proven concept\u003c/a> of prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Start a fire to protect the land and people often complain about smoke in the air. Put out a fire and people celebrate you as a hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s where the money is, that’s where the promotions are, and that’s where the liability isn’t,” Harling said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until very recently, fire managers at the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests have interpreted existing agreements between the Karuk and the U.S. Forest Service to say that a tribal burn boss must be overseen by a Forest Service burn boss. There isn’t always someone available, so this policy has repeatedly stalled approved burn projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appling knows this has been a point of frustration for members of the tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After some meetings in recent months, the Forest Service changed its position. Officials now agree it \u003cem>is\u003c/em> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legal \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for a federally-qualified tribal burn boss to supervise planned fires in the Klamath and Six Rivers \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— without the presence of a Forest Service burn boss.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Appling says the agency hopes to work with the tribe to increase opportunities for planned burns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees there are still issues: Forest Service approval, liability, and resources that have to be on standby for emergencies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a past that stymied collaboration weighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Steinbring says it’s been frustrating that his credentials weren’t recognized as equal to someone with the same credentials who works for the Forest Service. In other areas of the state, as well as the U.S., fire management agreements allow qualified burn bosses from one agency to share responsibility and burn on land managed by a different federal agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Okay,” Steinbring says, “so is the tribe not being recognized as a federal agency? Because according to my readings, they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Bailey with The Nature Conservancy has helped forge these fire management agreements under a program known as Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges or TREX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use these agreements all over the country and in many instances we are able to support each other, getting lots of additional good fire on the ground,” Bailey said. “For some reason along the Klamath river, that is not the dynamic we are experiencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Fire to Private Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service says it wants to increase collaboration with the Karuk. If that does happen, it could look like a fire management project at Somes Bar, near the town of Orleans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, stretching over 5,600 acres, is on a mix of private inholdings and National Forest land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is designed to protect homes that are embedded in forested lands near the Klamath river. This is one of several projects by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wkrp.network/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Klamath Restoration Partnership\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our promise to the community — we’re going to get it right here,” Harling says of the Somes Bar initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a shady mountain road where sparse sunlight slants through to settle in patches on the forest floor, Harling points out a huge tan oak, the bulging base of its trunk a sign of living through a multitude of fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s here because it was managed for five generations, of Karuk women lighting fires in this very spot. And if you think about all the food that that one tree could produce, it’s enough to feed a family for the wintertime with acorns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More elk are using the area, as seasonal grasses have returned. This project replicates the traditional fire regime, one that has continually rejuvenated the land. The project is also providing jobs to tribal workers instead of out-of-town contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling hears the sound of chainsaws in the distance. He says it’s a tribal brushing crew funded by grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailey, from the Nature Conservancy, says the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership is accomplishing technically challenging burns in steep and overgrown territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a leader in the country, and a leader in the world of prescribed fire,” he said. “These are burns that you would only want the most professional, highest quality fire practitioners to accomplish, and they’re doing it. They’re doing it year in and year out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But until there’s real change, these Klamath River communities are living with high risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re actually able to accomplish on the ground is just a minute fraction of what we need to be doing,” says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why people like Tripp, Harling and Steinbring continue to push for change at the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being as Steinbring put it, “basically a thorn in their consistent daily lives to push them to get there.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Wildfires have decimated Karuk cultural lands in recent years, tearing through overgrown and undermanaged forests in far northern California. The solution isn't complicated. Getting it done is another story.",
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"title": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again | KQED",
"description": "Wildfires have decimated Karuk cultural lands in recent years, tearing through overgrown and undermanaged forests in far northern California. The solution isn't complicated. Getting it done is another story.",
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"headline": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many Native American tribes, tended their land with fire, keeping an ecological balance among plants, animals, river, and forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Situated along the Klamath River, in Humboldt and Siskyou counties, the Karuk are now struggling \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to renew\u003c/a> their way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, nearly 98% of the tribe’s ancestral land is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is overgrown with timber and undermanaged. Out-of-control wildfires have repeatedly decimated the area, a consequence of disallowing native people to wield the tool of intentional burning, say advocates of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scot Steinbring has seen first-hand the results of what happens when wildfire meets an overgrown forest in the area inhabited by the Karuk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, as the Slater Fire torched hillsides, Steinbring, the fire management officer for the tribe, was decidedly overmatched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974625\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scot Steinbring, fire management officer for the Karuk. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In 35 years of being in the fire service,” he said, “I had never witnessed anything like that here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driven by fierce winds, the fire tore through forests and houses. But because lots of other fires in the state were doing the same, other fire jurisdictions had precious little backup to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember getting on the radio and going, does everybody know outside what’s going on here?” Steinbring said. “I mean, we’re losing houses and they’re like, ‘We’re sorry, there’s not enough resources. It’s not a priority.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near a road in the town of Happy Camp, where the fire roared down a hillside and destroyed homes on land belonging to the tribal trust, Will Harling was also firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His assessment of the situation: “There was just no chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He indicated a spot across the street where the home of another local firefighter once stood. As the Slater Fire approached, the man frantically tried to pump his pool to wet down the house in a last-ditch effort to save it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember we were down there,” Harling said, pointing down the hill, “engaged at the fire’s edge, and he drove back up here through the flames and came back out five minutes later, just tears streaming down his face. ‘It’s all gone, it’s all gone.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rural community of Happy Camp, population about 850, lost a staggering 200 homes and two lives during the Slater Fire. About half of the families in the community, many of them Karuk, lost their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sad thing is we had started 20 years ago preparing for this fire,” Harling said. “We knew it was going to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974627\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harling directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mkwc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mid Klamath Watershed Council\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to ecologically restoring the area. He says it wasn’t just the wind working against the small band of firefighters that day. Decades of suppressing fires had left the forests overgrown and primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time to do this work is five, ten years before that fire comes,” he said. “Do the fuels-work, follow it up with prescribed fire, get the fuels in a condition where we can actually save homes and not be in the state where we have to just fall back and watch everything burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Fix the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local nonprofits and federal and tribal governments know what would make the situation better, because the Karuk \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/chapter-1-traditional-knowledge-knowledge-sovereignty-and-climate-change-as-strategic-opportunity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kept these forests healthy\u003c/a> for thousands of years with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribal knowledge carried on in this place and it teaches us how us humans are meant to be in a place,” Harling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But native burning, used primarily to increase food supply but also to deprive the land of fuel in anticipation of a wildfire, has been outlawed or suppressed since at least the middle of the 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In its first couple of years of statehood, California spent at least two million dollars in state funds to exterminate native people. Miners and white settlers didn’t understand the role fire played in the ecosystem. They stopped, and even shot, Karuk people who lit fires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in the 1850s, the Karuk negotiated a treaty with the federal government. Under pressure from the California governor, Congress refused to ratify it, leaving the tribe without the treaty’s protections, lands and rights. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That legacy is still with the tribe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Karuk people being stripped from their relationship with fire has had profound effects,” said Bill Tripp, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Natural Resources\u003c/a> for the Karuk. “It’s effectively still pushing us out of our ability to live in our aboriginal homelands. And it continues to function in a manner of systematic colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-establishing this \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traditional relationship\u003c/a> with fire, the Karuk say, is the key to revitalizing the area. That’s true economically, they say, with good jobs to be had in fire and forest management in an area that’s otherwise struggling. It’s also true ecologically: Controlled fire supports salmon, elk, forage plants and the systems they are enmeshed with. And it’s true culturally and spiritually, says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/introduction-karuk-traditional-ecological-knowledge-climate-change-and-knowledge-sovereignty/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">culturally founded\u003c/a> fire regime in place on our landscape at one time, and we have an opportunity to put that back into place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp is part of a community along the Klamath working to increase traditional burning practices on the Six Rivers and Klamath national forests. Effectively, everyone interested in the health of forests in the area agrees the land needs more management. Yet prescribed fire advocates describe frustration at the slow pace of progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinbring, who has state and federal burn boss qualifications, says the tribe has identified priority projects and received grants to carry them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking to myself, well, NGOs, the tribes, we all have the funding to do this kind of implementation work. We’re coming to the table asking, can we do it? And we’re getting shunned. And that’s the frustrating part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem lies in how the collaboration has gone — so far — between the partners: the tribe, the non-profits and the U.S. government. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted a level of collaboration where we were all in it together,” Harling said. “And you know, the people who control fire in California aren’t ready to share that power and that decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp spells it out: “When it comes to burning, itself, we can’t get past this idea that the agency is the only one that can light a fire out there in the forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency” is the one that controls most aboriginal Karuk land — the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Appling, who as a fire management officer for the Klamath National Forest, agrees: Working together hasn’t been simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s a challenge,” Appling says. “I think it’s just a matter of putting our heads together and sitting down and figuring out how to be effective together. Because we do need to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers Maintaining the Status Quo\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barriers here are deeply systemic, even with shared values of wanting to protect the forest and the people around it. Appling agrees the land does need more prescribed burns, but says the National Forest’s ability to act is constrained by the responsibilities of the agency overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974630 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed fire burn training, from 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough blend,” he says, “when you’ve got 42 million people in the state of California today and a bunch of mixed ownerships and such and a number of different contributing factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those factors is that the Forest Service is fundamentally not in the business of lighting prescribed fires to prevent destructive blazes in the future. Core to its mission is putting fires out, as well as managing timber sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These resources that we have are all funded to be available to suppress fires,” says Appling. “Oftentimes, 11 months out of the year, there are suppression needs in other parts of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last few years in late fall — normally a good time for burning — Appling has seen Forest Service management put holds on intentional burns because the necessary equipment is on standby for emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They put us at our drawdown, and we have to have our engines available,” he said, “and by available that means not committed to a prescribed burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second contributing factor: liability. The Forest Service doesn’t bear legal responsibility if a wildfire takes out vast swaths of forest. But if a controlled burn gets out of hand — which is very rare, but still a risk — the agency can take the blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling says that’s the wrong way to look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not managing fuels correctly is the criminal act,” he says. “And really, it’s what came down to all these homes burning down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the incentives all work against the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927354/controlled-burns-can-help-solve-californias-fire-problem-so-why-arent-there-more-of-them\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proven concept\u003c/a> of prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Start a fire to protect the land and people often complain about smoke in the air. Put out a fire and people celebrate you as a hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s where the money is, that’s where the promotions are, and that’s where the liability isn’t,” Harling said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until very recently, fire managers at the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests have interpreted existing agreements between the Karuk and the U.S. Forest Service to say that a tribal burn boss must be overseen by a Forest Service burn boss. There isn’t always someone available, so this policy has repeatedly stalled approved burn projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appling knows this has been a point of frustration for members of the tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After some meetings in recent months, the Forest Service changed its position. Officials now agree it \u003cem>is\u003c/em> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legal \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for a federally-qualified tribal burn boss to supervise planned fires in the Klamath and Six Rivers \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— without the presence of a Forest Service burn boss.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Appling says the agency hopes to work with the tribe to increase opportunities for planned burns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees there are still issues: Forest Service approval, liability, and resources that have to be on standby for emergencies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a past that stymied collaboration weighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Steinbring says it’s been frustrating that his credentials weren’t recognized as equal to someone with the same credentials who works for the Forest Service. In other areas of the state, as well as the U.S., fire management agreements allow qualified burn bosses from one agency to share responsibility and burn on land managed by a different federal agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Okay,” Steinbring says, “so is the tribe not being recognized as a federal agency? Because according to my readings, they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Bailey with The Nature Conservancy has helped forge these fire management agreements under a program known as Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges or TREX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use these agreements all over the country and in many instances we are able to support each other, getting lots of additional good fire on the ground,” Bailey said. “For some reason along the Klamath river, that is not the dynamic we are experiencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Fire to Private Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service says it wants to increase collaboration with the Karuk. If that does happen, it could look like a fire management project at Somes Bar, near the town of Orleans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, stretching over 5,600 acres, is on a mix of private inholdings and National Forest land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is designed to protect homes that are embedded in forested lands near the Klamath river. This is one of several projects by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wkrp.network/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Klamath Restoration Partnership\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our promise to the community — we’re going to get it right here,” Harling says of the Somes Bar initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a shady mountain road where sparse sunlight slants through to settle in patches on the forest floor, Harling points out a huge tan oak, the bulging base of its trunk a sign of living through a multitude of fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s here because it was managed for five generations, of Karuk women lighting fires in this very spot. And if you think about all the food that that one tree could produce, it’s enough to feed a family for the wintertime with acorns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More elk are using the area, as seasonal grasses have returned. This project replicates the traditional fire regime, one that has continually rejuvenated the land. The project is also providing jobs to tribal workers instead of out-of-town contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling hears the sound of chainsaws in the distance. He says it’s a tribal brushing crew funded by grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailey, from the Nature Conservancy, says the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership is accomplishing technically challenging burns in steep and overgrown territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a leader in the country, and a leader in the world of prescribed fire,” he said. “These are burns that you would only want the most professional, highest quality fire practitioners to accomplish, and they’re doing it. They’re doing it year in and year out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But until there’s real change, these Klamath River communities are living with high risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re actually able to accomplish on the ground is just a minute fraction of what we need to be doing,” says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why people like Tripp, Harling and Steinbring continue to push for change at the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being as Steinbring put it, “basically a thorn in their consistent daily lives to push them to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Climate change activists have won a big legal victory against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that the company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940717012/climate-case-against-shell-begins-in-the-netherlands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">case could set a precedent\u003c/a> for similar lawsuits against huge oil companies that operate across the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hope is that this verdict will trigger a wave of climate litigation against big polluters, to force them to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels,” said Sara Shaw of \u003ca href=\"https://www.foei.org/features/historic-victory-judge-forces-shell-to-drastically-reduce-co2-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friends of the Earth International\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2030 goal affirmed by the court is more ambitious than Shell’s target of becoming “a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.” Shell \u003ca href=\"https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/our-climate-target.html#iframe=L3dlYmFwcHMvY2xpbWF0ZV9hbWJpdGlvbi8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argues\u003c/a> the 2050 goal is in line with the Paris climate accord. But The Hague District Court determined Shell’s plans were not adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling applies to Shell and its suppliers and covers not only the companies’ emissions, but also emissions from products burned by its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and a big leap towards a livable future for everyone,” said Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Shell spokesperson Anna Arata acknowledged that “urgent action is needed on climate change,” and said the company has accelerated efforts to reduce emissions. The oil giant is “investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels,” Arata said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision comes after \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/most-fossil-fuels-must-stay-in-the-ground-new-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists have said\u003c/a> most of the known fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/us-supreme-court-backs-energy-companies-over-baltimore-climate-case-2021-05-17/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sided with major oil companies\u003c/a> in a climate change lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore. Justices delivered a victory to the oil giants on a technical issue — that the case should be heard in federal court instead of state court, as the city preferred. There are about a dozen similar lawsuits that U.S. state and local governments have brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven environmental groups filed the lawsuit against Shell, including Friends of the Earth Netherlands, or \u003ca href=\"https://en.milieudefensie.nl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Milieudefensie\u003c/a>, Greenpeace and Fossil Free Netherlands. The lawsuit also named 17,000 Dutch citizens as co-plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Royal Dutch Shell is based in The Hague, where the case was heard. Shell can still appeal the ruling, something the company said it expects to do. The Dutch judge said the more ambitious target for the company will remain in effect while the appeals process plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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+Landmark+Case%2C+A+Dutch+Court+Orders+Shell+To+Cut+Its+Carbon+Emissions+Faster&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Thousands of Dutch citizens joined environmental groups to accuse the oil giant with endangering lives. The first-of-its-kind decision could pressure other companies to take aggressive climate action.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Climate change activists have won a big legal victory against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that the company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940717012/climate-case-against-shell-begins-in-the-netherlands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">case could set a precedent\u003c/a> for similar lawsuits against huge oil companies that operate across the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hope is that this verdict will trigger a wave of climate litigation against big polluters, to force them to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels,” said Sara Shaw of \u003ca href=\"https://www.foei.org/features/historic-victory-judge-forces-shell-to-drastically-reduce-co2-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friends of the Earth International\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2030 goal affirmed by the court is more ambitious than Shell’s target of becoming “a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.” Shell \u003ca href=\"https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/our-climate-target.html#iframe=L3dlYmFwcHMvY2xpbWF0ZV9hbWJpdGlvbi8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argues\u003c/a> the 2050 goal is in line with the Paris climate accord. But The Hague District Court determined Shell’s plans were not adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling applies to Shell and its suppliers and covers not only the companies’ emissions, but also emissions from products burned by its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and a big leap towards a livable future for everyone,” said Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Shell spokesperson Anna Arata acknowledged that “urgent action is needed on climate change,” and said the company has accelerated efforts to reduce emissions. The oil giant is “investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels,” Arata said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision comes after \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/most-fossil-fuels-must-stay-in-the-ground-new-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists have said\u003c/a> most of the known fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/us-supreme-court-backs-energy-companies-over-baltimore-climate-case-2021-05-17/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sided with major oil companies\u003c/a> in a climate change lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore. Justices delivered a victory to the oil giants on a technical issue — that the case should be heard in federal court instead of state court, as the city preferred. There are about a dozen similar lawsuits that U.S. state and local governments have brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven environmental groups filed the lawsuit against Shell, including Friends of the Earth Netherlands, or \u003ca href=\"https://en.milieudefensie.nl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Milieudefensie\u003c/a>, Greenpeace and Fossil Free Netherlands. The lawsuit also named 17,000 Dutch citizens as co-plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Royal Dutch Shell is based in The Hague, where the case was heard. Shell can still appeal the ruling, something the company said it expects to do. The Dutch judge said the more ambitious target for the company will remain in effect while the appeals process plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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+Landmark+Case%2C+A+Dutch+Court+Orders+Shell+To+Cut+Its+Carbon+Emissions+Faster&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Calif. Offshore Wind Will Require a Feat of Engineering. And That's Not Even the Hard Part",
