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"title": "The Path to Zero-Emission Transportation Means \u003ci>Everything\u003c/i> Must Go Electric",
"headTitle": "The Path to Zero-Emission Transportation Means Everything Must Go Electric | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"dropcap\">Work used to be much simpler for the California Department of Transportation: Widen highways, fill potholes, build new freeways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alas, those quaint days are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get an idea of what planners must prepare for, state officials recently hosted a demonstration of a drone air taxi that will require devising a “highway above the ground,” said Reza Navai, a Caltrans transportation planner. “If you think transportation on the ground is complex.…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such sci-fi-like transit is one of many high-tech changes coming as California implements its planned electrification of transportation to radically reduce greenhouse-gas \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/californias-climate-fight-gets-harder-soon-big-culprit-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">emissions\u003c/a>. The path to zero, as in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/will-california-ban-gas-powered-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">zero-emission vehicles\u003c/a>, extends well beyond flying taxis and the 5 million electric cars the state hopes will be on its roads by 2030. Everything—\u003cem>everything\u003c/em>—will be replaced with an electric analog: from boats, planes and trains to delivery vans to farm tractors and even forklifts. The to-do list stretches as long as California’s seemingly endless blacktop, with freight as a major challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s transportation gurus envision technology that will ping driverless vehicles with an automated message when they stray from their lanes, “smart” roads that charge electric cars and trucks as they pass and an electrified Interstate 5, the West Coast’s main freight corridor. California has already widened its painted lane stripes to six inches from four so self-driving vehicles can better “see” the road. Ultimately, the highways themselves will be redesigned and constructed with different materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s transportation agency, which updates its master plan every five years, is currently preparing a look at 2050. While officials cannot predict each new technological wrinkle, Reza said, “We must be able to consider all the possibilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To achieve a\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-rising-vehicle-emissions-despite-growth-in-electric-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> carbon-free transportation\u003c/a> future, California will need to cover a lot more ground in a short time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California’s trying to be a leader, we have to go as fast as possible,” said Lew Fulton, who studies sustainable transportation at UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies. “Policies are critical to try to speed this up and try to push the envelope, and get all the manufacturers scared enough that they start producing what we need. Carrots and sticks. Carrots being pricing and incentives, sticks being regulatory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has spent more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov/press-releases/2018/10/25/carb-approves-483-million-funding-plan-for-clean-transportation-investments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1 billion\u003c/a> dollars in the last five years to encourage research, subsidize the exchange of internal combustion vehicles for zero-emission options, formulate cleaner fuels and expand vital charging infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is working with technology firms to clean up heavily polluting marine fuels belching from container ships at California ports. And state funds are helping Central Valley farmers, who are on a waiting list to crush their aging farm equipment and receive rebates to replace it with fuel-efficient models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such projects may get a boost from California’s Tesla-owner governor, Gavin Newsom, as budget negotiations wrap up this month. His proposed spending plan includes nearly $24 billion for all aspects of transportation, a 6% increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, a group of legislators has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/CALSTARTletter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expressed support\u003c/a> for a nonprofit organization’s proposal that 15% of annual revenue from cap-and-trade auctions go to programs to clean up emissions from trucks, buses and off-road vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"infogram-embed\">\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://infogram.com/transportationtrucking-facts-1hmr6g3dgvo34nl\">https://infogram.com/transportationtrucking-facts-1hmr6g3dgvo34nl\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Few transportation modes have clean-engine options as advanced as those for passenger cars. Buses are the exception. The Chinese company BYD, manufacturing electric buses in Lancaster, is the largest in North America and has produced more than 300 buses, including nearly half of the Antelope Valley Transit Authority’s pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Los Angeles has \u003ca href=\"https://thesource.metro.net/2017/07/27/as-metro-pursues-electric-bus-fleet-by-2030-three-bus-contracts-go-to-board-on-thursday/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pledged\u003c/a> to convert its bus fleet—second-largest in the country—to electric by 2030, though mechanical and performance \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-electric-buses-20180520-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">problems\u003c/a> plagued the rollout of its BYD vehicles. Many other transit districts have similar goals and include school buses. The financial burden of those commitments is softened by state \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiahvip.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vouchers\u003c/a> for up to $200,000 toward the purchase of each zero-emission bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The availability of some electric all-terrain recreational vehicles, farm machinery and specialty equipment such as cherry-pickers and front-end loaders has produced niche markets. Generally, though, the readily available transportation technology stops where the road ends: Electrification of trains, planes and ships is less advanced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/tech/techreport/ogv_tech_report.pdf?_ga=2.214068434.430973912.1559599041-177476988.1546391733\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis\u003c/a> found that ocean-going vessels still depend on heavily polluting marine fuels and, aside from nuclear powered-engines for military use, zero- and near-zero technologies are not currently available. Among smaller vessels, the famed Red and White \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california/We-Can-Go-Greener-San-Francisco-Tour-Boat-Company-Launches-Hybrid-Electric-Ferry-510888701.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fleet\u003c/a> that tours San Francisco Bay added a new hybrid-electric ferry this week. And electric-battery passenger \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/passenger-ferries-are-going-electric-cb70b29f-fb19-4a10-bf53-24df0d9985bd.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ferries\u003c/a> may soon operate in Washington state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ships docking in California’s ports frequently forgo using diesel generators to operate and instead plug into shore-side electric power. But even when stationary, big vessels have a massive appetite: A nine-cylinder ship engine—five-stories tall and weighing 1,500 tons—can produce enough power to run 30,000 homes for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s busy docks teem with those ships. About 40% of containerized goods that come into the United States enter through California, said the state’s Environmental Protection Secretary Jared Blumenfeld. Their sulfur-based fuel “has to be heated up before you can use it—very energy-intensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soot belching from Pacific vessels has been detected as far inland as Oklahoma, he said. When Blumenfeld was regional director of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, it pushed through rules that require ships to switch to low-sulfur fuel 200 miles from the coast by next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trucking is the major freight challenge for California. More than 97% of the state’s big rigs operate on diesel fuel, which is highly polluting and a significant contributor to detrimental health effects on those residing near transit corridors. Currently only a handful of electric or hybrid heavy-duty truck options exists, mostly prototypes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943158\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943158\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cars sit in miles-long traffic jam on southbound highway 101 as they approach a flooded section of the freeway on December 3, 2014 in Mill Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I see 100% electrification as being far off; there just aren’t any of those trucks on the road,” said Brandon Taylor, director of transportation for GSC Logistics, a freight company operating at the Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSC is testing a prototype electric semi. “We know electric is going to be the future, but the technology is not there yet. It’s going to be a huge challenge, but not an insurmountable one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freight represents a transportation problem somewhat of our own making: We desire—and order online—more and more stuff, for delivery \u003cem>right now.\u003c/em> With each mouse click, delivery vans and trucks flood the state’s highways and neighborhood streets, dispatched to cover what supply-chain planners call “the last mile” of residential delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20% of trips in the United States \u003ca href=\"https://nhts.ornl.gov/vehicle-trips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are\u003c/a>, in fact, less than a mile. But it’s too late to shut off the merchandise-delivery tap, and freight accounts for about a \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ogm/cs_freight_action_plan/Documents/CSFAP_Main%20Document_FINAL_07272016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">third \u003c/a>of the California Gross Domestic Product\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The influx of these trucks and vans runs counter to one of California’s bottom-line goals: to reduce not just the number of vehicles on roads but also, and more critically, the miles they travel. The mid-sized delivery vans taking the package handoff from heavy-duty trucks are turning over odometers at a dizzying rate; in Southern California, an \u003ca href=\"http://media.metro.net/projects_studies/sr_710/images/sr_710_faqs_goods_movement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimated \u003c/a>85% of truck traffic is dedicated to local deliveries and short hops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The future is likely to include on-demand trucking. Predictably, there’s an app for that, Uber Freight, which launched in California in 2017. It’s one of a handful of load-matching apps that connect shippers with smaller, more nimble trucks plying local routes. The system is intended to increase efficiency and decrease total miles driven. Additionally, electric trucks can return to a home base at night to be recharged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same applies to another innovation expected to ease this delivery-vehicle Sigalert: Widespread adoption of 3D printers that will construct products closer to where consumers live, shrinking delivery areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big rigs in California not subject to the smog inspections that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.bar.ca.gov/Consumer/Smog_Check_Program_History.