"headTitle": "Calif. Offshore Wind Will Require a Feat of Engineering. And That’s Not Even the Hard Part | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In January 2016, Trident Winds, a small, Seattle-based wind company, submitted an unsolicited application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, laying out its aspirations to build a 1-gigawatt wind farm off California’s central coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale was ambitious, especially for the United States. But Trident Winds’ chief executive officer, Alla Weinstein, sensed an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively, that’s what kick-started the whole discussion on offshore wind in California,” Weinstein said of the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, California’s waters still have no finalized leases for the development of any offshore wind farms. Instead, the state’s market has been bogged down by politics and technological hurdles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, the Biden administration and the state announced a target to hold an auction in mid-2022 to award leases for wind development off California’s coast, a significant step toward encouraging the state’s stalled market. The effort would contribute to the administration’s recently announced goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind nationally by 2030, a target that seemed to favor the Northeast, which has already cultivated the foundations of a thriving offshore wind market. The United States currently has only about 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given California’s leadership in clean energy and combating climate change, “it’s only fitting that California is totally unwilling to let the expansion we’re witnessing on the East Coast leave California behind,” said White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, on a Tuesday call with reporters highlighting the Biden administration’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has many qualities that would seem to make it an enticing location to build offshore wind: high power prices, cities along the coast ready to use the electricity and a\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-batteries-renewable-energy-california-20190605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-saturated grid\u003c/a>, which makes wind a complementary resource when the sun isn’t shining. The state has more than 200 gigawatts of technical offshore wind potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, but current projections for offshore wind cast doubt on whether it can complete any projects in the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is now grappling with how to fit offshore wind into legislatively mandated efforts to achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-east-coast-has-offshore-winds-moment-finally-arrived\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Climate goals in numerous Eastern states\u003c/a> have hinged on significant offshore wind deployment, with plans to add more than 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB525\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently-introduced California bill\u003c/a> would also help invigorate the state’s offshore wind market, directing energy regulators to establish offshore wind targets for 2030 and 2045.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A similar bill is under consideration in Oregon, calling for up to 3 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The legislation, along with the federal administration’s efforts to coax California’s market forward, underscore the opportunity in Western waters, if politicians can seize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has consistently been a front-runner in clean energy deployments. Last month, a large swath of the state ran on 95% renewables for a brief four seconds — a milestone that reportedly\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-29/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> sent chills of excitement down the spine\u003c/a> of the state grid operator’s chief executive officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar accounts for a majority of California’s renewable resources, leaving an opening for a budding offshore wind market. Wind and solar work well together in an energy portfolio because wind generally continues to blow at night, while solar produces the most at the sunniest times of day. A 2021 report from the California Energy Commission suggested offshore wind should play a significant role in the state’s clean energy targets, accounting for as much as 10 gigawatts of capacity additions in coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California gets closer to carbon-free electricity, it’s increasingly seeing the need for a wider array of technologies to balance solar production. “That’s where offshore wind fits in,” said Mohit Chhabra, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California realized the potential for offshore wind years ago. Along with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which manages offshore leasing, the state launched an Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force back in 2016, several months after Trident Winds filed its application with the Interior Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal agency went on to select three possible lease zones, known as “call areas,” off the California coast, and in 2018 asked companies to submit proposals for building in those areas. More than a dozen did, including some wind industry heavyweights like Avangrid Renewables and Norwegian oil major\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Equinor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since then, BOEM hasn’t leased any of California’s waters. The state’s lucrative fishing industry worried that turbines would disrupt business, while the Defense Department raised concerns about the impact on training exercises off the coast — opposition that held up lease sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it had brokered a compromise on some of those issues. The Defense Department said it was committed to finding “creative solutions” to advance offshore wind in California. Overall, the initial development areas could support up to 4.6 gigawatts of floating offshore wind, according to the administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at the Defense Department are satisfied that there’s not a trade-off between the clean energy goals of this endeavor and our military readiness,” said Dr. Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, on the Tuesday call with press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holding lease sales is just one step in the extended process to begin building offshore wind farms, however. Project developers must also secure dozens of permits and survive government review to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vineyard Wind, a project off the coast of Massachusetts, just won final federal approval in May. Its developers submitted plans to the government in 2017. A project \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102020/icebreaker-project-lake-erie-cleveland-wind-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned for Lake Erie\u003c/a> was proposed over a decade ago. The country’s first offshore wind project, Rhode Island’s Block Island, came online in 2016. Many more projects are now under federal review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pace makes both the administration’s 2030 target and aspirations to build offshore wind off California’s coast in the next decade “a stretch,” said Oliver Metcalf, head of U.S. wind research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The research firm expects the United States to add just 23 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, with no projects off the coast of California by that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘California Open For Business’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West’s challenges go beyond politics; the region’s deep waters require the use of floating offshore wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/so-what-exactly-floating-offshore-wind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> technology\u003c/a>, where a buoyant platform is moored to the seafloor. Floating wind is currently more expensive and less common than fixed-bottom offshore wind, which is affixed to the ocean floor and could be used in much of the East Coast’s shallower waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floating projects installed worldwide represented less than 100 megawatts combined at the end of 2019, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and most were pilot projects. Equinor, one of the companies that submitted a proposal to build off the coast of California, has one floating commercial project in operation off the coast of Scotland and another in the works in the Norwegian North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg forecasts the build-out of just 6.3 gigawatts of floating offshore wind worldwide by 2030, compared to about 200 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Biden administration’s Tuesday announcement bodes well for future development. NREL analysis suggests commercial floating projects could technically land in California waters as early as the mid-2020s, with costs dropping an estimated 44% between 2019 and 2032. Technology advancements and commercial growth driven by planned projects in Europe and Asia will also help the West Coast market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom included $20 million for offshore wind development in his 2021-2022 budget request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Castle Wind, a joint venture Trident Winds entered into in 2018 with\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enbw-wants-to-be-the-next-big-us-offshore-wind-developer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> German power provider EnBW\u003c/a>, has negotiated a “mutual benefits agreement” with the local fishing community near one of the California call areas, possibly curtailing the type of controversy that has dogged other offshore projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblyman David Chiu, who introduced the California bill, hopes to seize on the momentum. The legislation, he said, “will let the country and the rest of the world know that California is open for business in this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some utilities and renewables developers are equally bullish. Castle Wind has already inked a tentative supply agreement with power provider Central Coast Community Energy. Weinstein, of Trident, hoped for a lease sale in 2021, but believes the state can execute on development by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no doubt that it can be done,” said Weinstein. “If there is a will, which I think the will is there, then yeah, we can find a way to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metcalf, of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, agrees that offshore wind in the West “does seem to be a question of when, rather than if.” But it remains unclear if the timeline will align with the administration’s splashy target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2030 target “is truly a national goal,” said Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, the offshore wind lead at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office. To nudge along progress on the West Coast, the department has invested more than $100 million in research on and development of floating offshore wind. It’s working with BOEM to gather data in California waters and funding floating offshore wind demonstrations off the East Coast, with the expectation that what it learns will translate to the West. In 2019, the DOE launched a program to design “radically new” floating wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as auctions happen, Trident’s Weinstein said, “then we can move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point, we’re on the verge of seeing significant movement in California,” she said. “This is the beginning of a much longer path to the expansion of offshore wind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In January 2016, Trident Winds, a small, Seattle-based wind company, submitted an unsolicited application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, laying out its aspirations to build a 1-gigawatt wind farm off California’s central coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale was ambitious, especially for the United States. But Trident Winds’ chief executive officer, Alla Weinstein, sensed an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively, that’s what kick-started the whole discussion on offshore wind in California,” Weinstein said of the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, California’s waters still have no finalized leases for the development of any offshore wind farms. Instead, the state’s market has been bogged down by politics and technological hurdles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, the Biden administration and the state announced a target to hold an auction in mid-2022 to award leases for wind development off California’s coast, a significant step toward encouraging the state’s stalled market. The effort would contribute to the administration’s recently announced goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind nationally by 2030, a target that seemed to favor the Northeast, which has already cultivated the foundations of a thriving offshore wind market. The United States currently has only about 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given California’s leadership in clean energy and combating climate change, “it’s only fitting that California is totally unwilling to let the expansion we’re witnessing on the East Coast leave California behind,” said White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, on a Tuesday call with reporters highlighting the Biden administration’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has many qualities that would seem to make it an enticing location to build offshore wind: high power prices, cities along the coast ready to use the electricity and a\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-batteries-renewable-energy-california-20190605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-saturated grid\u003c/a>, which makes wind a complementary resource when the sun isn’t shining. The state has more than 200 gigawatts of technical offshore wind potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, but current projections for offshore wind cast doubt on whether it can complete any projects in the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is now grappling with how to fit offshore wind into legislatively mandated efforts to achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-east-coast-has-offshore-winds-moment-finally-arrived\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Climate goals in numerous Eastern states\u003c/a> have hinged on significant offshore wind deployment, with plans to add more than 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB525\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently-introduced California bill\u003c/a> would also help invigorate the state’s offshore wind market, directing energy regulators to establish offshore wind targets for 2030 and 2045.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A similar bill is under consideration in Oregon, calling for up to 3 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The legislation, along with the federal administration’s efforts to coax California’s market forward, underscore the opportunity in Western waters, if politicians can seize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has consistently been a front-runner in clean energy deployments. Last month, a large swath of the state ran on 95% renewables for a brief four seconds — a milestone that reportedly\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-29/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> sent chills of excitement down the spine\u003c/a> of the state grid operator’s chief executive officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar accounts for a majority of California’s renewable resources, leaving an opening for a budding offshore wind market. Wind and solar work well together in an energy portfolio because wind generally continues to blow at night, while solar produces the most at the sunniest times of day. A 2021 report from the California Energy Commission suggested offshore wind should play a significant role in the state’s clean energy targets, accounting for as much as 10 gigawatts of capacity additions in coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California gets closer to carbon-free electricity, it’s increasingly seeing the need for a wider array of technologies to balance solar production. “That’s where offshore wind fits in,” said Mohit Chhabra, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California realized the potential for offshore wind years ago. Along with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which manages offshore leasing, the state launched an Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force back in 2016, several months after Trident Winds filed its application with the Interior Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal agency went on to select three possible lease zones, known as “call areas,” off the California coast, and in 2018 asked companies to submit proposals for building in those areas. More than a dozen did, including some wind industry heavyweights like Avangrid Renewables and Norwegian oil major\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Equinor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since then, BOEM hasn’t leased any of California’s waters. The state’s lucrative fishing industry worried that turbines would disrupt business, while the Defense Department raised concerns about the impact on training exercises off the coast — opposition that held up lease sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it had brokered a compromise on some of those issues. The Defense Department said it was committed to finding “creative solutions” to advance offshore wind in California. Overall, the initial development areas could support up to 4.6 gigawatts of floating offshore wind, according to the administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at the Defense Department are satisfied that there’s not a trade-off between the clean energy goals of this endeavor and our military readiness,” said Dr. Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, on the Tuesday call with press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holding lease sales is just one step in the extended process to begin building offshore wind farms, however. Project developers must also secure dozens of permits and survive government review to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vineyard Wind, a project off the coast of Massachusetts, just won final federal approval in May. Its developers submitted plans to the government in 2017. A project \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102020/icebreaker-project-lake-erie-cleveland-wind-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned for Lake Erie\u003c/a> was proposed over a decade ago. The country’s first offshore wind project, Rhode Island’s Block Island, came online in 2016. Many more projects are now under federal review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pace makes both the administration’s 2030 target and aspirations to build offshore wind off California’s coast in the next decade “a stretch,” said Oliver Metcalf, head of U.S. wind research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The research firm expects the United States to add just 23 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, with no projects off the coast of California by that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘California Open For Business’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West’s challenges go beyond politics; the region’s deep waters require the use of floating offshore wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/so-what-exactly-floating-offshore-wind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> technology\u003c/a>, where a buoyant platform is moored to the seafloor. Floating wind is currently more expensive and less common than fixed-bottom offshore wind, which is affixed to the ocean floor and could be used in much of the East Coast’s shallower waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floating projects installed worldwide represented less than 100 megawatts combined at the end of 2019, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and most were pilot projects. Equinor, one of the companies that submitted a proposal to build off the coast of California, has one floating commercial project in operation off the coast of Scotland and another in the works in the Norwegian North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg forecasts the build-out of just 6.3 gigawatts of floating offshore wind worldwide by 2030, compared to about 200 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Biden administration’s Tuesday announcement bodes well for future development. NREL analysis suggests commercial floating projects could technically land in California waters as early as the mid-2020s, with costs dropping an estimated 44% between 2019 and 2032. Technology advancements and commercial growth driven by planned projects in Europe and Asia will also help the West Coast market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom included $20 million for offshore wind development in his 2021-2022 budget request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Castle Wind, a joint venture Trident Winds entered into in 2018 with\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enbw-wants-to-be-the-next-big-us-offshore-wind-developer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> German power provider EnBW\u003c/a>, has negotiated a “mutual benefits agreement” with the local fishing community near one of the California call areas, possibly curtailing the type of controversy that has dogged other offshore projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblyman David Chiu, who introduced the California bill, hopes to seize on the momentum. The legislation, he said, “will let the country and the rest of the world know that California is open for business in this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some utilities and renewables developers are equally bullish. Castle Wind has already inked a tentative supply agreement with power provider Central Coast Community Energy. Weinstein, of Trident, hoped for a lease sale in 2021, but believes the state can execute on development by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no doubt that it can be done,” said Weinstein. “If there is a will, which I think the will is there, then yeah, we can find a way to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metcalf, of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, agrees that offshore wind in the West “does seem to be a question of when, rather than if.” But it remains unclear if the timeline will align with the administration’s splashy target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2030 target “is truly a national goal,” said Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, the offshore wind lead at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office. To nudge along progress on the West Coast, the department has invested more than $100 million in research on and development of floating offshore wind. It’s working with BOEM to gather data in California waters and funding floating offshore wind demonstrations off the East Coast, with the expectation that what it learns will translate to the West. In 2019, the DOE launched a program to design “radically new” floating wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as auctions happen, Trident’s Weinstein said, “then we can move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point, we’re on the verge of seeing significant movement in California,” she said. “This is the beginning of a much longer path to the expansion of offshore wind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Ford F-150 is America's Top-Selling Car. Now There's an Electric Version",
"headTitle": "The Ford F-150 is America’s Top-Selling Car. Now There’s an Electric Version | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There’s a lot riding on the F-150 Lightning, the all-electric pickup that Ford unveiled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the company, it represents a big strategic bet on the rise of electric vehicles — one that nearly every rival automaker is also making. And it’s also a symbol for the vision of America that President Biden has been promoting: made in America, pairing blue-collar roots and high-tech ambitions, fighting climate change without making compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subtext was made explicit when the president visited Ford’s Rouge complex on Tuesday to tout electric vehicles in general and praise this one in particular — even taking it for a spin on the test track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind all this buzz and boosterism is an incredibly daunting challenge for the auto industry. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050\">a report\u003c/a> out this week from the International Energy Agency, for the energy sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, electric vehicles would need to go from 5% of global sales to 60% in less than a decade. Five years later, in 2035, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>new cars would need to be electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers such as General Motors and Volvo have openly embraced that timeline, as have governments such as the United Kingdom. But a transformation of that scale raises \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/880941975/an-electric-pickup-truck-brings-new-energy-to-lordstown-ohio\">myriad challenges\u003c/a> — chargers that need to be built, supply chains that need to expand, factories that need to be retooled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many in the auto industry, it raises a fundamental question: Can companies make electric cars that will bring \u003cem>drivers \u003c/em>on board, and fast?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford hopes that’s where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/998268622/ford-says-electric-f-150-will-start-under-40-000-it-can-also-power-your-home\">F-150 Lightning\u003c/a> comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Ford, but really for the country,” says Darren Palmer, Ford’s head of battery electric vehicles. “This could be the point when people really notice electric [vehicles].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s not the only one hoping there’s a big pool of would-be buyers who aren’t interested in a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf but would happily spring for an electric version of their favorite pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That vehicle is going to come in and fill a void. And if it’s affordable, I mean, it’s going to be a game changer,” says Shelley Francis, co-founder of EVHybridNoire, a network of diverse electric vehicle enthusiasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the No. 1-selling vehicle in the country just across the board; it’s also the No. 1-selling vehicle among African American communities,” she says. “Then when you think about rural communities … there’s an opportunity for this community to be part of this conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s F-150 Lightning, unveiled at a ceremony on Wednesday evening, is part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">a spate of electric pickups\u003c/a> arriving on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are the startups: Rivian is targeting outdoor enthusiasts with its $75,000 truck, which is poised to start deliveries next month and win the race to be the first electric pickup to market. The futuristic Tesla Cybertruck is on the way at a much lower price point, while Lordstown Motors is focusing on business customers with its upcoming vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, General Motors is bringing the Hummer brand back as a top-of-the-line premium electric pickup, initially starting at more than $100,000. An electric Silverado is also in the works. And Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, has promised a battery-powered Ram eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The F-150 carries extra symbolic and economic weight. It’s America’s best-selling vehicle and has been for 40 years. Ford sells more than 1 million F-series trucks per year, raking in more than $40 billion annually, more than McDonald’s or Nike bring in as entire companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean that Ford enthusiasts will automatically leap at this new vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">Surveys show\u003c/a> that more than half of truck drivers are not interested in going electric, full stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer laid out Ford’s argument to skeptical V-8-loving pickup drivers using a cordless drill metaphor. It wasn’t hard to convince people to switch from old battery technology to lighter, longer-running lithium-ion drills: quite the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The functionality difference — [it] was better,” Palmer says. “Everybody wanted the best tool. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford argues that the perks of electrification will speak for themselves, such as the effortless torque that’s characteristic of all electric motors and the potential for new, practical features. (The hybrid F-150 has an option that allows you to run power tools off the car’s battery at a work site, for instance.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But can the electric F-150 win over regular drivers, map a path to new profits for an entire industry and prove effective in the fight against climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot of economic, political and environmental baggage for one vehicle, no matter how powerful its towing capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Why+Ford+Unveiling+An+Electric+F-150+Is+A+Big+Deal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s a lot riding on the F-150 Lightning, the all-electric pickup that Ford unveiled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the company, it represents a big strategic bet on the rise of electric vehicles — one that nearly every rival automaker is also making. And it’s also a symbol for the vision of America that President Biden has been promoting: made in America, pairing blue-collar roots and high-tech ambitions, fighting climate change without making compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subtext was made explicit when the president visited Ford’s Rouge complex on Tuesday to tout electric vehicles in general and praise this one in particular — even taking it for a spin on the test track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind all this buzz and boosterism is an incredibly daunting challenge for the auto industry. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050\">a report\u003c/a> out this week from the International Energy Agency, for the energy sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, electric vehicles would need to go from 5% of global sales to 60% in less than a decade. Five years later, in 2035, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>new cars would need to be electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers such as General Motors and Volvo have openly embraced that timeline, as have governments such as the United Kingdom. But a transformation of that scale raises \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/880941975/an-electric-pickup-truck-brings-new-energy-to-lordstown-ohio\">myriad challenges\u003c/a> — chargers that need to be built, supply chains that need to expand, factories that need to be retooled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many in the auto industry, it raises a fundamental question: Can companies make electric cars that will bring \u003cem>drivers \u003c/em>on board, and fast?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford hopes that’s where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/998268622/ford-says-electric-f-150-will-start-under-40-000-it-can-also-power-your-home\">F-150 Lightning\u003c/a> comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Ford, but really for the country,” says Darren Palmer, Ford’s head of battery electric vehicles. “This could be the point when people really notice electric [vehicles].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s not the only one hoping there’s a big pool of would-be buyers who aren’t interested in a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf but would happily spring for an electric version of their favorite pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That vehicle is going to come in and fill a void. And if it’s affordable, I mean, it’s going to be a game changer,” says Shelley Francis, co-founder of EVHybridNoire, a network of diverse electric vehicle enthusiasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the No. 1-selling vehicle in the country just across the board; it’s also the No. 1-selling vehicle among African American communities,” she says. “Then when you think about rural communities … there’s an opportunity for this community to be part of this conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s F-150 Lightning, unveiled at a ceremony on Wednesday evening, is part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">a spate of electric pickups\u003c/a> arriving on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are the startups: Rivian is targeting outdoor enthusiasts with its $75,000 truck, which is poised to start deliveries next month and win the race to be the first electric pickup to market. The futuristic Tesla Cybertruck is on the way at a much lower price point, while Lordstown Motors is focusing on business customers with its upcoming vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, General Motors is bringing the Hummer brand back as a top-of-the-line premium electric pickup, initially starting at more than $100,000. An electric Silverado is also in the works. And Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, has promised a battery-powered Ram eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The F-150 carries extra symbolic and economic weight. It’s America’s best-selling vehicle and has been for 40 years. Ford sells more than 1 million F-series trucks per year, raking in more than $40 billion annually, more than McDonald’s or Nike bring in as entire companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean that Ford enthusiasts will automatically leap at this new vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">Surveys show\u003c/a> that more than half of truck drivers are not interested in going electric, full stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer laid out Ford’s argument to skeptical V-8-loving pickup drivers using a cordless drill metaphor. It wasn’t hard to convince people to switch from old battery technology to lighter, longer-running lithium-ion drills: quite the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The functionality difference — [it] was better,” Palmer says. “Everybody wanted the best tool. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford argues that the perks of electrification will speak for themselves, such as the effortless torque that’s characteristic of all electric motors and the potential for new, practical features. (The hybrid F-150 has an option that allows you to run power tools off the car’s battery at a work site, for instance.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But can the electric F-150 win over regular drivers, map a path to new profits for an entire industry and prove effective in the fight against climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot of economic, political and environmental baggage for one vehicle, no matter how powerful its towing capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Why+Ford+Unveiling+An+Electric+F-150+Is+A+Big+Deal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Scorching Summer Looms as California Girds Against Power Outages",