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">applied to cars\u003c/a> since 1982, partly due to early pushback from trucking companies and insurmountable complexities involved in regulating out-of-state vehicles. But that could change: A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bill \u003c/a>advancing in the Legislature would create smog checks for big diesel trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more efficient parking, with real-time information about empty spots, would allow drivers to use 25% less fuel to find them, according to a recent Caltrans plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will need to retrofit highways to allow charging of electric freight trucks, which some experts say may still be a decade away. Planners are examining exactly what an electric-truck stop would require: Big trucks need big batteries and very large charging infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utility companies in California, Oregon and Washington are underwriting a study that will examine how to provide electric charging and hydrogen fueling along the entirety of Interstate 5, with bays for next-generation semi-trucks running on batteries or hydrogen gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state air board contributed $41 million to a test program at the port of Los Angeles, which two years ago set aside a mile of highway with an overhead charging system to refuel prototype electric trucks, much like electric cable cars operate. Ten big rigs that run on hydrogen-electric hybrid engines are coming next year, added to 16,000 trucks that work the port every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently there is only a handful of electric or hybrid heavy-duty trucks, and those are prototypes. State regulators recognize that innovation doesn’t always align with government goals and deadlines and is planning for clean technology where feasible. Like everything else, it’s not going to be cheap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of an electric semi-tractor trailer, $300,000 and more, is more than twice that of a traditional diesel truck. That can be a burden on mom and pop companies, 90% of whose fleets contain six or fewer trucks and who operate on relatively tight margins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be tough,” even with state subsidies, said Chris Shimoda, lobbyist for the California Trucking Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimoda said his members don’t care what type of fuel the state requires. “Everybody knows this is the direction California is going,” he said. “It’s easy to say we have a goal of eliminating fossil fuels, but as I think everyone would admit, the details of how to get there are important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Port of Oakland, with freight-train horns blaring in the background, Taylor said by phone that it’s eerie to see—but not hear—his company’s electric big-rig pull into one of the loading bays. “It kind of sneaks up on you,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has been testing the truck for more than a year, underwritten partly by a state grant, and expects delivery of two more in the fall. Taylor uses the truck to move containers around the port but has yet to put it on the road, echoing the “range anxiety” associated with electric cars. His truck’s battery runs out and needs recharging after 120 miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The steep cost of replacing entire trucking fleets with electric vehicles, even with subsidies, may be a burden on small companies, he acknowledged. But improving air quality is a worthy goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen myself the difference as the diesel engines have gotten cleaner and cleaner,” Taylor said. “It used to be that with all the trucks working the port, I’d get a headache after an hour or two.” Now he doesn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess it can only get better with electrics,” he said. “I’m not sure how it’s all going to work, but it’s happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"dropcap\">Work used to be much simpler for the California Department of Transportation: Widen highways, fill potholes, build new freeways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alas, those quaint days are gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get an idea of what planners must prepare for, state officials recently hosted a demonstration of a drone air taxi that will require devising a “highway above the ground,” said Reza Navai, a Caltrans transportation planner. “If you think transportation on the ground is complex.