"headTitle": "A Scorching Summer Looms as California Girds Against Power Outages | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s top energy regulators on Tuesday said the state is better prepared to avoid last summer’s rotating blackouts, but they cautioned the power grid of the nation’s most populous state is still vulnerable to extreme heat waves that could force more outages later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">State officials say they have acquired an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of a likely scorching summer that threatens to increase demand beyond what the grid can handle. That includes an additional 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated from renewable sources — like solar — that stop working when it gets dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836990/pge-shutoffs-are-here-again-what-to-know-about-power-outages-today\">\u003cstrong>Related: How to Prepare for Power Outages in Your Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">In general, 1 megawatt of energy is enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“Does that mean we are in the clear? Not necessarily,” Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, told state lawmakers during an oversight hearing Tuesday. “The most significant risk factor for grid reliability remains extreme heat, particularly heat that spreads across the wider western United States. And it continues to get hotter every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">More than an inconvenience, power outages during a major heat wave can also be deadly for vulnerable people while causing a host of other problems in a digital age that relies on electricity for everything from business transactions to Facebook posts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Blackouts have become more common in California as utility companies will often intentionally turn off the power when it gets too windy in the dry summer months to prevent toppled power lines from starting wildfires — like the one that killed 85 people and mostly destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">But the blackouts in August were the first in nearly 20 years because of an energy shortage, putting California’s quest to have 100% of its energy come from renewable sources under more scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“This summer will be an important test for the state,” said Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena and chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. “California is at the vanguard of renewable energy policy. The nation and the world are watching to see how we integrate renewables but also that we can ensure reliability while doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s plan to survive the summer includes buying power from places “that are not clean resources,” Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told lawmakers on Tuesday. She did not say what those sources were, but she said regulators chose to buy them because they wanted to do everything they could to prevent blackouts this summer out of “health and safety concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“I want to be clear that our planning and implementation of our clean energy future progresses forward and will only accelerate in the months and years to come,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Another round of blackouts could pose political concerns for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will likely face a recall election later this year. In 2003, former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was removed from office in a recall election largely driven by his handling of rolling blackouts, which were prompted by the deregulation of the energy sector and market manipulation by Enron and other companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom’s recall election is driven largely by anger over his handling of the pandemic. But rolling blackouts, however brief, could hurt him as he seeks to inspire confidence in voters that he deserves to keep his job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Energy demand typically peaks in the late afternoon as air conditioners work to cool homes during the hottest part of the day. Demand usually subsides at night as temperatures cool. But that didn’t happen in August, when temperatures were up to 20 degrees above normal for much of the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Demand was so high the weekend of Aug. 14 and 15 that state regulators ordered utility companies to intentionally turn off the power for some people to prevent more widespread outages across the grid, with outages lasting between 8 minutes and two-and-a-half hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom declared a state emergency as state officials took drastic actions to find more power. That included David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, asking the U.S. Navy to use their diesel engines to power their ships instead of relying from on-shore power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“There was a lot of things we had to do that none of us wants to do again,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s top energy regulators on Tuesday said the state is better prepared to avoid last summer’s rotating blackouts, but they cautioned the power grid of the nation’s most populous state is still vulnerable to extreme heat waves that could force more outages later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">State officials say they have acquired an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of a likely scorching summer that threatens to increase demand beyond what the grid can handle. That includes an additional 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated from renewable sources — like solar — that stop working when it gets dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836990/pge-shutoffs-are-here-again-what-to-know-about-power-outages-today\">\u003cstrong>Related: How to Prepare for Power Outages in Your Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">In general, 1 megawatt of energy is enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“Does that mean we are in the clear? Not necessarily,” Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, told state lawmakers during an oversight hearing Tuesday. “The most significant risk factor for grid reliability remains extreme heat, particularly heat that spreads across the wider western United States. And it continues to get hotter every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">More than an inconvenience, power outages during a major heat wave can also be deadly for vulnerable people while causing a host of other problems in a digital age that relies on electricity for everything from business transactions to Facebook posts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Blackouts have become more common in California as utility companies will often intentionally turn off the power when it gets too windy in the dry summer months to prevent toppled power lines from starting wildfires — like the one that killed 85 people and mostly destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">But the blackouts in August were the first in nearly 20 years because of an energy shortage, putting California’s quest to have 100% of its energy come from renewable sources under more scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“This summer will be an important test for the state,” said Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena and chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. “California is at the vanguard of renewable energy policy. The nation and the world are watching to see how we integrate renewables but also that we can ensure reliability while doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s plan to survive the summer includes buying power from places “that are not clean resources,” Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told lawmakers on Tuesday. She did not say what those sources were, but she said regulators chose to buy them because they wanted to do everything they could to prevent blackouts this summer out of “health and safety concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“I want to be clear that our planning and implementation of our clean energy future progresses forward and will only accelerate in the months and years to come,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Another round of blackouts could pose political concerns for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will likely face a recall election later this year. In 2003, former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was removed from office in a recall election largely driven by his handling of rolling blackouts, which were prompted by the deregulation of the energy sector and market manipulation by Enron and other companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom’s recall election is driven largely by anger over his handling of the pandemic. But rolling blackouts, however brief, could hurt him as he seeks to inspire confidence in voters that he deserves to keep his job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Energy demand typically peaks in the late afternoon as air conditioners work to cool homes during the hottest part of the day. Demand usually subsides at night as temperatures cool. But that didn’t happen in August, when temperatures were up to 20 degrees above normal for much of the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Demand was so high the weekend of Aug. 14 and 15 that state regulators ordered utility companies to intentionally turn off the power for some people to prevent more widespread outages across the grid, with outages lasting between 8 minutes and two-and-a-half hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom declared a state emergency as state officials took drastic actions to find more power. That included David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, asking the U.S. Navy to use their diesel engines to power their ships instead of relying from on-shore power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“There was a lot of things we had to do that none of us wants to do again,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-to-save-a-california-town-from-wildfire-plentyy-of-advance-work-and-agency-cooperation",
"title": "The Very Unsexy Solution to California's Wildfire Woes: Interagency Cooperation and Controlled Burns",
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"content": "\u003cp>Signs of gratitude, literally, adorn the Fresno County mountain town of Shaver Lake, population 500 plus a collection of cabins, restaurants and real estate offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of Bob’s Market, the message is: “Thank you, Creek Fire Heroes,” adjacent to a photo of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The town today is an island of green pines, surrounded by charred hills and the burnt remains of trees. Yet the signs of gratitude, while well-deserved, could also rightly extend to a mostly unheralded group of workers who labored in advance of flames bearing down on the area from the raging Creek Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Saved by Fire\" postID=\"science_1973138,science_1973196\"]That fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the Friday before Labor Day. After a hot, dry summer, all it took was a spark in a steep, overgrown canyon to ignite what turned into an explosive blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a fire in this canyon was kind of a nightmare,” said Ryan Stewart, a forester for the utility Southern California Edison, looking down a steep hillside, which as of September was overgrown with thick brush. “You look at it and you go: ‘I don’t know how they’re going to stop that fire.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoCal Edison owns a lot of property to the south of the canyon, around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Creek Fire started, Stewart “was kind of just thinking in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder what they’re doing over there, because I got it over here. But over there it’s a different story.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1971660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQEDSCIENCE_CRKFR-1.gif\" alt=\"Groundwater Rise\" width=\"400\" height=\"720\">Over “there” are the forests around Big Creek, where half the homes burned. The “here” Stewart referred to is the forest where he and his colleagues have treated the landscape for years, cutting crowded and dead trees, clearing brush and lighting prescribed fires. All that work, performed in preparation for the next big wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the fire struck, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Jim McDougald, who’d just returned home from fighting fires in Sonoma County, had been forced to head out in the middle of the night to do yet more battle with a conflagration. While driving he spotted the glow from miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that was a clue to me it had the potential to become a major fire,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart says he got the call from McDougald around 2 a.m., telling him the fire was headed up the hill toward SoCal Edison property. “I knew that, OK, well, we’ve got a good chance of stopping it once it gets on Edison lands,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald also thought the fire could be stopped there. “The best tool at that time was to try to get dozers in there and open up some of the fuel breaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart arrived at the property in the dead of night and began tying pink flags to trees, marking spots where fire breaks should be widened. Many of the pink flags are still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that line is where crews held it during the first hours of the Creek Fire incident. Once the flames crossed over into the treated lands, the fire’s behavior rapidly changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The intensity of the fire was reduced to a ground fire, and we didn’t get into the crowns, didn’t kill any of the trees,” said Stewart, surveying the land last winter. “Looks pretty good. It’s actually pretty much a controlled burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diminution rapidly halted one flank of the fire. And, McDougald says, it bought time to complete evacuations and prepare to defend Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No question about it … that work bought the direct impact of the fire hitting Shaver at least 24 to 48 hours,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the fire continued to spread in other directions, drawing McDougald’s attention elsewhere. He knew he needed help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Creek Fire surged, Clint Wade, a fuels specialist for the High Sierra Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest, was working a different fire in the Los Padres National Forest. He and McDougald had worked closely together on getting a system of fuel breaks installed in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jim made a special request, like, ‘Hey, we need Clint back. He understands this fuel break system,’” recalls Wade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973154\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973154 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Stewart stands on the edge of a parcel of land he helped prepare for fire. To his left is untreated Forest Service land, to his right Southern California Edison land. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That system helped provide protection in part because Wade, McDougald and others made a conscious effort to put breaks in place where they were needed most, regardless of whether the land was federal, state or the private parcels dotting the land within the national forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, the Forest Service doesn’t treat private land, typically,” Wade said. “So Cal Fire came to us, said, ‘Hey, we have some money. Where do you have holes?’ And we got out the maps [and saw], ‘Hey, Twin Brooks has got some patches. Can we glue that together? You know, there’s stuff over here off the back side of Cressman’s, there’s patches. Let’s glue that together.’ And we started designing projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these fuel breaks and controlled burns were funded because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 executive order fast-tracking 35 high-priority projects to protect vulnerable communities. Five of these were on lands in and around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a California Assembly hearing last fall, Cal Fire director Thom Porter told lawmakers, “The centerpiece of Shaver Lake would have been completely consumed like Paradise, had we not done those projects and had we not had those prescribed fires that occurred in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Breaking Down Jurisdictional Barriers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the Creek Fire, the fourth largest on record in the state, destroyed 900 structures and injured 26 people, the preventive treatments around Shaver Lake are a success story, albeit one that’s not common. Even though vegetation treatments and planned fires can make wildfires less catastrophic and smoke less toxic, they are not easy to get done in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions of jurisdiction, for instance, can get in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t matter whose ground it is if that’s where the fuel break needs to go and both agencies agree,” Cal Fire’s McDougald said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, it often does. Agencies like the Forest Service or Cal Fire have individual mandates to care for land and protect communities, but not necessarily to work together smoothly. So success can depend on the goodwill efforts of individuals with the power to make decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve spent a lot of time fostering the professional and personal relationship that needs to be in place so that you can implement work,” Wade said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A host of other barriers exist, such as questions of who has liability if the controlled burn escapes or what animals can’t be disturbed because they’re in mating season. There’s also a firefighting culture at work: People who extinguish flames are called heroes. People who trim brush and light prescribed fires aren’t thought of that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973155 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking toward Musick Mountain through a fire-destroyed forest. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One approved project wasn’t completed before fire season because of limited staff, time and money. So when wildfire tore over Musick Mountain, it ruined habitat and blazed a path to where people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(T)he regret is, you know, could we have gotten that done a year sooner?” said Wade. “We probably would’ve had fuel-breaks in [which] would have surrounded that ignition, and there could have been opportunity to slow this down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer magnitude of all the treatments that need to be done is intense in a forest where fires have been suppressed for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973156\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire’s Jim McDougald says what he and others do in the next few decades will determine if Shaver Lake will survive future fires. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re always behind, you’re working hard, you’re building fuel breaks, you’re doing the right thing,” McDougald said. “You’re getting some prescribed fire done. But there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald says what he and others do in the next years to decades will determine whether Shaver Lake has healthy forests — and healthy fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully the story you’re talking about next time is: ‘This is now a resilient landscape. And how did you do it?’ It’s work we haven’t done yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A small group of workers who labored in the forests surrounding Shaver Lake ahead of last year's Creek Fire aren't typically talked about as wildfire heroes. But their work made it possible to save the town.",
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"title": "The Very Unsexy Solution to California's Wildfire Woes: Interagency Cooperation and Controlled Burns | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Signs of gratitude, literally, adorn the Fresno County mountain town of Shaver Lake, population 500 plus a collection of cabins, restaurants and real estate offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of Bob’s Market, the message is: “Thank you, Creek Fire Heroes,” adjacent to a photo of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The town today is an island of green pines, surrounded by charred hills and the burnt remains of trees. Yet the signs of gratitude, while well-deserved, could also rightly extend to a mostly unheralded group of workers who labored in advance of flames bearing down on the area from the raging Creek Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the Friday before Labor Day. After a hot, dry summer, all it took was a spark in a steep, overgrown canyon to ignite what turned into an explosive blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a fire in this canyon was kind of a nightmare,” said Ryan Stewart, a forester for the utility Southern California Edison, looking down a steep hillside, which as of September was overgrown with thick brush. “You look at it and you go: ‘I don’t know how they’re going to stop that fire.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoCal Edison owns a lot of property to the south of the canyon, around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Creek Fire started, Stewart “was kind of just thinking in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder what they’re doing over there, because I got it over here. But over there it’s a different story.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1971660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQEDSCIENCE_CRKFR-1.gif\" alt=\"Groundwater Rise\" width=\"400\" height=\"720\">Over “there” are the forests around Big Creek, where half the homes burned. The “here” Stewart referred to is the forest where he and his colleagues have treated the landscape for years, cutting crowded and dead trees, clearing brush and lighting prescribed fires. All that work, performed in preparation for the next big wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the fire struck, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Jim McDougald, who’d just returned home from fighting fires in Sonoma County, had been forced to head out in the middle of the night to do yet more battle with a conflagration. While driving he spotted the glow from miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that was a clue to me it had the potential to become a major fire,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart says he got the call from McDougald around 2 a.m., telling him the fire was headed up the hill toward SoCal Edison property. “I knew that, OK, well, we’ve got a good chance of stopping it once it gets on Edison lands,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald also thought the fire could be stopped there. “The best tool at that time was to try to get dozers in there and open up some of the fuel breaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart arrived at the property in the dead of night and began tying pink flags to trees, marking spots where fire breaks should be widened. Many of the pink flags are still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that line is where crews held it during the first hours of the Creek Fire incident. Once the flames crossed over into the treated lands, the fire’s behavior rapidly changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The intensity of the fire was reduced to a ground fire, and we didn’t get into the crowns, didn’t kill any of the trees,” said Stewart, surveying the land last winter. “Looks pretty good. It’s actually pretty much a controlled burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diminution rapidly halted one flank of the fire. And, McDougald says, it bought time to complete evacuations and prepare to defend Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No question about it … that work bought the direct impact of the fire hitting Shaver at least 24 to 48 hours,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the fire continued to spread in other directions, drawing McDougald’s attention elsewhere. He knew he needed help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Creek Fire surged, Clint Wade, a fuels specialist for the High Sierra Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest, was working a different fire in the Los Padres National Forest. He and McDougald had worked closely together on getting a system of fuel breaks installed in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jim made a special request, like, ‘Hey, we need Clint back. He understands this fuel break system,’” recalls Wade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973154\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973154 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Stewart stands on the edge of a parcel of land he helped prepare for fire. To his left is untreated Forest Service land, to his right Southern California Edison land. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That system helped provide protection in part because Wade, McDougald and others made a conscious effort to put breaks in place where they were needed most, regardless of whether the land was federal, state or the private parcels dotting the land within the national forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, the Forest Service doesn’t treat private land, typically,” Wade said. “So Cal Fire came to us, said, ‘Hey, we have some money. Where do you have holes?’ And we got out the maps [and saw], ‘Hey, Twin Brooks has got some patches. Can we glue that together? You know, there’s stuff over here off the back side of Cressman’s, there’s patches. Let’s glue that together.’ And we started designing projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these fuel breaks and controlled burns were funded because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 executive order fast-tracking 35 high-priority projects to protect vulnerable communities. Five of these were on lands in and around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a California Assembly hearing last fall, Cal Fire director Thom Porter told lawmakers, “The centerpiece of Shaver Lake would have been completely consumed like Paradise, had we not done those projects and had we not had those prescribed fires that occurred in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Breaking Down Jurisdictional Barriers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the Creek Fire, the fourth largest on record in the state, destroyed 900 structures and injured 26 people, the preventive treatments around Shaver Lake are a success story, albeit one that’s not common. Even though vegetation treatments and planned fires can make wildfires less catastrophic and smoke less toxic, they are not easy to get done in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions of jurisdiction, for instance, can get in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t matter whose ground it is if that’s where the fuel break needs to go and both agencies agree,” Cal Fire’s McDougald said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, it often does. Agencies like the Forest Service or Cal Fire have individual mandates to care for land and protect communities, but not necessarily to work together smoothly. So success can depend on the goodwill efforts of individuals with the power to make decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve spent a lot of time fostering the professional and personal relationship that needs to be in place so that you can implement work,” Wade said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A host of other barriers exist, such as questions of who has liability if the controlled burn escapes or what animals can’t be disturbed because they’re in mating season. There’s also a firefighting culture at work: People who extinguish flames are called heroes. People who trim brush and light prescribed fires aren’t thought of that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973155 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking toward Musick Mountain through a fire-destroyed forest. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One approved project wasn’t completed before fire season because of limited staff, time and money. So when wildfire tore over Musick Mountain, it ruined habitat and blazed a path to where people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(T)he regret is, you know, could we have gotten that done a year sooner?” said Wade. “We probably would’ve had fuel-breaks in [which] would have surrounded that ignition, and there could have been opportunity to slow this down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer magnitude of all the treatments that need to be done is intense in a forest where fires have been suppressed for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973156\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire’s Jim McDougald says what he and others do in the next few decades will determine if Shaver Lake will survive future fires. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re always behind, you’re working hard, you’re building fuel breaks, you’re doing the right thing,” McDougald said. “You’re getting some prescribed fire done. But there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald says what he and others do in the next years to decades will determine whether Shaver Lake has healthy forests — and healthy fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully the story you’re talking about next time is: ‘This is now a resilient landscape. And how did you do it?’ It’s work we haven’t done yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "After Last Year's Catastrophic Wildfire Season, California Braces for One Possibly Worse",