…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such sci-fi-like transit is one of many high-tech changes coming as California implements its planned electrification of transportation to radically reduce greenhouse-gas \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/californias-climate-fight-gets-harder-soon-big-culprit-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">emissions\u003c/a>. The path to zero, as in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/will-california-ban-gas-powered-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">zero-emission vehicles\u003c/a>, extends well beyond flying taxis and the 5 million electric cars the state hopes will be on its roads by 2030. Everything—\u003cem>everything\u003c/em>—will be replaced with an electric analog: from boats, planes and trains to delivery vans to farm tractors and even forklifts. The to-do list stretches as long as California’s seemingly endless blacktop, with freight as a major challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s transportation gurus envision technology that will ping driverless vehicles with an automated message when they stray from their lanes, “smart” roads that charge electric cars and trucks as they pass and an electrified Interstate 5, the West Coast’s main freight corridor. California has already widened its painted lane stripes to six inches from four so self-driving vehicles can better “see” the road. Ultimately, the highways themselves will be redesigned and constructed with different materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s transportation agency, which updates its master plan every five years, is currently preparing a look at 2050. While officials cannot predict each new technological wrinkle, Reza said, “We must be able to consider all the possibilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To achieve a\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-rising-vehicle-emissions-despite-growth-in-electric-cars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> carbon-free transportation\u003c/a> future, California will need to cover a lot more ground in a short time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California’s trying to be a leader, we have to go as fast as possible,” said Lew Fulton, who studies sustainable transportation at UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies. “Policies are critical to try to speed this up and try to push the envelope, and get all the manufacturers scared enough that they start producing what we need. Carrots and sticks. Carrots being pricing and incentives, sticks being regulatory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has spent more than \u003ca href=\"http://www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov/press-releases/2018/10/25/carb-approves-483-million-funding-plan-for-clean-transportation-investments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1 billion\u003c/a> dollars in the last five years to encourage research, subsidize the exchange of internal combustion vehicles for zero-emission options, formulate cleaner fuels and expand vital charging infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is working with technology firms to clean up heavily polluting marine fuels belching from container ships at California ports. And state funds are helping Central Valley farmers, who are on a waiting list to crush their aging farm equipment and receive rebates to replace it with fuel-efficient models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such projects may get a boost from California’s Tesla-owner governor, Gavin Newsom, as budget negotiations wrap up this month. His proposed spending plan includes nearly $24 billion for all aspects of transportation, a 6% increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, a group of legislators has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/CALSTARTletter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expressed support\u003c/a> for a nonprofit organization’s proposal that 15% of annual revenue from cap-and-trade auctions go to programs to clean up emissions from trucks, buses and off-road vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"infogram-embed\">\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://infogram.com/transportationtrucking-facts-1hmr6g3dgvo34nl\">https://infogram.com/transportationtrucking-facts-1hmr6g3dgvo34nl\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Few transportation modes have clean-engine options as advanced as those for passenger cars. Buses are the exception. The Chinese company BYD, manufacturing electric buses in Lancaster, is the largest in North America and has produced more than 300 buses, including nearly half of the Antelope Valley Transit Authority’s pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Los Angeles has \u003ca href=\"https://thesource.metro.net/2017/07/27/as-metro-pursues-electric-bus-fleet-by-2030-three-bus-contracts-go-to-board-on-thursday/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pledged\u003c/a> to convert its bus fleet—second-largest in the country—to electric by 2030, though mechanical and performance \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-electric-buses-20180520-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">problems\u003c/a> plagued the rollout of its BYD vehicles. Many other transit districts have similar goals and include school buses. The financial burden of those commitments is softened by state \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiahvip.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vouchers\u003c/a> for up to $200,000 toward the purchase of each zero-emission bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The availability of some electric all-terrain recreational vehicles, farm machinery and specialty equipment such as cherry-pickers and front-end loaders has produced niche markets. Generally, though, the readily available transportation technology stops where the road ends: Electrification of trains, planes and ships is less advanced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A state \u003ca href=\"https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/tech/techreport/ogv_tech_report.pdf?_ga=2.214068434.430973912.1559599041-177476988.1546391733\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis\u003c/a> found that ocean-going vessels still depend on heavily polluting marine fuels and, aside from nuclear powered-engines for military use, zero- and near-zero technologies are not currently available. Among smaller vessels, the famed Red and White \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california/We-Can-Go-Greener-San-Francisco-Tour-Boat-Company-Launches-Hybrid-Electric-Ferry-510888701.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fleet\u003c/a> that tours San Francisco Bay added a new hybrid-electric ferry this week. And electric-battery passenger \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/passenger-ferries-are-going-electric-cb70b29f-fb19-4a10-bf53-24df0d9985bd.