"headTitle": "After Last Year’s Catastrophic Wildfire Season, California Braces for One Possibly Worse | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>After one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909668879/whats-driving-california-s-biggest-ever-wildfire-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">destructive and extreme wildfire seasons in modern history\u003c/a> last year, a widening drought across California and much of the West has many residents bracing for the possibility this season could be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anemic winter rain and snowfall has left reservoirs and river flows down significantly, even as the state experiences \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1387929070944456709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">its driest water year\u003c/a> in more than four decades. Today, wildfire fuels in some parts of California are at or near record levels of dryness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel moisture — the amount of water inside a living plant — “is the lowest that we’ve recorded at these sites since 2013,” says Craig Clements, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University\u003c/a>. “It’s indicative of very dangerous conditions coming into this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those hazardous conditions are the result of drier, hotter weather and accelerated vegetation drying due to a warming climate, combined with more than a century of fire suppression, that has left many forests with treacherous amounts of built-up fuel. Those two factors are now amplifying each other, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/daniel-swain/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Swain,\u003c/a> a leading climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, unfortunately, as bad as things have been recently, this year looks like another year that has some really ugly potential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists point out that a menacing wildfire potential this year doesn’t necessarily mean that’ll happen. “Really, that’s just going to be a matter of luck,” Swain says. But “of all the aspects that are predictable, \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL092843\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">they all look pretty ominous\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">As dire drought conditions spread\u003c/a>, all of this could get exacerbated again by warmer-than-normal temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer temperatures are forecasted by the National Weather Service to be above normal again all across the West including California,” says Amanda Sheffield, a regional drought information coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) \u003ca href=\"https://www.drought.gov/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Integrated Drought Information System.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has already had a pretty rapid snow melt off for this time of year, she notes, so upper elevations “could be particularly vulnerable earlier than usual as we move into midsummer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s a forecast some in wildfire and pandemic-battered California may not want to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974593 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildfire-scarred hills behind the famous Welcome to Napa sign. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent day in Napa County’s picturesque Calistoga, tourists are returning in droves more than ready for a post-lockdown generous pour, and to take in the beautiful, if fire-scarred, landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Calistoga — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Most-of-the-Bay-Area-is-now-in-an-extreme-16139365.php%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">like a handful of other cities\u003c/a> — has already \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/calistogan/news/city-of-calistoga-issues-mandate-for-water-customers-to-conserve/article_2a0d78fc-e7e2-5996-a474-c3e17e7c0405.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">imposed emergency water restrictions\u003c/a> because of the drought. So the city’s energetic mayor, Chris Canning, has to balance boosterism with realism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canning notes that since the city’s founding in 1862, residents have only been evacuated twice, both times in the last four years because of wildfire. “Not a good resume for a mayor,” he says with a smile. “But absolutely necessary for the safety and protection of our residents. And we’ll do it again if we have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get a jump on any fires this season, Canning is pleased the state agency Cal Fire has dedicated \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-announces-state-will-provide-additional-helicopter-firefighters-for-next-wildfire-season/article_40512359-baac-5940-81dd-4c44aa7af62f.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new firefighting\u003c/a> helicopter and a 24-7 firefighting crew of nearly 50 men and women for Napa County. Cal Fire has beefed up its wildfire fighting capacity statewide, adding several specially-modified S-70i Firehawk helicopters to its fleet. These are more agile and versatile than their old UH-1H, or Huey, helicopters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the mayor says most of the region’s residents get it: climate-fueled wildfires are an ongoing threat. So people are building bigger fire breaks, making an evacuation plan, and clearing brush — creating what firefighters call defensible space on their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Canning admits that’s not everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other school of thought is, let’s pretend, you know, what happened in the past is the past, it’ll never happen again,” the mayor says. “The amnesia response is problematic, especially if you’re not taking the precautions you need to as a business or a resident to be prepared. That’s where it’s dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to the Hourglass Winery, with the Napa Sheriff’s Office evacuated tag from last year’s Glass Fire blowing in the wind. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late September last year, the fast-moving Glass Fire badly damaged nearly 30 Napa wineries, including family-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.hourglasswines.com/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hourglass wines\u003c/a>. It swept through as the region was still recovering from 2017’s record-setting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was all remnants of the old farmhouse,” says Hourglass’ founder and president Jeff Smith, as he walks near a pile of charred stones that are all that remain of the winery’s guesthouse, built in 1852.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Smith says the hardest loss was the grove of old growth redwood, Douglas fir, oak and olive trees, even older than the house, most which now lie burnt and stacked for salvage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me that was the soul of the property, those trees,” he says. “The buildings can be rebuilt, but the couple hundred-year-old trees, you know, you can’t just magically bring those right back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hourglass’ wine-making building is a total loss. Steel fermentation and storage tanks sit like sad, damaged sculptures: most of the 2020 vintage is still inside, cooked and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastating Glass Fire was just one of nearly 10,000 California wildfires last year that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned more than four million acres\u003c/a> — a modern record. Across the West, more than 14,000 structures were destroyed, causing billions in damages. At least 46 people were killed as California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911389505/at-least-7-people-killed-in-west-coast-wildfires-dangerous-winds-forecast-to-eas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> and Colorado all saw record-breaking “megafires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith, who was born and raised in Napa, is rebuilding. But he says the more frequent, more destructive wildfires have him rethinking everything about how he manages his land, business and life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I grew up here, all of my roots are here and it’s my intention to stay and rebuild. But I think that there’s a lot of game-changing thought processes that we need to be going through,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Past vintages, stored in wooden barrels in stone and cement caves built into the hillside, survived the fire. Smith is looking to rebuild stronger, and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taking a much harder look at materials, defensible space, at fire suppression systems, access. You know, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>of these kinds of things to try to mitigate this into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Smith is hopeful. He aims to rebuild enough this summer to crush and process this year’s grape harvest in a new facility here, along Napa’s famed Silverado Trail in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tell my wine-making team: have a backup plan!” Smith says with a laugh. In a world-class wine region turned wine and wildfire zone, he concedes, “it’s always good to have a plan B.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Deepening+Drought+Holds+%27Ominous%27+Signs+For+Wildfire+Threat+In+The+West&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909668879/whats-driving-california-s-biggest-ever-wildfire-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">destructive and extreme wildfire seasons in modern history\u003c/a> last year, a widening drought across California and much of the West has many residents bracing for the possibility this season could be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anemic winter rain and snowfall has left reservoirs and river flows down significantly, even as the state experiences \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1387929070944456709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">its driest water year\u003c/a> in more than four decades. Today, wildfire fuels in some parts of California are at or near record levels of dryness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel moisture — the amount of water inside a living plant — “is the lowest that we’ve recorded at these sites since 2013,” says Craig Clements, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University\u003c/a>. “It’s indicative of very dangerous conditions coming into this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those hazardous conditions are the result of drier, hotter weather and accelerated vegetation drying due to a warming climate, combined with more than a century of fire suppression, that has left many forests with treacherous amounts of built-up fuel. Those two factors are now amplifying each other, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/daniel-swain/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Swain,\u003c/a> a leading climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, unfortunately, as bad as things have been recently, this year looks like another year that has some really ugly potential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists point out that a menacing wildfire potential this year doesn’t necessarily mean that’ll happen. “Really, that’s just going to be a matter of luck,” Swain says. But “of all the aspects that are predictable, \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL092843\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">they all look pretty ominous\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">As dire drought conditions spread\u003c/a>, all of this could get exacerbated again by warmer-than-normal temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer temperatures are forecasted by the National Weather Service to be above normal again all across the West including California,” says Amanda Sheffield, a regional drought information coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) \u003ca href=\"https://www.drought.gov/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Integrated Drought Information System.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has already had a pretty rapid snow melt off for this time of year, she notes, so upper elevations “could be particularly vulnerable earlier than usual as we move into midsummer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s a forecast some in wildfire and pandemic-battered California may not want to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974593 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildfire-scarred hills behind the famous Welcome to Napa sign. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent day in Napa County’s picturesque Calistoga, tourists are returning in droves more than ready for a post-lockdown generous pour, and to take in the beautiful, if fire-scarred, landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Calistoga — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Most-of-the-Bay-Area-is-now-in-an-extreme-16139365.php%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">like a handful of other cities\u003c/a> — has already \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/calistogan/news/city-of-calistoga-issues-mandate-for-water-customers-to-conserve/article_2a0d78fc-e7e2-5996-a474-c3e17e7c0405.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">imposed emergency water restrictions\u003c/a> because of the drought. So the city’s energetic mayor, Chris Canning, has to balance boosterism with realism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canning notes that since the city’s founding in 1862, residents have only been evacuated twice, both times in the last four years because of wildfire. “Not a good resume for a mayor,” he says with a smile. “But absolutely necessary for the safety and protection of our residents. And we’ll do it again if we have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get a jump on any fires this season, Canning is pleased the state agency Cal Fire has dedicated \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-announces-state-will-provide-additional-helicopter-firefighters-for-next-wildfire-season/article_40512359-baac-5940-81dd-4c44aa7af62f.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new firefighting\u003c/a> helicopter and a 24-7 firefighting crew of nearly 50 men and women for Napa County. Cal Fire has beefed up its wildfire fighting capacity statewide, adding several specially-modified S-70i Firehawk helicopters to its fleet. These are more agile and versatile than their old UH-1H, or Huey, helicopters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the mayor says most of the region’s residents get it: climate-fueled wildfires are an ongoing threat. So people are building bigger fire breaks, making an evacuation plan, and clearing brush — creating what firefighters call defensible space on their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Canning admits that’s not everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other school of thought is, let’s pretend, you know, what happened in the past is the past, it’ll never happen again,” the mayor says. “The amnesia response is problematic, especially if you’re not taking the precautions you need to as a business or a resident to be prepared. That’s where it’s dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to the Hourglass Winery, with the Napa Sheriff’s Office evacuated tag from last year’s Glass Fire blowing in the wind. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late September last year, the fast-moving Glass Fire badly damaged nearly 30 Napa wineries, including family-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.hourglasswines.com/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hourglass wines\u003c/a>. It swept through as the region was still recovering from 2017’s record-setting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was all remnants of the old farmhouse,” says Hourglass’ founder and president Jeff Smith, as he walks near a pile of charred stones that are all that remain of the winery’s guesthouse, built in 1852.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Smith says the hardest loss was the grove of old growth redwood, Douglas fir, oak and olive trees, even older than the house, most which now lie burnt and stacked for salvage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me that was the soul of the property, those trees,” he says. “The buildings can be rebuilt, but the couple hundred-year-old trees, you know, you can’t just magically bring those right back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hourglass’ wine-making building is a total loss. Steel fermentation and storage tanks sit like sad, damaged sculptures: most of the 2020 vintage is still inside, cooked and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastating Glass Fire was just one of nearly 10,000 California wildfires last year that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned more than four million acres\u003c/a> — a modern record. Across the West, more than 14,000 structures were destroyed, causing billions in damages. At least 46 people were killed as California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911389505/at-least-7-people-killed-in-west-coast-wildfires-dangerous-winds-forecast-to-eas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> and Colorado all saw record-breaking “megafires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith, who was born and raised in Napa, is rebuilding. But he says the more frequent, more destructive wildfires have him rethinking everything about how he manages his land, business and life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I grew up here, all of my roots are here and it’s my intention to stay and rebuild. But I think that there’s a lot of game-changing thought processes that we need to be going through,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Past vintages, stored in wooden barrels in stone and cement caves built into the hillside, survived the fire. Smith is looking to rebuild stronger, and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taking a much harder look at materials, defensible space, at fire suppression systems, access. You know, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>of these kinds of things to try to mitigate this into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Smith is hopeful. He aims to rebuild enough this summer to crush and process this year’s grape harvest in a new facility here, along Napa’s famed Silverado Trail in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tell my wine-making team: have a backup plan!” Smith says with a laugh. In a world-class wine region turned wine and wildfire zone, he concedes, “it’s always good to have a plan B.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Deepening+Drought+Holds+%27Ominous%27+Signs+For+Wildfire+Threat+In+The+West&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a hotter climate, dirt is a hot commodity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With sea levels expected to rise 3 to 6 feet by the end of the century, coastal communities are moving fast to construct major shoreline projects to protect themselves. As the size of these projects expands, the primary building materials — dirt and mud — are getting scarce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dirt (what you dig up on land) and mud or sediment (the wetter variety already in rivers and bays) are the raw materials of climate change adaptation. They’re used to build levees, the massive earthen barriers that hold back waves, and to raise elevation so buildings can sit higher than the flood plain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mud is also a crucial component of restoring wetlands and marshes, which act as natural barriers against storm surges while providing valuable habitat for sensitive species. In the right conditions, marshes can gain elevation over time from sediment, potentially keeping pace with sea level rise in a way that human-built infrastructure can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, mud and dirt have mostly been treated as waste products. Dirt leftover from construction projects is often just trucked to landfills. Sediment is trapped behind large dams, no longer spreading naturally throughout watersheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sediment is also dredged from shipping channels every year, but little is reused to adapt to climate change. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers runs dredging operations, but its disposal policies mean that around 140 million cubic yards of sediment are dumped annually, even as restoration projects clamor for material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental experts warn that unless coastal regions from San Francisco Bay to the Mississippi River Delta begin managing their dirt and mud supply more comprehensively, the shortfall will be severe, leading to more expensive sea level rise protection and drowned wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re on the precipice of a huge crisis,” says Letitia Grenier, senior scientist at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco Estuary Institute\u003c/a>, a water and ecology think tank. “If we act now, we actually have enough sediment from other sources to keep our wetlands and to keep protecting our shorelines. But if we keep doing business-as-usual approaches, we’re going to be in really big trouble.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Call the Dirt Broker\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a warming climate, there’s a job in high demand that comes with an unglamorous name: “dirt broker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate that name,” says Pat Mapelli, land use manager and bay restoration lead at Graniterock, a construction materials company. “I’ll be honest with you. Dirt just has that negative connotation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapelli is a highly sought-after terrestrial matchmaker. He brokers deals between those who need dirt and those who want to get rid of it. These days, his phone is ringing more often with requests he can’t fulfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demand is way beyond what the supply is,” he says, walking on an earthen levee on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, a project he’s putting together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This part of the bay was once used for industrial salt making, and giant evaporation ponds were built here more than a century ago. Now, its marsh habitat is being restored as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.southbayrestoration.org/pond-complexes/eden-landing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eden Landing Ecological Reserve\u003c/a>. The old salt pond levees still stand between the bay and hundreds of thousands of people on the shoreline. But waves and weather have eaten away at them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very much lower than it should be right now and very much narrower than it should be right now,” Mapelli says, looking at a stretch of levee bordering the blue, flat water of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next several years, one million cubic yards of dirt will be brought to this site to build up the levees — the equivalent of 100,000 dump truck loads. Most comes from local construction projects doing excavation for foundations or underground parking garages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, not all dirt is good dirt. Some of it contains pollutants or naturally occurring metals. Other loads are too far away, making the cost of trucking prohibitive. And often, construction companies want the fastest and cheapest solution, which means taking dirt to a landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapelli knows the market for his services will only get stronger as more cities grapple with the fact that their shoreline infrastructure is being quickly overwhelmed by climate change. But the supply crunch has already hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re starting to look at all the edges around the bay and there’s a lot of these projects,” he says. “But it takes material. It takes dirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sediment Deficit \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By some estimates, the shores of San Francisco Bay were once ringed by 200,000 acres of tidal marsh, a zone of low-lying plants inundated twice a day. The vast majority were filled in and developed as the population grew. Today, more than 90% of marshes in San Francisco Bay are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The small pockets that remain, nestled between freeways and Costcos, are a magnet for wildlife, like scores of birds that make their annual migrations on the Pacific flyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to go off to the Arctic and make their babies, but right now this is where they need to feed and get fat so they can make that trip,” Grenier says, looking out at flocks of dunlin and western sandpiper scouring an exposed mudflat in Richmond, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marshes also have a hidden talent, beyond providing habitat. They’re a buffer against the bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These marshes are knocking down the waves,” Grenier says. “They’re absorbing the water and they’re really helping create flood risk management along the shore which is really critical for many billions of dollars of infrastructure as well as neighborhoods and other communities along the shoreline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay region is gradually working towards restoring 100,000 acres of the historic marshes, through initiatives like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.southbayrestoration.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project\u003c/a>. But restoration isn’t simple. Many former marshes have sunk over the years, their mud scoured away with no plants to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, the areas are too deep for tidal plants to grow again. So to restore them, huge amounts of mud is needed to raise the elevation. After that, the marshes are able to sustain themselves. With every tide that comes in, the water carries new sediment that is trapped by plants, replenishing the marsh up over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how, millimeter by millimeter, marshes and wetlands survive being worn away by waves. But soon, those waves will get a lot higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rising sea levels threaten to drown wetlands by inundating and overtaking them. To keep up, marshes will require more sediment naturally floating in the water so they can build elevation to match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centuries of human intervention have starved almost every major watershed in the country of sediment. Enormous dams, built to store water in rivers upstream, are essentially sediment entrapment devices. Most have a growing pile of mud sitting behind their concrete wall, the collective evidence of what used to flow downstream to bays and estuaries. Nowhere is the problem more acute than on the Mississippi River, where dams reaching all the way to South Dakota are \u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_497596b2-8d69-11eb-85a0-5f157115365e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trapping sediment that once fed the wetlands of Louisiana\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All together, it adds up to a massive “sediment deficit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demand for mud has increased astronomically because of sea level rise,” Grenier says. “Because of this change that people have created, suddenly the natural world can’t supply that much mud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grenier and her colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/news/sediment-survival-report-released#sthash.f8dndEEA.dpbs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimate that by 2100, 548 million metric tons of sediment will be needed\u003c/a> to both restore wetlands and keep pace with sea level rise in San Francisco Bay. The natural supply will fall far short of that, bringing in about one-third to one-half of what’s needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are options for filling that gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not hopeless,” says Scott Dusterhoff, senior scientist and lead geomorphologist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute. “We have a big problem on the horizon, but if we look at all the sources of dirt and sediment that we have in the region that we can bring into play, we think we can meet it. We just have to change the way we manage sediment to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stuck on the Least Cost\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, hundreds of container ships sail under the Golden Gate Bridge, heading for the Port of Oakland via a shipping channel that’s 50 feet deep. The depth of this channel and 10 others in the bay is maintained through regular dredging, by the Army Corps of Engineers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large dredging ships remove more than 2 million cubic yards of sediment per year in San Francisco Bay. Around two-thirds of it is disposed of, taken to approved sites to be released underwater. One is far outside the bay in the Pacific Ocean, 50 nautical miles from the Golden Gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the Army Corps has fielded requests to use this material for wetland and habitat restoration. But the agency says it’s held to its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-08/documents/role_of_the_federal_standard_in_the_beneficial_use_of_dredged_material.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">federal standard\u003c/a>,” a rule that stipulates the most affordable option for disposal be chosen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking the mud to a restoration project sometimes means transporting it farther, adding cost to the trip, as well as requiring careful offloading to place it in the right spot. Releasing it at a disposal site underwater is generally cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule has limited the amount of sediment that’s been reused, frustrating local and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just going to be seeing erosion of our shorelines and mudflats and marshes unless we start doing things differently with sediment,” says Amy Hutzel, deputy executive officer at California’s State Coastal Conservancy, a state agency that works on restoration projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To complete several major marsh restoration projects around the bay, California has had to find ways to work around the cost standard. \u003ca href=\"http://www.poplarislandrestoration.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Many other states have, too\u003c/a>. In a few instances, the Army Corps paid the extra cost of moving the sediment farther, but only after a specific act of Congress authorized the project, a time-consuming process. In other cases, California has \u003ca href=\"https://scc.ca.gov/2019/06/24/news-release-dredged-sediment-from-san-francisco-bay-to-be-used-for-wetland-restoration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">paid the full additional cost itself\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s expensive,” Hutzel says. “We can’t sustain that cost. It’s in the federal interest, and the feds should be cost sharing part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The long term savings of avoiding flood damage from rising seas could dramatically outweigh the immediate cost of moving mud. Local and state officials say they’ve argued this point for years, but have seen little progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The urgency is huge,” says Hutzel. “It is frustrating that this has been decades of trying to solve this problem. And while there have been successes, we haven’t fundamentally changed what’s happening with dredged sediment in San Francisco Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A New Standard\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers policy might change soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Congress passed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7575/text#toc-H21D55EC8857749A4975A0403B0B382C8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Water Resources Development Act of 2020\u003c/a>, which included language directing the Army Corps of Engineers to “maximize” reuse and consider “economic and environmental benefits” in its cost analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That language hasn’t changed things on the ground yet, and the agency is writing specific guidance on implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think dredge material should be viewed as a really valuable commodity in that regard,” says Tessa Beach, chief of the environmental branch of the Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District. “We currently don’t have implementation guidance on how the agency is going to carry out this direction, but this may lead to a different way of calculating the overall cost-benefit of different placement locations in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is \u003ca href=\"https://www.