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ferries\u003c/a> may soon operate in Washington state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ships docking in California’s ports frequently forgo using diesel generators to operate and instead plug into shore-side electric power. But even when stationary, big vessels have a massive appetite: A nine-cylinder ship engine—five-stories tall and weighing 1,500 tons—can produce enough power to run 30,000 homes for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s busy docks teem with those ships. About 40% of containerized goods that come into the United States enter through California, said the state’s Environmental Protection Secretary Jared Blumenfeld. Their sulfur-based fuel “has to be heated up before you can use it—very energy-intensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soot belching from Pacific vessels has been detected as far inland as Oklahoma, he said. When Blumenfeld was regional director of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, it pushed through rules that require ships to switch to low-sulfur fuel 200 miles from the coast by next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trucking is the major freight challenge for California. More than 97% of the state’s big rigs operate on diesel fuel, which is highly polluting and a significant contributor to detrimental health effects on those residing near transit corridors. Currently only a handful of electric or hybrid heavy-duty truck options exists, mostly prototypes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943158\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943158\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/RS13356_459889074-qut.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cars sit in miles-long traffic jam on southbound highway 101 as they approach a flooded section of the freeway on December 3, 2014 in Mill Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I see 100% electrification as being far off; there just aren’t any of those trucks on the road,” said Brandon Taylor, director of transportation for GSC Logistics, a freight company operating at the Port of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSC is testing a prototype electric semi. “We know electric is going to be the future, but the technology is not there yet. It’s going to be a huge challenge, but not an insurmountable one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freight represents a transportation problem somewhat of our own making: We desire—and order online—more and more stuff, for delivery \u003cem>right now.\u003c/em> With each mouse click, delivery vans and trucks flood the state’s highways and neighborhood streets, dispatched to cover what supply-chain planners call “the last mile” of residential delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 20% of trips in the United States \u003ca href=\"https://nhts.ornl.gov/vehicle-trips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are\u003c/a>, in fact, less than a mile. But it’s too late to shut off the merchandise-delivery tap, and freight accounts for about a \u003ca href=\"http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ogm/cs_freight_action_plan/Documents/CSFAP_Main%20Document_FINAL_07272016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">third \u003c/a>of the California Gross Domestic Product\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The influx of these trucks and vans runs counter to one of California’s bottom-line goals: to reduce not just the number of vehicles on roads but also, and more critically, the miles they travel. The mid-sized delivery vans taking the package handoff from heavy-duty trucks are turning over odometers at a dizzying rate; in Southern California, an \u003ca href=\"http://media.metro.net/projects_studies/sr_710/images/sr_710_faqs_goods_movement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimated \u003c/a>85% of truck traffic is dedicated to local deliveries and short hops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The future is likely to include on-demand trucking. Predictably, there’s an app for that, Uber Freight, which launched in California in 2017. It’s one of a handful of load-matching apps that connect shippers with smaller, more nimble trucks plying local routes. The system is intended to increase efficiency and decrease total miles driven. Additionally, electric trucks can return to a home base at night to be recharged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same applies to another innovation expected to ease this delivery-vehicle Sigalert: Widespread adoption of 3D printers that will construct products closer to where consumers live, shrinking delivery areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big rigs in California not subject to the smog inspections that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.bar.ca.gov/Consumer/Smog_Check_Program_History.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">applied to cars\u003c/a> since 1982, partly due to early pushback from trucking companies and insurmountable complexities involved in regulating out-of-state vehicles. But that could change: A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bill \u003c/a>advancing in the Legislature would create smog checks for big diesel trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more efficient parking, with real-time information about empty spots, would allow drivers to use 25% less fuel to find them, according to a recent Caltrans plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state will need to retrofit highways to allow charging of electric freight trucks, which some experts say may still be a decade away. Planners are examining exactly what an electric-truck stop would require: Big trucks need big batteries and very large charging infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utility companies in