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/News-Release-Article-View/Article/2528635/office-of-the-assistant-secretary-of-the-army-for-civil-works-and-us-army-corps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">currently gathering public feedback\u003c/a> on the issue and says it can’t comment on what the guidance will say. They expect to release it by August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on the result, the effects could be felt across the country, where billions of dollars are already being spent on restoring marshes and barrier islands from \u003ca href=\"https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/poplar_island_restoration_gives_chesapeake_new_life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Poplar Island\u003c/a> in Chesapeake Bay to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_df61c669-14cc-5ba7-821d-2ee7c57becd9.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whiskey Island\u003c/a> in Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, environmental experts warn, it will take more than a select number of restoration projects to prepare for rising seas. The Army Corps of Engineers may need to fundamentally change its approach to sediment, releasing it in locations where it can mix into the water and naturally feed surrounding wetlands and marshes. That may be their only chance to keep pace with rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Got+Mud%3F+For+Coastal+Cities%2C+Humble+Dirt+Has+Become+A+Hot+Commodity&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a hotter climate, dirt is a hot commodity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With sea levels expected to rise 3 to 6 feet by the end of the century, coastal communities are moving fast to construct major shoreline projects to protect themselves. As the size of these projects expands, the primary building materials — dirt and mud — are getting scarce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dirt (what you dig up on land) and mud or sediment (the wetter variety already in rivers and bays) are the raw materials of climate change adaptation. They’re used to build levees, the massive earthen barriers that hold back waves, and to raise elevation so buildings can sit higher than the flood plain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mud is also a crucial component of restoring wetlands and marshes, which act as natural barriers against storm surges while providing valuable habitat for sensitive species. In the right conditions, marshes can gain elevation over time from sediment, potentially keeping pace with sea level rise in a way that human-built infrastructure can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, mud and dirt have mostly been treated as waste products. Dirt leftover from construction projects is often just trucked to landfills. Sediment is trapped behind large dams, no longer spreading naturally throughout watersheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sediment is also dredged from shipping channels every year, but little is reused to adapt to climate change. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers runs dredging operations, but its disposal policies mean that around 140 million cubic yards of sediment are dumped annually, even as restoration projects clamor for material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental experts warn that unless coastal regions from San Francisco Bay to the Mississippi River Delta begin managing their dirt and mud supply more comprehensively, the shortfall will be severe, leading to more expensive sea level rise protection and drowned wetlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re on the precipice of a huge crisis,” says Letitia Grenier, senior scientist at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco Estuary Institute\u003c/a>, a water and ecology think tank. “If we act now, we actually have enough sediment from other sources to keep our wetlands and to keep protecting our shorelines. But if we keep doing business-as-usual approaches, we’re going to be in really big trouble.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Call the Dirt Broker\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a warming climate, there’s a job in high demand that comes with an unglamorous name: “dirt broker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate that name,” says Pat Mapelli, land use manager and bay restoration lead at Graniterock, a construction materials company. “I’ll be honest with you. Dirt just has that negative connotation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapelli is a highly sought-after terrestrial matchmaker. He brokers deals between those who need dirt and those who want to get rid of it. These days, his phone is ringing more often with requests he can’t fulfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demand is way beyond what the supply is,” he says, walking on an earthen levee on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, a project he’s putting together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This part of the bay was once used for industrial salt making, and giant evaporation ponds were built here more than a century ago. Now, its marsh habitat is being restored as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.southbayrestoration.org/pond-complexes/eden-landing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eden Landing Ecological Reserve\u003c/a>. The old salt pond levees still stand between the bay and hundreds of thousands of people on the shoreline. But waves and weather have eaten away at them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very much lower than it should be right now and very much narrower than it should be right now,” Mapelli says, looking at a stretch of levee bordering the blue, flat water of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next several years, one million cubic yards of dirt will be brought to this site to build up the levees — the equivalent of 100,000 dump truck loads. Most comes from local construction projects doing excavation for foundations or underground parking garages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, not all dirt is good dirt. Some of it contains pollutants or naturally occurring metals. Other loads are too far away, making the cost of trucking prohibitive. And often, construction companies want the fastest and cheapest solution, which means taking dirt to a landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapelli knows the market for his services will only get stronger as more cities grapple with the fact that their shoreline infrastructure is being quickly overwhelmed by climate change. But the supply crunch has already hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re starting to look at all the edges around the bay and there’s a lot of these projects,” he says. “But it takes material. It takes dirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sediment Deficit \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By some estimates, the shores of San Francisco Bay were once ringed by 200,000 acres of tidal marsh, a zone of low-lying plants inundated twice a day. The vast majority were filled in and developed as the population grew. Today, more than 90% of marshes in San Francisco Bay are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The small pockets that remain, nestled between freeways and Costcos, are a magnet for wildlife, like scores of birds that make their annual migrations on the Pacific flyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to go off to the Arctic and make their babies, but right now this is where they need to feed and get fat so they can make that trip,” Grenier says, looking out at flocks of dunlin and western sandpiper scouring an exposed mudflat in Richmond, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marshes also have a hidden talent, beyond providing habitat. They’re a buffer against the bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These marshes are knocking down the waves,” Grenier says. “They’re absorbing the water and they’re really helping create flood risk management along the shore which is really critical for many billions of dollars of infrastructure as well as neighborhoods and other communities along the shoreline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay region is gradually working towards restoring 100,000 acres of the historic marshes, through initiatives like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.southbayrestoration.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project\u003c/a>. But restoration isn’t simple. Many former marshes have sunk over the years, their mud scoured away with no plants to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, the areas are too deep for tidal plants to grow again. So to restore them, huge amounts of mud is needed to raise the elevation. After that, the marshes are able to sustain themselves. With every tide that comes in, the water carries new sediment that is trapped by plants, replenishing the marsh up over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how, millimeter by millimeter, marshes and wetlands survive being worn away by waves. But soon, those waves will get a lot higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rising sea levels threaten to drown wetlands by inundating and overtaking them. To keep up, marshes will require more sediment naturally floating in the water so they can build elevation to match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Centuries of human intervention have starved almost every major watershed in the country of sediment. Enormous dams, built to store water in rivers upstream, are essentially sediment entrapment devices. Most have a growing pile of mud sitting behind their concrete wall, the collective evidence of what used to flow downstream to bays and estuaries. Nowhere is the problem more acute than on the Mississippi River, where dams reaching all the way to South Dakota are \u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_497596b2-8d69-11eb-85a0-5f157115365e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trapping sediment that once fed the wetlands of Louisiana\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All together, it adds up to a massive “sediment deficit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demand for mud has increased astronomically because of sea level rise,” Grenier says. “Because of this change that people have created, suddenly the natural world can’t supply that much mud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grenier and her colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/news/sediment-survival-report-released#sthash.f8dndEEA.dpbs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimate that by 2100, 548 million metric tons of sediment will be needed\u003c/a> to both restore wetlands and keep pace with sea level rise in San Francisco Bay. The natural supply will fall far short of that, bringing in about one-third to one-half of what’s needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are options for filling that gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not hopeless,” says Scott Dusterhoff, senior scientist and lead geomorphologist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute. “We have a big problem on the horizon, but if we look at all the sources of dirt and sediment that we have in the region that we can bring into play, we think we can meet it. We just have to change the way we manage sediment to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stuck on the Least Cost\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, hundreds of container ships sail under the Golden Gate Bridge, heading for the Port of Oakland via a shipping channel that’s 50 feet deep. The depth of this channel and 10 others in the bay is maintained through regular dredging, by the Army Corps of Engineers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large dredging ships remove more than 2 million cubic yards of sediment per year in San Francisco Bay. Around two-thirds of it is disposed of, taken to approved sites to be released underwater. One is far outside the bay in the Pacific Ocean, 50 nautical miles from the Golden Gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the Army Corps has fielded requests to use this material for wetland and habitat restoration. But the agency says it’s held to its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-08/documents/role_of_the_federal_standard_in_the_beneficial_use_of_dredged_material.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">federal standard\u003c/a>,” a rule that stipulates the most affordable option for disposal be chosen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking the mud to a restoration project sometimes means transporting it farther, adding cost to the trip, as well as requiring careful offloading to place it in the right spot. Releasing it at a disposal site underwater is generally cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule has limited the amount of sediment that’s been reused, frustrating local and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just going to be seeing erosion of our shorelines and mudflats and marshes unless we start doing things differently with sediment,” says Amy Hutzel, deputy executive officer at California’s State Coastal Conservancy, a state agency that works on restoration projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To complete several major marsh restoration projects around the bay, California has had to find ways to work around the cost standard. \u003ca href=\"http://www.poplarislandrestoration.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Many other states have, too\u003c/a>. In a few instances, the Army Corps paid the extra cost of moving the sediment farther, but only after a specific act of Congress authorized the project, a time-consuming process. In other cases, California has \u003ca href=\"https://scc.ca.gov/2019/06/24/news-release-dredged-sediment-from-san-francisco-bay-to-be-used-for-wetland-restoration/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">paid the full additional cost itself\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s expensive,” Hutzel says. “We can’t sustain that cost. It’s in the federal interest, and the feds should be cost sharing part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The long term savings of avoiding flood damage from rising seas could dramatically outweigh the immediate cost of moving mud. Local and state officials say they’ve argued this point for years, but have seen little progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The urgency is huge,” says Hutzel. “It is frustrating that this has been decades of trying to solve this problem. And while there have been successes, we haven’t fundamentally changed what’s happening with dredged sediment in San Francisco Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A New Standard\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army Corps of Engineers policy might change soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Congress passed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7575/text#toc-H21D55EC8857749A4975A0403B0B382C8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Water Resources Development Act of 2020\u003c/a>, which included language directing the Army Corps of Engineers to “maximize” reuse and consider “economic and environmental benefits” in its cost analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That language hasn’t changed things on the ground yet, and the agency is writing specific guidance on implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think dredge material should be viewed as a really valuable commodity in that regard,” says Tessa Beach, chief of the environmental branch of the Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District. “We currently don’t have implementation guidance on how the agency is going to carry out this direction, but this may lead to a different way of calculating the overall cost-benefit of different placement locations in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is \u003ca href=\"https://www.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/News-Release-Article-View/Article/2528635/office-of-the-assistant-secretary-of-the-army-for-civil-works-and-us-army-corps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">currently gathering public feedback\u003c/a> on the issue and says it can’t comment on what the guidance will say. They expect to release it by August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on the result, the effects could be felt across the country, where billions of dollars are already being spent on restoring marshes and barrier islands from \u003ca href=\"https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/poplar_island_restoration_gives_chesapeake_new_life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Poplar Island\u003c/a> in Chesapeake Bay to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_df61c669-14cc-5ba7-821d-2ee7c57becd9.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whiskey Island\u003c/a> in Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, environmental experts warn, it will take more than a select number of restoration projects to prepare for rising seas. The Army Corps of Engineers may need to fundamentally change its approach to sediment, releasing it in locations where it can mix into the water and naturally feed surrounding wetlands and marshes. That may be their only chance to keep pace with rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Got+Mud%3F+For+Coastal+Cities%2C+Humble+Dirt+Has+Become+A+Hot+Commodity&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Where Has It Gotten Warmer in the US? Just About Everywhere",
"headTitle": "Where Has It Gotten Warmer in the US? Just About Everywhere | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>America’s new normal temperature is a degree hotter than it was just two decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long talked about climate change — hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather — being the “new normal.” Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put hard figures on the cliche.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new United States normal is not just hotter, but wetter in the eastern and central parts of the nation and considerably drier in the West than just a decade earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologists calculate \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/us-climate-normals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate normals\u003c/a> based on 30 years of data to limit the random swings of daily weather. It’s a standard set by the World Meteorological Organization. Every 10 years, NOAA \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/briefings/20210420.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">updates normal \u003c/a>for the country as a whole, states and cities — by year, month and season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the entire nation, the yearly normal temperature is now 53.3 degrees (11.8 degrees Celsius) based on weather station data from 1991 to 2020, nearly half a degree warmer than a decade ago. Twenty years ago, normal was 52.3 degrees (11.3 degrees Celsius) based on data from 1971 to 2000. The average U.S. temperature for the 20th century was 52 degrees (11.1 degrees Celsius).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/borenbears/status/1389624718655991812?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new normal annual U.S. temperature is 1.7 degrees (0.9 Celsius) hotter than the first normal calculated for 1901 to 1930.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost every place in the U.S. has warmed from the 1981 to 2010 normal to the 1991 to 2020 normal,” said Michael Palecki, NOAA’s normals project manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fargo, North Dakota, where the new normal is a tenth of a degree cooler than the old one, is an exception, but more than 90% of the U.S. has warmer normal temperatures now than 10 years ago, Palecki said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chicago and Asheville, North Carolina, the new yearly normal temperature jumped 1.5 degrees in a decade. Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and Phoenix had their normal annual temperature rise by at least half a degree in the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charlottesville, Virginia, saw the biggest jump in normal temperatures among 739 major weather stations. Other large changes were in California, Texas, Virginia, Indiana, Arizona, Oregon, Arkansas, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina and Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New normals are warmer because the burning of fossil fuels is making \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/2020-global-temperature-record-b4f5556cbdb2b0b4de6c86d52642db4e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the last decade\u003c/a> “a much hotter time period for much of the globe than the decades” before, said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Phoenix, the biggest change in normal came in precipitation. The normal annual rainfall for Phoenix dropped 10% down to 7.2 inches (18.2 centimeters). Rainfall in Los Angeles dropped 4.6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Asheville saw a nearly 9% increase in rainfall, while New York City’s rainfall rose 6%. Seattle’s normal is 5% wetter than it used to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists are split about how useful or misleading newly calculated normals are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahowald and University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado said updating normal calculations helps city and regional planners to prepare for flooding and drought, farmers to decide what and when to plant, energy companies to meet changing demands and doctors to tackle public health issues arising from climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said he prefers a constant baseline such as 1951 to 1980, which is what NASA uses. Adjusting normal every 10 years “perverts the meaning of ‘normal’ and ‘normalizes’ away climate change,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>North Carolina’s state climatologist Kathie Dello said, “It seems odd to still call them normals because 1991-2020 was anything but normal climate-wise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>America’s new normal temperature is a degree hotter than it was just two decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long talked about climate change — hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather — being the “new normal.” Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put hard figures on the cliche.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new United States normal is not just hotter, but wetter in the eastern and central parts of the nation and considerably drier in the West than just a decade earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologists calculate \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/us-climate-normals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate normals\u003c/a> based on 30 years of data to limit the random swings of daily weather. It’s a standard set by the World Meteorological Organization. Every 10 years, NOAA \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/briefings/20210420.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">updates normal \u003c/a>for the country as a whole, states and cities — by year, month and season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the entire nation, the yearly normal temperature is now 53.3 degrees (11.8 degrees Celsius) based on weather station data from 1991 to 2020, nearly half a degree warmer than a decade ago. Twenty years ago, normal was 52.3 degrees (11.3 degrees Celsius) based on data from 1971 to 2000. The average U.S. temperature for the 20th century was 52 degrees (11.1 degrees Celsius).\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The new normal annual U.S. temperature is 1.7 degrees (0.9 Celsius) hotter than the first normal calculated for 1901 to 1930.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost every place in the U.S. has warmed from the 1981 to 2010 normal to the 1991 to 2020 normal,” said Michael Palecki, NOAA’s normals project manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fargo, North Dakota, where the new normal is a tenth of a degree cooler than the old one, is an exception, but more than 90% of the U.S. has warmer normal temperatures now than 10 years ago, Palecki said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Chicago and Asheville, North Carolina, the new yearly normal temperature jumped 1.5 degrees in a decade. Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and Phoenix had their normal annual temperature rise by at least half a degree in the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charlottesville, Virginia, saw the biggest jump in normal temperatures among 739 major weather stations. Other large changes were in California, Texas, Virginia, Indiana, Arizona, Oregon, Arkansas, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina and Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New normals are warmer because the burning of fossil fuels is making \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/2020-global-temperature-record-b4f5556cbdb2b0b4de6c86d52642db4e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the last decade\u003c/a> “a much hotter time period for much of the globe than the decades” before, said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Phoenix, the biggest change in normal came in precipitation. The normal annual rainfall for Phoenix dropped 10% down to 7.2 inches (18.2 centimeters). Rainfall in Los Angeles dropped 4.6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Asheville saw a nearly 9% increase in rainfall, while New York City’s rainfall rose 6%. Seattle’s normal is 5% wetter than it used to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists are split about how useful or misleading newly calculated normals are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahowald and University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado said updating normal calculations helps city and regional planners to prepare for flooding and drought, farmers to decide what and when to plant, energy companies to meet changing demands and doctors to tackle public health issues arising from climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said he prefers a constant baseline such as 1951 to 1980, which is what NASA uses. Adjusting normal every 10 years “perverts the meaning of ‘normal’ and ‘normalizes’ away climate change,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>North Carolina’s state climatologist Kathie Dello said, “It seems odd to still call them normals because 1991-2020 was anything but normal climate-wise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2",
"headTitle": "California’s Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=reprint&placement=top-note\">The Big Story newsletter\u003c/a> to receive stories like this one in your inbox\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>Along the coast of Northern California near the Oregon border, the cool, moist air off the Pacific sustains a strip of temperate rainforests. Soaring redwoods and Douglas firs dominate these thick, wet woodlands, creating a canopy hundreds of feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you travel inland the mix of trees gradually shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings.[/pullquote]Beyond the crest of the Klamath Mountains, you descend into an evergreen medley of sugar pines, incense cedars and still more Douglas firs. As you continue into the Cascade Range, you pass through sparser forests dominated by Ponderosa pines. These tall, slender trees with prickly cones thrive in the hotter, drier conditions on the eastern side of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All trees consume carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen and storing the carbon in their trunks, branches and roots. Every ton of carbon sequestered in a living tree is a ton that isn’t contributing to climate change. And that thick coastal forest can easily store twice as much carbon per acre as the trees deeper inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This math is crucial to determining the success of California’s forest offset program, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by preserving trees. The state established the program a decade ago as part of its efforts to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ecology is messy. The boundaries between forest types are nebulous, and the actual amount of carbon on any given acre depends on local climate conditions, conservation efforts, logging history and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s top climate regulator, the Air Resources Board, glossed over much of this complexity in implementing the state’s program. The agency established fixed boundaries around giant regions, boiling down the carbon stored in a wide mix of tree species into simplified, regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decision has generated tens of millions of carbon credits with dubious climate value, according to \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new analysis\u003c/a> by CarbonPlan, a San Francisco nonprofit that analyzes the scientific integrity of carbon removal efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offset program allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth. Each credit represents one metric ton of CO2. Landowners can sell the credits to major polluters in California, typically oil companies and other businesses that want to emit more carbon than otherwise allowed under state law. Each extra ton of carbon emitted by industry is balanced out by an extra ton stored in the forest, allowing net emissions to stay within a cap set by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last fall, the program had produced some six dozen projects that had generated more than 130 million credits, worth $1.8 billion at recent prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While calculating the exact amount of carbon saved by preserving forests is complicated, California’s logic for awarding credits is relatively straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board establishes the average amount of carbon per acre stored in a few forest types spanning large regions of the United States. If you own land that contains more carbon than the regional average, based on a survey of trees on your site, you can get credits for the difference. For example, if your land holds the equivalent of 100 tons of CO2 per acre, and the regional average is 40 tons, you can earn credits for saving 60 tons per acre. (This story will refer to each ton of CO2-equivalent as a ton of “carbon.”) You must also commit to maintaining your forest’s high carbon storage for the next 100 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regional averages are meant to represent carbon levels in typical private forests. But the averages are determined from such large areas and such diverse forest types that they can differ dramatically from the carbon stored on lands selected for projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Project forests that significantly exceed these averages are frequently earning far more credits than the actual carbon benefits they deliver, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This design also incentivizes the developers who initiate and lead these projects to specifically look for forest tracts where carbon levels stand out above these averages — either due to the site’s location within a region, its combination of tree species, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the state’s program has generated between 20 million and 39 million credits that don’t achieve real climate benefits. They are, in effect, ghost credits that didn’t preserve additional carbon in forests but did allow polluters to emit far more CO2, equal to the annual emissions of 8.5 million cars at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those ghost credits represent nearly 1 in 3 credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our work shows that California’s forest offsets program increases greenhouse gas emissions, despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan. “The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board defended the program and disputed the central thesis of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We disagree with your statement that landowners or project developers are gaming the system or that there are inflated estimates” of greenhouse gas reductions, Dave Clegern, a spokesperson for the Air Resources Board, said in an email. Each version of the offset rules “went through our robust public regulatory review process,” with input from the forestry industry, academia, government agencies and nonprofits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s forest offset program is the largest in the country that is government regulated. Other forest offset programs are voluntary, allowing businesses or individuals to purchase credits to shrink their environmental footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan’s study comes days after the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/economics/after-a-decade-of-failures-washington-state-passes-a-cap-on-carbon-emissions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington\u003c/a> state legislature moved a cap-and-trade bill with an offset program to the governor’s desk for approval. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/carbonpolicy_climatechange.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> has also debated in recent months establishing a carbon market program that would emulate California’s policy. In Washington, D.C., the Biden administration has \u003ca href=\"https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signaled growing interest\u003c/a> in harnessing forests and soil to draw down CO2. Businesses, too, increasingly plan to rely heavily on trees to offset their emissions in lieu of the harder task of cutting corporate pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets have been criticized for a variety of problems, including the risks that the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/climate/this-oregon-forest-was-supposed-to-store-carbon-for-100-years-now-its-on-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carbon reductions will be short-lived\u003c/a>, that carbon savings will be wiped out \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/18/65883/californias-cap-and-trade-program-may-vastly-overestimate-emissions-cuts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by increased logging elsewhere\u003c/a>, and that the projects are preserving forests \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-nature-conservancy-carbon-offsets-trees/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">never in jeopardy of being chopped down\u003c/a>, producing credits that don’t reflect real-world changes in carbon levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But CarbonPlan’s analysis highlights a different issue, one interlinked with these other problems. Even if everything else about a project were perfect, developers would still be able to undermine the program by exploiting regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every time a polluter uses a credit that didn’t actually save a ton of carbon, the total amount of emissions goes up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from addressing climate change, California’s forest offsets appear to be adding tens of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere on balance, undermining progress on the state’s long-term emissions goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you strip away all the jargon, you’re left with a faulty set of assumptions that leave the door wide open to issuing meaningless offset credits,” said Grayson Badgley, a postdoctoral fellow at Black Rock Forest and Columbia University, and the lead researcher on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cherry-Picking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan provided ProPublica and MIT Technology Review full and exclusive access to their analysis as it was being finalized. As part of that process, the news organizations sent the report to independent experts for review. The organizations also interviewed landowners, industry players and scientists and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including the project plans submitted by developers. CarbonPlan collaborated on the study with academic experts from the UC Berkeley, Columbia University and other institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study itself wasn’t designed to assess whether developers or landowners are intentionally cherry-picking sites that stand out from regional averages, stating only that the system “allows for” developers to select such land. But the researchers themselves say that the level of excess crediting and the clustering of projects in certain areas suggest that industry players have gamed the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One form of cherry-picking identified by the researchers involves geographic boundaries. In the case of Northern California, the state’s offset program established a dividing line that separates that coastal strip of redwoods and Douglas firs from an inland region that spans more than 28,000 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s rules state that tall mixed-conifer forests in the coastal region store an average of 205 tons of carbon per acre. For the neighboring inland region, the agency set the corresponding regional average at 122 tons per acre. The figure is lower because it includes more trees with less carbon, such as Ponderosa pines, which dominate the eastern end of the inland region and are all but absent on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the two regions meet, the forest on either side is virtually identical in many places, storing similar amounts of carbon. That means a project developer can earn far more money by choosing a site just east of the border, simply because they can compare the carbon in their forest against a lower regional average. For instance, maintaining a 10,000-acre forest of coastal redwoods and Douglas firs with carbon levels of 200 tons per acre could earn zero credits west of the line, or 624,000 credits east of it. The choice is between no money and more than $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To claim the most credits possible, for the full difference between the carbon on their land and the regional averages, developers or landowners must show that it’s legally and financially feasible to log down to those regional averages. The averages are effectively a stand-in for the way that similar forests are typically managed in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A dozen projects are located in Northern California, almost entirely lined up along the western edge of the inland zone where the carbon-rich trees are juxtaposed against the lower regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is developers are taking advantage of the fact that the big stuff and the scrubby stuff have been averaged together,” Badgley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once an offset project developer and landowner decide to work together, the developer will generally shepherd them through the process in exchange for a fee or share of the sales of the credits generated — an arrangement that can be worth millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most prolific project developers in the California system is an Australia-based timberlands investment company called New Forests. The company and its affiliates have worked on eight projects located almost entirely along the advantageous side of the border, as well as six elsewhere. CarbonPlan, in a separate analysis done for the news organizations that wasn’t included in the study, found that nearly all earned dubious credits, adding up to as much as $176 million worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large share of those credits came from a single project outside California that profited from a glaring mistake in the rules. New Forests’ affiliate, Forest Carbon Partners, helped the Mescalero Apache Tribe develop a forest offset project in New Mexico. The project earned 3.7 million credits worth more than $50 million, largely because it was located in an area where the Air Resources Board had set an erroneously low regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another form of cherry-picking involves tree species: Developers can seek out tracts with particular trees that store far more carbon than the surrounding region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the study, one project in Alaska consists almost entirely of giant Sitka spruces, yet the local regional average was calculated from a wide mix of trees, including species like cottonwoods that store far less carbon. The project earned significantly more credits than it should have due to the flaws in the system, the study said. The project owner didn’t return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preserving especially carbon-rich forests is good for the climate, in and of itself. But when the trees in the project area bear little resemblance to the types of trees that went into calculating the regional average, it exaggerates the number of credits at stake, CarbonPlan’s study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Trexler, a former offsets developer who worked in earlier U.S. and European carbon markets, said the board should have anticipated the perverse incentives created by its program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people write offset rules, they always ignore the fact that there are 1,000 smart people next door that will try to game them,” he said. Since the board set up a system that “incentivizes people to find the areas that are high-density, or high-carbon, that’s what they’re going to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To estimate the extent of overcrediting in California’s program, CarbonPlan calculated its own version of regional averages for each project. The researchers drew on the same raw data used by the Air Resources Board, but only used data from tree species that more closely resemble the particular mix of trees in each project area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 74 such projects had been established as of September 2020, when CarbonPlan began its research. CarbonPlan was able to study 65 projects that had enough documentation to make analysis possible. All received credits for holding more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers found that the vast majority of projects were over-credited, but about a dozen would have received more credits under CarbonPlan’s formula. Those included two New Forests projects, which would have earned as much as an additional 165,000 credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organizations sent officials at the Air Resources Board a copy of the study and its detailed methodology weeks before publication. Clegern declined multiple requests to interview board staff and responded only in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He did not address CarbonPlan’s calculations. “We were not given sufficient time to fully analyze an unpublished study and are not commenting further on the authors’ alternative methodology,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outside scientists who reviewed the research on behalf of ProPublica and MIT Technology Review praised the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really analytically robust paper and it answers a really important policy question,” said Daniel Sanchez, who runs the Carbon Removal Laboratory at UC Berkeley. While close observers are well aware of numerous problems with California’s forest offset rules, “they’re revealing a deeper set of serious methodological flaws,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the reviewers pointed out any major technical or conceptual flaws with the paper, which has been submitted to a journal for peer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Significant New Commodity Market’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early 2015, an offsets nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/118731835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosted a webinar\u003c/a> highlighting how Native American tribes could participate in California’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One speaker was Brian Shillinglaw, a Stanford-trained lawyer and managing director at New Forests who \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/member/brian-shillinglaw/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">oversees\u003c/a> the company’s U.S. forestry programs. The company manages the sale of carbon credits, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/timber-products/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sells timber\u003c/a> and on behalf of investors manages \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/new-forests-announces-conversion-of-1-3-billion-australian-forestry-fund-to-long-term-mandate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 2 million\u003c/a> acres of forests globally, a portfolio it values at more than $4 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests also manages its affiliate, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Carbon Partners\u003c/a>, on behalf of an institutional investment client it declined to name. Forest Carbon Partners finances offset projects and \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shepherds landowners\u003c/a> through the process of applying for California’s offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the California carbon market has really created a significant new commodity market,” Shillinglaw said during his presentation. He said the program is something “many Native American tribes are very well situated to benefit from, in part due to past conservative stewardship of their forests, which can lead to significant credit yield in the near term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translation: Because many tribes have logged less aggressively than their neighbors, their carbon-rich forests were primed for big payouts of credits. Under Shillinglaw, New Forests or Forest Carbon Partners have helped to secure tens of millions of dollars’ worth of credits for native tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the 13 New Forests projects that CarbonPlan researchers were able to analyze, between 33% and 71% of the credits don’t represent real carbon reductions. That’s nearly 13 million credits at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we cannot prove that New Forests acted deliberately on the basis of our statistical analysis, in our judgment there is no reasonable explanation for these outcomes other than that New Forests knowingly engaged in cherry-picking behavior to take advantage of ecological shortcomings in the forest offset protocol,” said Badgley, the lead researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests managed the first official project in California’s program, registering 7,660 acres of forest land on or near the Yurok Reservation, which runs more than 40 miles along the Klamath River near the top of that West Coast cluster of projects. The state issued more than 700,000 credits to the project for its first year, worth $9.6 million at recent rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have pointed to the tribe’s participation as a triumph of the program. In 2014, the board released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbjmbqTdXN0&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a promotional video\u003c/a> that showed the meticulous work of measuring trees in the Yurok project. James Erler, the tribe’s then-forestry director, explained how offsets enabled the tribe to reduce logging. Near the end of the video, Shillinglaw appears in a sunlit forest, wearing a collared shirt and a New Forests-branded jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a beautiful watershed,” Shillinglaw said over footage of a running stream and an elk standing before a thicket of trees. “This is the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral homeland, and in part due to the carbon market will be managed through a conservation approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the project earned more than half a million ghost credits worth nearly $6.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why the researchers say it was over credited:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boundary dividing California’s coastal and inland regions runs through the middle of the reservation. The carbon-rich forests on either side of that line are similar, filled with large Douglas firs like most of the coastal region. But more than 99% of the forest designated for preservation falls within the inland zone, where average carbon levels are much lower. The fact that the project was located in the most carbon-rich area of that zone enabled the landowners to earn an exaggerated number of credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one person involved in the Yurok Tribe’s forest offset efforts was aware of how geographical choices swing the credits that can be earned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler said during a 2015 presentation at a National Indian Timber Symposium that the tribe had the “distinct pleasure” of having the boundary run through its territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can take the same inventory data and apply it to the California Coast” — the region to the west — “and it doesn’t come out with the same numbers as you do if you cross the street,” Erler said at the conference, captured in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=924&v=SlDrNcW_g3Q&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a YouTube video\u003c/a> posted to the Intertribal Timber Council’s channel. “Vegetation may be the same, but it changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Badgley said that while the researchers can’t speak to the intentions of any actors involved, it’s clear that this project “benefited from over-crediting and that the Yurok Tribe’s forester was aware how the specific aspects of the protocol rules our study criticizes led to beneficial outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler didn’t respond to a list of emailed questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Yurok spokesperson Matt Mais said that the property was the only land the tribe had available to enroll at the time and strongly denied the tribe engaged in any sort of gaming of the system. He didn’t respond before press time to a subsequent inquiry asking why the rest of the tribe’s land wasn’t available for the offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade or so, the tribe has slowly reacquired tens of thousands of acres of its ancestral territory, in and around the watershed of Blue Creek and other streams that sustain migrating salmon, from the Green Diamond Resource Co., a major Seattle-based timber business. The complex multistep land deals were done in partnership with the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy and financed through government grants, philanthropic donations and the sale of the tribe’s offset credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we have recovered additional forestlands, we have enrolled additional acreage in California’s climate programs in support of our Tribe’s strategic goals including protecting salmon habitat, sustaining the revitalization of our cultural lifeways, and facilitating economic self-sufficiency,” Mais wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insulting to claim that the Yurok Tribe has ‘gamed’ or ‘exploited’ California’s climate regulations,” he added. “Equally important, it’s concerning that elite institutions now criticize us for legally and ethically using a program that was created to protect mature forests and then using those funds to purchase and restore more forest land that was, at one point, ours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests defended its practices in emailed responses to questions, arguing its projects have preserved existing carbon stocks and removed CO2 from the atmosphere through subsequent tree growth “as confirmed via third-party verification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said it has worked on projects in numerous areas, not just along the program’s regional boundaries. The company said its projects “have protected and will enhance carbon storage on hundreds of thousands of acres of forests,” adding that one project with the Chugach Alaska Corp. \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2017/01/25/bering-river-coal-field-rights-retired/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enabled the permanent retirement\u003c/a> of a significant portion of the coal reserves in the Bering River Coal Field in southeastern Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests follows the board’s “scientifically-accepted regulations to both the spirit and letter of the program,” the company said in a subsequent statement. “New Forests is proud of the forest carbon projects we have developed under California’s climate programs — they have generated positive environmental impact and furthered the economic and cultural objectives of the family forest landowners and Native American tribes with whom we have worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests didn’t respond to numerous additional inquiries, including direct questions about whether it was gaming the rules of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response, CarbonPlan stressed that its paper criticizes the design of the program — not the Yurok Tribe or other landowners. Nor does it allege anyone has broken the rules. Its analysis doesn’t consider or depend on the intent of any forest owners, who can benefit from flaws in the rules whether they intended to or even know about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the injustices experienced by the Yurok Tribe, including the seizure of their historical lands by the United States government and its citizens,” the nonprofit stated. “We also recognize the Yurok Tribe’s legitimate interest in securing resources to repurchase lands that previously belonged to the Tribe and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Open Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, an environmental studies professor at Stanford University, was co-author of a 2017 study that found California’s program was helping to prevent emissions on balance by reducing logging. About 64% of the 39 projects studied were “being actively logged at or prior to project inception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said the state program is “relatively well-designed to address key issues,” but said it can and should be improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that there are firm limits on the role that offsets can play in California. From now through 2025, state polluters can only buy offsets to cover as much as 4% of their carbon emissions; from 2026 to 2030, that ceiling rises to 6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those numbers understate the critical role of offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program, viewed by some as a model for market-based climate policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that program, California sells permits that allow certain industries to emit greenhouse gases, with each permit worth one metric ton of CO2. The state also regularly gives away a certain number of permits to various regulated companies. The total number of permits, called a “cap,” declines over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polluters can also purchase permits from other companies with extras to spare, which constitutes the “trade.” Or they can buy carbon offset credits, which cost slightly less than permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To participate in the offset program, landowners must hire technicians to survey the trees on their land, then take data such as tree type, height and diameter and plug it into equations to estimate the carbon stored per acre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the credits are distributed during the initial stages of a project, which can help to repay setup costs. Projects can also earn additional credits over time as the trees grow and absorb CO2, but those credits accrue slowly, and are dwarfed by the initial credits given to forests with more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The type of forest projects that CarbonPlan analyzed account for 68% of all credits issued by the Air Resources Board since the program’s launch, far eclipsing other types of offsets like capturing methane from dairy farms \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/26/133261/whoops-californias-carbon-offsets-program-could-extend-the-life-of-coal-mines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or coal mines\u003c/a>, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is designed to slash the state’s carbon footprint by 236 million tons of CO2 over the next decade, about a third of the cumulative reductions needed to meet the state’s emissions targets over that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Haya, who leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at UC-Berkeley and is a co-author of the CarbonPlan study, calculated that up to half of those cap-and-trade emissions cuts could come via offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haya said these cherry-picking practices have been an open secret. The study is “revealing to everyone what a lot of people in the industry understand,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservation vs. the Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of forest offsets say no system is perfect, and that focusing solely on the carbon math overlooks the incentives offsets create for protecting forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said offset systems should balance two goals: ensuring real emissions cuts, and creating ways to fund forest conservation. If CarbonPlan’s study shows projects are gravitating toward high-carbon forests, then those are exactly the types of trees you’d want to save “if you have a conservation agenda,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cody Desautel, president of the Intertribal Timber Council, a Portland-based nonprofit consortium of native tribes, said that offset programs have provided critical financial flexibility for tribes. They’ve allowed them to buy back historic land, build needed infrastructure, create jobs for members or simply save up money for financial security. But above all, they’ve created incentives to manage forests in sustainable ways, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribes are very conservation-minded,” said Desautel, who is also the natural resources director for Washington’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/project/confederated-tribes-colville-reservation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">operate an offset project\u003c/a> under California’s system. “Their practices are largely based on what’s best for the ecosystem, not what makes the most sense economically. And there’s never been any value to that management approach in the past. These carbon projects provide an opportunity to value that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “If there’s no value to owning forest land, it probably won’t be forest land long into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s offset projects have clearly helped in these sorts of ways, even if they didn’t provide the full promised carbon benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe \u003ca href=\"https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/aug/14/yurok-tribe-acquires-50000-acres-green-diamond-lan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has said\u003c/a> it is using the acquired land and funds to restore its old-growth forests, produce traditional foods and basket-weaving materials, create a salmon sanctuary and improve habitat for endangered or culturally important species like the coho salmon, northern spotted owl, blacktailed deer and Roosevelt elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with New Forests will provide the Tribe with the means to boost biodiversity, accelerate watershed restoration, and increase the abundance of important cultural resources like acorns, huckleberry and hundreds of medicinal plants that thrive in a fully functioning forest ecosystem,” Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., then-chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140211005853/en/New-Forests-and-Yurok-Tribe-Register-First-Compliance-Forest-Carbon-Offset-Project-for-California-Carbon-Market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the societal goal is preserving forests, it would be simpler and more effective to describe it accurately and fund it directly, said Haya, the UC Berkeley expert. As soon as these forests get tied up in an offset program, the carbon math does matter, because every additional ton purportedly preserved in trees enables polluters to purchase the right to generate an additional ton of CO2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets appeal to the public partly because of what academics call “\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02653-1?ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue_20200806&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue&wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charismatic carbon\u003c/a>” — they offer a feel-good story of environmental and social good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any good conservation advocate would tell you there’s a desperate need for more funding, and we agree entirely,” CarbonPlan’s Cullenward said in an email. The “problem isn’t that conservation is bad, it’s that the system of carbon offsets channels these real needs and sincere hopes into a system that grinds it all up and spits out garbage on the other side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Best Bang for the Buck’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Air Resources Board approved the forest offset program’s official rules in 2011, after years of discussions with dozens of experts, including government scientists and staff from conservation groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In adopting it, the agency relied heavily on Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that created programs with voluntary offset credits. The nonprofit, which continues to advise the agency, led an effort to calculate regional carbon averages as part of an initiative to update its voluntary offset rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do so, the nonprofit used data from the U.S. Forest Service, which surveys tens of thousands of forest plots nationwide. The nonprofit grouped data from different tree species and combined data from various geographic zones into larger regional areas called supersections. This simplification allowed the Climate Action Reserve to create a set of common baselines that estimated the amount of carbon stored in typical privately owned forests. The baselines take into account such forest uses as logging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the use of these broad averages obscured real differences on the ground. Some industry insiders and researchers began to notice that landowners and developers routinely located their projects in areas where the specific tract of forest differed greatly from the regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zack Parisa, chief executive of the carbon offsets company SilviaTerra, previously consulted for project developers and landowners enrolling forests in California’s system. But he said he stopped out of frustration, after seeing the ways it was regularly being gamed, including the cherry-picking techniques CarbonPlan highlighted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parisa said he doesn’t blame landowners or project developers, who are acting out of rational self-interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone shows up and is offering a contract to buy carbon and it doesn’t require them to change anything about how they manage the forests, that’s free money and they’d be stupid not to take it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hunting for a villain here,” Parisa added. “Of course they look for the best bang for the buck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to New Forests, other developers also worked on projects where favorable boundaries and forest types boosted the credits that could be earned, according to CarbonPlan. Those include Bluesource and Finite Carbon, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/2020/12/16/bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BP purchased a majority stake in\u003c/a> late last year. The researchers found that those two developers’ projects, taken together, generated up to 24 million credits that don’t represent actual carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Forests,\u003c/a> Finite Carbon, Bluesource and other subjects of this article were provided the full study and an accompanying paper describing its methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finite Carbon declined to address detailed questions, but stressed that the Air Resources Board and an independent auditor found that their projects were in compliance with the rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said there were “unanswered questions” about the CarbonPlan study’s methodology, adding, “however we cannot comment further on it as the underlying raw data is not currently available for public review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Six, the marketing and communications manager for Bluesource, denied the company had gamed the rules in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Six said California’s program actually undercounts the carbon preserved through projects by not crediting the amount stored in other parts of the forest like soil, shrubs and foliage. She also stressed that without offsets, some landowners could have chopped down their forests to carbon levels well below the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deliberately overstating climate benefits would run counter to our very purpose for existence,” she wrote. “Bluesource exists to improve the world by improving the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts who wrote the original offset rules relied on the only national forest dataset available, from the U.S. Forest Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, said\u003c/a> Constance Best, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust. The conservation nonprofit was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/pacific-forest-trust-honored-by-climate-action-reserve-for-advancing-forests-in-climate-policy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely involved\u003c/a> in the creation of the early program and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/selling-carbon-offsets/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">participated in it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best said it was necessary to create carbon averages for larger regions and forest types because there wasn’t enough fine-grained data to ensure accuracy at highly local levels. She disputed CarbonPlan’s claim that its researchers had created a better way of calculating regional averages, since their method required relying on a smaller number of forest plots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason some super sections are large is to assure the data is more accurate,” Best said in an email. “So their solution creates more problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate note, she said: “The paper you shared has a strong editorial bias that undermines its findings and makes me question their data and analysis. It deliberately exaggerates what they present as smoking gun over-credited projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, CarbonPlan acknowledges that using fewer forest plots entails some uncertainty. But the researchers stressed they clearly accounted for it by providing a range of results, and maintained their findings are more accurate because they considered the specific mix of tree species in each project. CarbonPlan also shot back at the allegation of bias: “Having done our work on the basis of extensive public program records, and with fully reproducible methods, data, and code, we are confident that other researchers are capable of judging our paper on its merits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the board has updated regional averages based on more recent forest data, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/tangri_neil_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critics say\u003c/a> efforts to address more fundamental problems \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/nowicki_brian_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have been thwarted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and activists also worry about the close ties between the Air Resources Board and the groups that now profit from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, whenever a landowner wants to enroll a forest tract in California’s program, they open an account at Climate Action Reserve or two other nonprofits that have received the board’s blessing to review the documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project clears the Climate Action Reserve’s review and a subsequent audit by the state board, the nonprofit charges 19 cents for every credit issued. For one of the largest projects in the program, for instance, that would have added up to more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It “strikes me as a massive conflict of interest for an organization — whether nonprofit or not — that designed the system to have a financial stake in its operation,” David Victor, a professor at the UC San Diego, who has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/read/13023/chapter/21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely studied international offset systems\u003c/a>, said in an email. (Victor recently co-authored the book “Making Climate Policy Work” with Cullenward.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In any other market, putting the market players in charge of key elements of its design would lead to ‘hollers’” over the conflicts of interest, Victor said. With the forest offset program, “everyone seems fine or even happy about the arrangement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate Action Reserve didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Too Good to Be True’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hardy, drought-tolerant softwoods like junipers and pinyon pines dominate in the hot, dry landscape of central New Mexico, with smatterings of taller Douglas firs and spruces in the cooler, higher reaches of the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under the initial rules of California’s program, those forests were considered to contain no carbon whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The error stemmed from the fact that there was no available Forest Service data in that part of New Mexico when the Climate Action Reserve calculated regional averages, said Olaf Kuegler, a Forest Service statistician who provided technical assistance to the nonprofit on the federal database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, the Climate Action Reserve set the regional average for an area stretching nearly 34,000 square miles at zero, which meant anyone who owned a few dozen trees could earn carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kuegler said he wasn’t aware of the mistake until early or mid-2014, when Air Resources Board employee Barbara Bamberger asked him about it. Bamberger, who leads the board’s work on forest offsets, later highlighted the error during an October 2014 \u003ca href=\"https://americancarbonregistry.org/news-events/events/review-of-us-forestry-compliance-offset-protocol-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">webinar\u003c/a> on offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation, Bamberger said the board was updating the regional averages in ways that could lead to major changes in certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This may be due to the fact that no data existed for some years in the original span from years 2002 to 2006,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2400&v=n92ZsQNKPk4&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she explained\u003c/a>. “For example, in New Mexico data wasn’t collected until the end of that period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost exactly one year after Bamberger’s presentation, New Forests’ affiliate filed the paperwork for a nearly 222,000-acre project in New Mexico, stretching across the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s nearly half-million-acre reservation about ninety minutes west of Roswell. More than a third of the project’s trees were carbon-rich Douglas firs, according to the project’s paperwork. Shillinglaw signed the forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erroneously low carbon calculation allowed the developer to claim they could have heavily logged the forest, boosting the amount of credits they could earn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project earned 3.7 million credits for its first year, worth more than $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the California board’s updated rules went into effect two weeks later, it set a far higher regional average for most of the project area. If that standard had been in place earlier, it would have eliminated nearly every credit the project earned, CarbonPlan found. The project generated more ghost credits than any other in the nonprofit’s study, based on its more conservative calculations of regional carbon averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s president at the time, Danny Breuninger Sr., said the tribe welcomed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of us had heard about the carbon credit program, and in a way it sounded too good to be true,” he said. “But it was a great deal. It worked out great for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breuninger referred further questions to the tribe’s current president, Gabe Aguilar. Neither Aguilar nor the tribe’s attorney, Nelva Cervantes, responded to repeated inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the Air Resources Board said the project met all the requirements of the program at that time. The fact that the board was in the process of developing new regional averages using data that didn’t previously exist didn’t make the earlier figures “invalid or erroneous,” it added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Second Wave of Colonization’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghost credits matter because they allow other companies to purchase the right to continue emitting real greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Credits from the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s project were sold to PG&E, Chevron and a company that drills for oil in Kern County, California, according to the latest figures available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s 7,660-acre project generated credits that were obtained by a variety of energy companies like Calpine, PG&E and Shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some tribal members are \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-carbon-trading-became-a-way-of-life-for-californias-yurok-tribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deeply uncomfortable\u003c/a> with the idea of selling offsets to companies like this even if they are legitimate, fearing they’re effectively profiting from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offsets, by definition, allow California companies to continue producing more CO2 than otherwise allowed — as well as the toxic pollutants like soot and heavy metals that frequently accompany such emissions — often near poor neighborhoods. Communities near refineries, cement kilns and power plants have frequently opposed offset programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas Joseph, an activist and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California, said offset developers target tribal projects because tribes are in “dire need of revenue” and own vast tracts of mostly intact forest. He said his tribe has resisted multiple pitches from developers. “For us to use this as a means to allow corporations to continue to pollute,” he said, goes “against our cultural values.” He added, “I see it as a second wave of colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desautel, the Intertribal Timber Council president, sees it differently. When the issue comes up among tribal members, he explains that polluters under cap and trade need to pay either the state for permission to pollute, or landowners through carbon offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The check is getting written one way or the other,” he said. “It’s just a question of where it goes and what’s being accomplished with that funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SilviaTerra’s Parisa said that landowners and project developers will continue to respond to the incentives created in the program, in ways that overstate climate progress, until the program itself changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better rules,” he said. “Let’s make sure the dollars we spend actually change things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forests really can be a part of the solution for the climate, but we haven’t gotten it right yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\">http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.",
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"description": "New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.",
"title": "California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2 | KQED",
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"headline": "California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=reprint&placement=top-note\">The Big Story newsletter\u003c/a> to receive stories like this one in your inbox\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>Along the coast of Northern California near the Oregon border, the cool, moist air off the Pacific sustains a strip of temperate rainforests. Soaring redwoods and Douglas firs dominate these thick, wet woodlands, creating a canopy hundreds of feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you travel inland the mix of trees gradually shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Beyond the crest of the Klamath Mountains, you descend into an evergreen medley of sugar pines, incense cedars and still more Douglas firs. As you continue into the Cascade Range, you pass through sparser forests dominated by Ponderosa pines. These tall, slender trees with prickly cones thrive in the hotter, drier conditions on the eastern side of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All trees consume carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen and storing the carbon in their trunks, branches and roots. Every ton of carbon sequestered in a living tree is a ton that isn’t contributing to climate change. And that thick coastal forest can easily store twice as much carbon per acre as the trees deeper inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This math is crucial to determining the success of California’s forest offset program, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by preserving trees. The state established the program a decade ago as part of its efforts to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ecology is messy. The boundaries between forest types are nebulous, and the actual amount of carbon on any given acre depends on local climate conditions, conservation efforts, logging history and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s top climate regulator, the Air Resources Board, glossed over much of this complexity in implementing the state’s program. The agency established fixed boundaries around giant regions, boiling down the carbon stored in a wide mix of tree species into simplified, regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decision has generated tens of millions of carbon credits with dubious climate value, according to \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new analysis\u003c/a> by CarbonPlan, a San Francisco nonprofit that analyzes the scientific integrity of carbon removal efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offset program allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth. Each credit represents one metric ton of CO2. Landowners can sell the credits to major polluters in California, typically oil companies and other businesses that want to emit more carbon than otherwise allowed under state law. Each extra ton of carbon emitted by industry is balanced out by an extra ton stored in the forest, allowing net emissions to stay within a cap set by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last fall, the program had produced some six dozen projects that had generated more than 130 million credits, worth $1.8 billion at recent prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While calculating the exact amount of carbon saved by preserving forests is complicated, California’s logic for awarding credits is relatively straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board establishes the average amount of carbon per acre stored in a few forest types spanning large regions of the United States. If you own land that contains more carbon than the regional average, based on a survey of trees on your site, you can get credits for the difference. For example, if your land holds the equivalent of 100 tons of CO2 per acre, and the regional average is 40 tons, you can earn credits for saving 60 tons per acre. (This story will refer to each ton of CO2-equivalent as a ton of “carbon.”) You must also commit to maintaining your forest’s high carbon storage for the next 100 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regional averages are meant to represent carbon levels in typical private forests. But the averages are determined from such large areas and such diverse forest types that they can differ dramatically from the carbon stored on lands selected for projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Project forests that significantly exceed these averages are frequently earning far more credits than the actual carbon benefits they deliver, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This design also incentivizes the developers who initiate and lead these projects to specifically look for forest tracts where carbon levels stand out above these averages — either due to the site’s location within a region, its combination of tree species, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the state’s program has generated between 20 million and 39 million credits that don’t achieve real climate benefits. They are, in effect, ghost credits that didn’t preserve additional carbon in forests but did allow polluters to emit far more CO2, equal to the annual emissions of 8.5 million cars at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those ghost credits represent nearly 1 in 3 credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our work shows that California’s forest offsets program increases greenhouse gas emissions, despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan. “The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board defended the program and disputed the central thesis of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We disagree with your statement that landowners or project developers are gaming the system or that there are inflated estimates” of greenhouse gas reductions, Dave Clegern, a spokesperson for the Air Resources Board, said in an email. Each version of the offset rules “went through our robust public regulatory review process,” with input from the forestry industry, academia, government agencies and nonprofits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s forest offset program is the largest in the country that is government regulated. Other forest offset programs are voluntary, allowing businesses or individuals to purchase credits to shrink their environmental footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan’s study comes days after the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/economics/after-a-decade-of-failures-washington-state-passes-a-cap-on-carbon-emissions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington\u003c/a> state legislature moved a cap-and-trade bill with an offset program to the governor’s desk for approval. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/carbonpolicy_climatechange.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> has also debated in recent months establishing a carbon market program that would emulate California’s policy. In Washington, D.C., the Biden administration has \u003ca href=\"https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signaled growing interest\u003c/a> in harnessing forests and soil to draw down CO2. Businesses, too, increasingly plan to rely heavily on trees to offset their emissions in lieu of the harder task of cutting corporate pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets have been criticized for a variety of problems, including the risks that the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/climate/this-oregon-forest-was-supposed-to-store-carbon-for-100-years-now-its-on-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carbon reductions will be short-lived\u003c/a>, that carbon savings will be wiped out \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/18/65883/californias-cap-and-trade-program-may-vastly-overestimate-emissions-cuts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by increased logging elsewhere\u003c/a>, and that the projects are preserving forests \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-nature-conservancy-carbon-offsets-trees/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">never in jeopardy of being chopped down\u003c/a>, producing credits that don’t reflect real-world changes in carbon levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But CarbonPlan’s analysis highlights a different issue, one interlinked with these other problems. Even if everything else about a project were perfect, developers would still be able to undermine the program by exploiting regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every time a polluter uses a credit that didn’t actually save a ton of carbon, the total amount of emissions goes up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from addressing climate change, California’s forest offsets appear to be adding tens of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere on balance, undermining progress on the state’s long-term emissions goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you strip away all the jargon, you’re left with a faulty set of assumptions that leave the door wide open to issuing meaningless offset credits,” said Grayson Badgley, a postdoctoral fellow at Black Rock Forest and Columbia University, and the lead researcher on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cherry-Picking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan provided ProPublica and MIT Technology Review full and exclusive access to their analysis as it was being finalized. As part of that process, the news organizations sent the report to independent experts for review. The organizations also interviewed landowners, industry players and scientists and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including the project plans submitted by developers. CarbonPlan collaborated on the study with academic experts from the UC Berkeley, Columbia University and other institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study itself wasn’t designed to assess whether developers or landowners are intentionally cherry-picking sites that stand out from regional averages, stating only that the system “allows for” developers to select such land. But the researchers themselves say that the level of excess crediting and the clustering of projects in certain areas suggest that industry players have gamed the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One form of cherry-picking identified by the researchers involves geographic boundaries. In the case of Northern California, the state’s offset program established a dividing line that separates that coastal strip of redwoods and Douglas firs from an inland region that spans more than 28,000 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s rules state that tall mixed-conifer forests in the coastal region store an average of 205 tons of carbon per acre. For the neighboring inland region, the agency set the corresponding regional average at 122 tons per acre. The figure is lower because it includes more trees with less carbon, such as Ponderosa pines, which dominate the eastern end of the inland region and are all but absent on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the two regions meet, the forest on either side is virtually identical in many places, storing similar amounts of carbon. That means a project developer can earn far more money by choosing a site just east of the border, simply because they can compare the carbon in their forest against a lower regional average. For instance, maintaining a 10,000-acre forest of coastal redwoods and Douglas firs with carbon levels of 200 tons per acre could earn zero credits west of the line, or 624,000 credits east of it. The choice is between no money and more than $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To claim the most credits possible, for the full difference between the carbon on their land and the regional averages, developers or landowners must show that it’s legally and financially feasible to log down to those regional averages. The averages are effectively a stand-in for the way that similar forests are typically managed in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A dozen projects are located in Northern California, almost entirely lined up along the western edge of the inland zone where the carbon-rich trees are juxtaposed against the lower regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is developers are taking advantage of the fact that the big stuff and the scrubby stuff have been averaged together,” Badgley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once an offset project developer and landowner decide to work together, the developer will generally shepherd them through the process in exchange for a fee or share of the sales of the credits generated — an arrangement that can be worth millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most prolific project developers in the California system is an Australia-based timberlands investment company called New Forests. The company and its affiliates have worked on eight projects located almost entirely along the advantageous side of the border, as well as six elsewhere. CarbonPlan, in a separate analysis done for the news organizations that wasn’t included in the study, found that nearly all earned dubious credits, adding up to as much as $176 million worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large share of those credits came from a single project outside California that profited from a glaring mistake in the rules. New Forests’ affiliate, Forest Carbon Partners, helped the Mescalero Apache Tribe develop a forest offset project in New Mexico. The project earned 3.7 million credits worth more than $50 million, largely because it was located in an area where the Air Resources Board had set an erroneously low regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another form of cherry-picking involves tree species: Developers can seek out tracts with particular trees that store far more carbon than the surrounding region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the study, one project in Alaska consists almost entirely of giant Sitka spruces, yet the local regional average was calculated from a wide mix of trees, including species like cottonwoods that store far less carbon. The project earned significantly more credits than it should have due to the flaws in the system, the study said. The project owner didn’t return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preserving especially carbon-rich forests is good for the climate, in and of itself. But when the trees in the project area bear little resemblance to the types of trees that went into calculating the regional average, it exaggerates the number of credits at stake, CarbonPlan’s study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Trexler, a former offsets developer who worked in earlier U.S. and European carbon markets, said the board should have anticipated the perverse incentives created by its program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people write offset rules, they always ignore the fact that there are 1,000 smart people next door that will try to game them,” he said. Since the board set up a system that “incentivizes people to find the areas that are high-density, or high-carbon, that’s what they’re going to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To estimate the extent of overcrediting in California’s program, CarbonPlan calculated its own version of regional averages for each project. The researchers drew on the same raw data used by the Air Resources Board, but only used data from tree species that more closely resemble the particular mix of trees in each project area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 74 such projects had been established as of September 2020, when CarbonPlan began its research. CarbonPlan was able to study 65 projects that had enough documentation to make analysis possible. All received credits for holding more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers found that the vast majority of projects were over-credited, but about a dozen would have received more credits under CarbonPlan’s formula. Those included two New Forests projects, which would have earned as much as an additional 165,000 credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organizations sent officials at the Air Resources Board a copy of the study and its detailed methodology weeks before publication. Clegern declined multiple requests to interview board staff and responded only in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He did not address CarbonPlan’s calculations. “We were not given sufficient time to fully analyze an unpublished study and are not commenting further on the authors’ alternative methodology,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outside scientists who reviewed the research on behalf of ProPublica and MIT Technology Review praised the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really analytically robust paper and it answers a really important policy question,” said Daniel Sanchez, who runs the Carbon Removal Laboratory at UC Berkeley. While close observers are well aware of numerous problems with California’s forest offset rules, “they’re revealing a deeper set of serious methodological flaws,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the reviewers pointed out any major technical or conceptual flaws with the paper, which has been submitted to a journal for peer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Significant New Commodity Market’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early 2015, an offsets nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/118731835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosted a webinar\u003c/a> highlighting how Native American tribes could participate in California’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One speaker was Brian Shillinglaw, a Stanford-trained lawyer and managing director at New Forests who \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/member/brian-shillinglaw/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">oversees\u003c/a> the company’s U.S. forestry programs. The company manages the sale of carbon credits, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/timber-products/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sells timber\u003c/a> and on behalf of investors manages \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/new-forests-announces-conversion-of-1-3-billion-australian-forestry-fund-to-long-term-mandate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 2 million\u003c/a> acres of forests globally, a portfolio it values at more than $4 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests also manages its affiliate, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Carbon Partners\u003c/a>, on behalf of an institutional investment client it declined to name. Forest Carbon Partners finances offset projects and \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shepherds landowners\u003c/a> through the process of applying for California’s offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the California carbon market has really created a significant new commodity market,” Shillinglaw said during his presentation. He said the program is something “many Native American tribes are very well situated to benefit from, in part due to past conservative stewardship of their forests, which can lead to significant credit yield in the near term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translation: Because many tribes have logged less aggressively than their neighbors, their carbon-rich forests were primed for big payouts of credits. Under Shillinglaw, New Forests or Forest Carbon Partners have helped to secure tens of millions of dollars’ worth of credits for native tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the 13 New Forests projects that CarbonPlan researchers were able to analyze, between 33% and 71% of the credits don’t represent real carbon reductions. That’s nearly 13 million credits at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we cannot prove that New Forests acted deliberately on the basis of our statistical analysis, in our judgment there is no reasonable explanation for these outcomes other than that New Forests knowingly engaged in cherry-picking behavior to take advantage of ecological shortcomings in the forest offset protocol,” said Badgley, the lead researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests managed the first official project in California’s program, registering 7,660 acres of forest land on or near the Yurok Reservation, which runs more than 40 miles along the Klamath River near the top of that West Coast cluster of projects. The state issued more than 700,000 credits to the project for its first year, worth $9.6 million at recent rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have pointed to the tribe’s participation as a triumph of the program. In 2014, the board released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbjmbqTdXN0&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a promotional video\u003c/a> that showed the meticulous work of measuring trees in the Yurok project. James Erler, the tribe’s then-forestry director, explained how offsets enabled the tribe to reduce logging. Near the end of the video, Shillinglaw appears in a sunlit forest, wearing a collared shirt and a New Forests-branded jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a beautiful watershed,” Shillinglaw said over footage of a running stream and an elk standing before a thicket of trees. “This is the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral homeland, and in part due to the carbon market will be managed through a conservation approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the project earned more than half a million ghost credits worth nearly $6.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why the researchers say it was over credited:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boundary dividing California’s coastal and inland regions runs through the middle of the reservation. The carbon-rich forests on either side of that line are similar, filled with large Douglas firs like most of the coastal region. But more than 99% of the forest designated for preservation falls within the inland zone, where average carbon levels are much lower. The fact that the project was located in the most carbon-rich area of that zone enabled the landowners to earn an exaggerated number of credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one person involved in the Yurok Tribe’s forest offset efforts was aware of how geographical choices swing the credits that can be earned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler said during a 2015 presentation at a National Indian Timber Symposium that the tribe had the “distinct pleasure” of having the boundary run through its territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can take the same inventory data and apply it to the California Coast” — the region to the west — “and it doesn’t come out with the same numbers as you do if you cross the street,” Erler said at the conference, captured in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=924&v=SlDrNcW_g3Q&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a YouTube video\u003c/a> posted to the Intertribal Timber Council’s channel. “Vegetation may be the same, but it changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Badgley said that while the researchers can’t speak to the intentions of any actors involved, it’s clear that this project “benefited from over-crediting and that the Yurok Tribe’s forester was aware how the specific aspects of the protocol rules our study criticizes led to beneficial outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler didn’t respond to a list of emailed questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Yurok spokesperson Matt Mais said that the property was the only land the tribe had available to enroll at the time and strongly denied the tribe engaged in any sort of gaming of the system. He didn’t respond before press time to a subsequent inquiry asking why the rest of the tribe’s land wasn’t available for the offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade or so, the tribe has slowly reacquired tens of thousands of acres of its ancestral territory, in and around the watershed of Blue Creek and other streams that sustain migrating salmon, from the Green Diamond Resource Co., a major Seattle-based timber business. The complex multistep land deals were done in partnership with the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy and financed through government grants, philanthropic donations and the sale of the tribe’s offset credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we have recovered additional forestlands, we have enrolled additional acreage in California’s climate programs in support of our Tribe’s strategic goals including protecting salmon habitat, sustaining the revitalization of our cultural lifeways, and facilitating economic self-sufficiency,” Mais wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insulting to claim that the Yurok Tribe has ‘gamed’ or ‘exploited’ California’s climate regulations,” he added. “Equally important, it’s concerning that elite institutions now criticize us for legally and ethically using a program that was created to protect mature forests and then using those funds to purchase and restore more forest land that was, at one point, ours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests defended its practices in emailed responses to questions, arguing its projects have preserved existing carbon stocks and removed CO2 from the atmosphere through subsequent tree growth “as confirmed via third-party verification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said it has worked on projects in numerous areas, not just along the program’s regional boundaries. The company said its projects “have protected and will enhance carbon storage on hundreds of thousands of acres of forests,” adding that one project with the Chugach Alaska Corp. \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2017/01/25/bering-river-coal-field-rights-retired/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enabled the permanent retirement\u003c/a> of a significant portion of the coal reserves in the Bering River Coal Field in southeastern Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests follows the board’s “scientifically-accepted regulations to both the spirit and letter of the program,” the company said in a subsequent statement. “New Forests is proud of the forest carbon projects we have developed under California’s climate programs — they have generated positive environmental impact and furthered the economic and cultural objectives of the family forest landowners and Native American tribes with whom we have worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests didn’t respond to numerous additional inquiries, including direct questions about whether it was gaming the rules of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response, CarbonPlan stressed that its paper criticizes the design of the program — not the Yurok Tribe or other landowners. Nor does it allege anyone has broken the rules. Its analysis doesn’t consider or depend on the intent of any forest owners, who can benefit from flaws in the rules whether they intended to or even know about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the injustices experienced by the Yurok Tribe, including the seizure of their historical lands by the United States government and its citizens,” the nonprofit stated. “We also recognize the Yurok Tribe’s legitimate interest in securing resources to repurchase lands that previously belonged to the Tribe and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Open Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, an environmental studies professor at Stanford University, was co-author of a 2017 study that found California’s program was helping to prevent emissions on balance by reducing logging. About 64% of the 39 projects studied were “being actively logged at or prior to project inception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said the state program is “relatively well-designed to address key issues,” but said it can and should be improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that there are firm limits on the role that offsets can play in California. From now through 2025, state polluters can only buy offsets to cover as much as 4% of their carbon emissions; from 2026 to 2030, that ceiling rises to 6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those numbers understate the critical role of offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program, viewed by some as a model for market-based climate policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that program, California sells permits that allow certain industries to emit greenhouse gases, with each permit worth one metric ton of CO2. The state also regularly gives away a certain number of permits to various regulated companies. The total number of permits, called a “cap,” declines over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polluters can also purchase permits from other companies with extras to spare, which constitutes the “trade.” Or they can buy carbon offset credits, which cost slightly less than permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To participate in the offset program, landowners must hire technicians to survey the trees on their land, then take data such as tree type, height and diameter and plug it into equations to estimate the carbon stored per acre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the credits are distributed during the initial stages of a project, which can help to repay setup costs. Projects can also earn additional credits over time as the trees grow and absorb CO2, but those credits accrue slowly, and are dwarfed by the initial credits given to forests with more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The type of forest projects that CarbonPlan analyzed account for 68% of all credits issued by the Air Resources Board since the program’s launch, far eclipsing other types of offsets like capturing methane from dairy farms \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/26/133261/whoops-californias-carbon-offsets-program-could-extend-the-life-of-coal-mines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or coal mines\u003c/a>, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is designed to slash the state’s carbon footprint by 236 million tons of CO2 over the next decade, about a third of the cumulative reductions needed to meet the state’s emissions targets over that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Haya, who leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at UC-Berkeley and is a co-author of the CarbonPlan study, calculated that up to half of those cap-and-trade emissions cuts could come via offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haya said these cherry-picking practices have been an open secret. The study is “revealing to everyone what a lot of people in the industry understand,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservation vs. the Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of forest offsets say no system is perfect, and that focusing solely on the carbon math overlooks the incentives offsets create for protecting forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said offset systems should balance two goals: ensuring real emissions cuts, and creating ways to fund forest conservation. If CarbonPlan’s study shows projects are gravitating toward high-carbon forests, then those are exactly the types of trees you’d want to save “if you have a conservation agenda,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cody Desautel, president of the Intertribal Timber Council, a Portland-based nonprofit consortium of native tribes, said that offset programs have provided critical financial flexibility for tribes. They’ve allowed them to buy back historic land, build needed infrastructure, create jobs for members or simply save up money for financial security. But above all, they’ve created incentives to manage forests in sustainable ways, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribes are very conservation-minded,” said Desautel, who is also the natural resources director for Washington’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/project/confederated-tribes-colville-reservation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">operate an offset project\u003c/a> under California’s system. “Their practices are largely based on what’s best for the ecosystem, not what makes the most sense economically. And there’s never been any value to that management approach in the past. These carbon projects provide an opportunity to value that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “If there’s no value to owning forest land, it probably won’t be forest land long into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s offset projects have clearly helped in these sorts of ways, even if they didn’t provide the full promised carbon benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe \u003ca href=\"https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/aug/14/yurok-tribe-acquires-50000-acres-green-diamond-lan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has said\u003c/a> it is using the acquired land and funds to restore its old-growth forests, produce traditional foods and basket-weaving materials, create a salmon sanctuary and improve habitat for endangered or culturally important species like the coho salmon, northern spotted owl, blacktailed deer and Roosevelt elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with New Forests will provide the Tribe with the means to boost biodiversity, accelerate watershed restoration, and increase the abundance of important cultural resources like acorns, huckleberry and hundreds of medicinal plants that thrive in a fully functioning forest ecosystem,” Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., then-chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140211005853/en/New-Forests-and-Yurok-Tribe-Register-First-Compliance-Forest-Carbon-Offset-Project-for-California-Carbon-Market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the societal goal is preserving forests, it would be simpler and more effective to describe it accurately and fund it directly, said Haya, the UC Berkeley expert. As soon as these forests get tied up in an offset program, the carbon math does matter, because every additional ton purportedly preserved in trees enables polluters to purchase the right to generate an additional ton of CO2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets appeal to the public partly because of what academics call “\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02653-1?ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue_20200806&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue&wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charismatic carbon\u003c/a>” — they offer a feel-good story of environmental and social good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any good conservation advocate would tell you there’s a desperate need for more funding, and we agree entirely,” CarbonPlan’s Cullenward said in an email. The “problem isn’t that conservation is bad, it’s that the system of carbon offsets channels these real needs and sincere hopes into a system that grinds it all up and spits out garbage on the other side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Best Bang for the Buck’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Air Resources Board approved the forest offset program’s official rules in 2011, after years of discussions with dozens of experts, including government scientists and staff from conservation groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In adopting it, the agency relied heavily on Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that created programs with voluntary offset credits. The nonprofit, which continues to advise the agency, led an effort to calculate regional carbon averages as part of an initiative to update its voluntary offset rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do so, the nonprofit used data from the U.S. Forest Service, which surveys tens of thousands of forest plots nationwide. The nonprofit grouped data from different tree species and combined data from various geographic zones into larger regional areas called supersections. This simplification allowed the Climate Action Reserve to create a set of common baselines that estimated the amount of carbon stored in typical privately owned forests. The baselines take into account such forest uses as logging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the use of these broad averages obscured real differences on the ground. Some industry insiders and researchers began to notice that landowners and developers routinely located their projects in areas where the specific tract of forest differed greatly from the regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zack Parisa, chief executive of the carbon offsets company SilviaTerra, previously consulted for project developers and landowners enrolling forests in California’s system. But he said he stopped out of frustration, after seeing the ways it was regularly being gamed, including the cherry-picking techniques CarbonPlan highlighted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parisa said he doesn’t blame landowners or project developers, who are acting out of rational self-interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone shows up and is offering a contract to buy carbon and it doesn’t require them to change anything about how they manage the forests, that’s free money and they’d be stupid not to take it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hunting for a villain here,” Parisa added. “Of course they look for the best bang for the buck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to New Forests, other developers also worked on projects where favorable boundaries and forest types boosted the credits that could be earned, according to CarbonPlan. Those include Bluesource and Finite Carbon, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/2020/12/16/bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BP purchased a majority stake in\u003c/a> late last year. The researchers found that those two developers’ projects, taken together, generated up to 24 million credits that don’t represent actual carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Forests,\u003c/a> Finite Carbon, Bluesource and other subjects of this article were provided the full study and an accompanying paper describing its methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finite Carbon declined to address detailed questions, but stressed that the Air Resources Board and an independent auditor found that their projects were in compliance with the rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said there were “unanswered questions” about the CarbonPlan study’s methodology, adding, “however we cannot comment further on it as the underlying raw data is not currently available for public review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Six, the marketing and communications manager for Bluesource, denied the company had gamed the rules in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Six said California’s program actually undercounts the carbon preserved through projects by not crediting the amount stored in other parts of the forest like soil, shrubs and foliage. She also stressed that without offsets, some landowners could have chopped down their forests to carbon levels well below the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deliberately overstating climate benefits would run counter to our very purpose for existence,” she wrote. “Bluesource exists to improve the world by improving the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts who wrote the original offset rules relied on the only national forest dataset available, from the U.S. Forest Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, said\u003c/a> Constance Best, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust. The conservation nonprofit was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/pacific-forest-trust-honored-by-climate-action-reserve-for-advancing-forests-in-climate-policy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely involved\u003c/a> in the creation of the early program and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/selling-carbon-offsets/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">participated in it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best said it was necessary to create carbon averages for larger regions and forest types because there wasn’t enough fine-grained data to ensure accuracy at highly local levels. She disputed CarbonPlan’s claim that its researchers had created a better way of calculating regional averages, since their method required relying on a smaller number of forest plots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason some super sections are large is to assure the data is more accurate,” Best said in an email. “So their solution creates more problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate note, she said: “The paper you shared has a strong editorial bias that undermines its findings and makes me question their data and analysis. It deliberately exaggerates what they present as smoking gun over-credited projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, CarbonPlan acknowledges that using fewer forest plots entails some uncertainty. But the researchers stressed they clearly accounted for it by providing a range of results, and maintained their findings are more accurate because they considered the specific mix of tree species in each project. CarbonPlan also shot back at the allegation of bias: “Having done our work on the basis of extensive public program records, and with fully reproducible methods, data, and code, we are confident that other researchers are capable of judging our paper on its merits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the board has updated regional averages based on more recent forest data, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/tangri_neil_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critics say\u003c/a> efforts to address more fundamental problems \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/nowicki_brian_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have been thwarted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and activists also worry about the close ties between the Air Resources Board and the groups that now profit from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, whenever a landowner wants to enroll a forest tract in California’s program, they open an account at Climate Action Reserve or two other nonprofits that have received the board’s blessing to review the documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project clears the Climate Action Reserve’s review and a subsequent audit by the state board, the nonprofit charges 19 cents for every credit issued. For one of the largest projects in the program, for instance, that would have added up to more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It “strikes me as a massive conflict of interest for an organization — whether nonprofit or not — that designed the system to have a financial stake in its operation,” David Victor, a professor at the UC San Diego, who has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/read/13023/chapter/21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely studied international offset systems\u003c/a>, said in an email. (Victor recently co-authored the book “Making Climate Policy Work” with Cullenward.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In any other market, putting the market players in charge of key elements of its design would lead to ‘hollers’” over the conflicts of interest, Victor said. With the forest offset program, “everyone seems fine or even happy about the arrangement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate Action Reserve didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Too Good to Be True’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hardy, drought-tolerant softwoods like junipers and pinyon pines dominate in the hot, dry landscape of central New Mexico, with smatterings of taller Douglas firs and spruces in the cooler, higher reaches of the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under the initial rules of California’s program, those forests were considered to contain no carbon whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The error stemmed from the fact that there was no available Forest Service data in that part of New Mexico when the Climate Action Reserve calculated regional averages, said Olaf Kuegler, a Forest Service statistician who provided technical assistance to the nonprofit on the federal database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, the Climate Action Reserve set the regional average for an area stretching nearly 34,000 square miles at zero, which meant anyone who owned a few dozen trees could earn carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kuegler said he wasn’t aware of the mistake until early or mid-2014, when Air Resources Board employee Barbara Bamberger asked him about it. Bamberger, who leads the board’s work on forest offsets, later highlighted the error during an October 2014 \u003ca href=\"https://americancarbonregistry.org/news-events/events/review-of-us-forestry-compliance-offset-protocol-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">webinar\u003c/a> on offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation, Bamberger said the board was updating the regional averages in ways that could lead to major changes in certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This may be due to the fact that no data existed for some years in the original span from years 2002 to 2006,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2400&v=n92ZsQNKPk4&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she explained\u003c/a>. “For example, in New Mexico data wasn’t collected until the end of that period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost exactly one year after Bamberger’s presentation, New Forests’ affiliate filed the paperwork for a nearly 222,000-acre project in New Mexico, stretching across the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s nearly half-million-acre reservation about ninety minutes west of Roswell. More than a third of the project’s trees were carbon-rich Douglas firs, according to the project’s paperwork. Shillinglaw signed the forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erroneously low carbon calculation allowed the developer to claim they could have heavily logged the forest, boosting the amount of credits they could earn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project earned 3.7 million credits for its first year, worth more than $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the California board’s updated rules went into effect two weeks later, it set a far higher regional average for most of the project area. If that standard had been in place earlier, it would have eliminated nearly every credit the project earned, CarbonPlan found. The project generated more ghost credits than any other in the nonprofit’s study, based on its more conservative calculations of regional carbon averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s president at the time, Danny Breuninger Sr., said the tribe welcomed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of us had heard about the carbon credit program, and in a way it sounded too good to be true,” he said. “But it was a great deal. It worked out great for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breuninger referred further questions to the tribe’s current president, Gabe Aguilar. Neither Aguilar nor the tribe’s attorney, Nelva Cervantes, responded to repeated inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the Air Resources Board said the project met all the requirements of the program at that time. The fact that the board was in the process of developing new regional averages using data that didn’t previously exist didn’t make the earlier figures “invalid or erroneous,” it added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Second Wave of Colonization’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghost credits matter because they allow other companies to purchase the right to continue emitting real greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Credits from the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s project were sold to PG&E, Chevron and a company that drills for oil in Kern County, California, according to the latest figures available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s 7,660-acre project generated credits that were obtained by a variety of energy companies like Calpine, PG&E and Shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some tribal members are \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-carbon-trading-became-a-way-of-life-for-californias-yurok-tribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deeply uncomfortable\u003c/a> with the idea of selling offsets to companies like this even if they are legitimate, fearing they’re effectively profiting from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offsets, by definition, allow California companies to continue producing more CO2 than otherwise allowed — as well as the toxic pollutants like soot and heavy metals that frequently accompany such emissions — often near poor neighborhoods. Communities near refineries, cement kilns and power plants have frequently opposed offset programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas Joseph, an activist and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California, said offset developers target tribal projects because tribes are in “dire need of revenue” and own vast tracts of mostly intact forest. He said his tribe has resisted multiple pitches from developers. “For us to use this as a means to allow corporations to continue to pollute,” he said, goes “against our cultural values.” He added, “I see it as a second wave of colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desautel, the Intertribal Timber Council president, sees it differently. When the issue comes up among tribal members, he explains that polluters under cap and trade need to pay either the state for permission to pollute, or landowners through carbon offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The check is getting written one way or the other,” he said. “It’s just a question of where it goes and what’s being accomplished with that funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SilviaTerra’s Parisa said that landowners and project developers will continue to respond to the incentives created in the program, in ways that overstate climate progress, until the program itself changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better rules,” he said. “Let’s make sure the dollars we spend actually change things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forests really can be a part of the solution for the climate, but we haven’t gotten it right yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\">http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"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.",
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"order": 9
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"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. ",
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"order": 15
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"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",
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"order": 18
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
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"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",
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"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)",
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},
"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",
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"meta": {
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"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
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"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.",
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"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",
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"order": 11
},
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"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",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"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",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"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",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"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/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"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",
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},
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