California, Oregon and Washington are underwriting a study that will examine how to provide electric charging and hydrogen fueling along the entirety of Interstate 5, with bays for next-generation semi-trucks running on batteries or hydrogen gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state air board contributed $41 million to a test program at the port of Los Angeles, which two years ago set aside a mile of highway with an overhead charging system to refuel prototype electric trucks, much like electric cable cars operate. Ten big rigs that run on hydrogen-electric hybrid engines are coming next year, added to 16,000 trucks that work the port every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently there is only a handful of electric or hybrid heavy-duty trucks, and those are prototypes. State regulators recognize that innovation doesn’t always align with government goals and deadlines and is planning for clean technology where feasible. Like everything else, it’s not going to be cheap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of an electric semi-tractor trailer, $300,000 and more, is more than twice that of a traditional diesel truck. That can be a burden on mom and pop companies, 90% of whose fleets contain six or fewer trucks and who operate on relatively tight margins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be tough,” even with state subsidies, said Chris Shimoda, lobbyist for the California Trucking Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimoda said his members don’t care what type of fuel the state requires. “Everybody knows this is the direction California is going,” he said. “It’s easy to say we have a goal of eliminating fossil fuels, but as I think everyone would admit, the details of how to get there are important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Port of Oakland, with freight-train horns blaring in the background, Taylor said by phone that it’s eerie to see—but not hear—his company’s electric big-rig pull into one of the loading bays. “It kind of sneaks up on you,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has been testing the truck for more than a year, underwritten partly by a state grant, and expects delivery of two more in the fall. Taylor uses the truck to move containers around the port but has yet to put it on the road, echoing the “range anxiety” associated with electric cars. His truck’s battery runs out and needs recharging after 120 miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The steep cost of replacing entire trucking fleets with electric vehicles, even with subsidies, may be a burden on small companies, he acknowledged. But improving air quality is a worthy goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen myself the difference as the diesel engines have gotten cleaner and cleaner,” Taylor said. “It used to be that with all the trucks working the port, I’d get a headache after an hour or two.” Now he doesn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess it can only get better with electrics,” he said. “I’m not sure how it’s all going to work, but it’s happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Who’s Checking Your Neighborhood for Flammable Brush? Maybe No One",
"headTitle": "Who’s Checking Your Neighborhood for Flammable Brush? Maybe No One | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s one of the most confounding sights of California’s recent firestorms: One home is completely destroyed, and another right next door is still standing, even untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"small\"]Cal Fire inspected just 17% of properties in 2018 in areas where the agency is responsible for checking defensible space, according to a KQED analysis of almost a half-million inspection records. That is just over half of the agency’s 33% goal.[/pullquote]Might be luck. Or it could be because that homeowner took care of the property’s “defensible space,” an area around the building where flammable brush and grass have been cut back, depriving the fire of fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say even a few homes surrounded by too much growth can put an entire neighborhood at risk. So in many parts of the state, inspectors go door to door, checking a home’s defensible space and issuing citations for violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a KQED investigation has found homes and buildings in Northern California, in some of the most at-risk fire areas in the state, are rarely inspected \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency responsible for checking defensible space in much of California\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Cal Fire region in the Sierra Nevada, just 6% of properties were inspected in 2018. In the Bay Area, Cal Fire inspected just 12% of properties in its jurisdiction that includes Napa and Sonoma counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in Southern California coastal counties, county fire departments are checking homes at much higher rates, with some counties looking at 100% of properties and sending homeowners multiple reminders to make their houses safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be doing more, doing better,” said Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension, after reviewing the findings. “We need to have more people aware they live on a fire-prone landscape and taking action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"small\" citation=\"Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale\"]‘Having one property that’s badly out of compliance can put an entire neighborhood at risk.’[/pullquote]Cal Fire, for its part, says it’s struggling to meet its inspection goals due to a lack of inspectors and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many Californians, a defensible space inspection will be the only exposure to wildfire planning they get.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not too many other ways people will learn about the vulnerability of their own home other than having an inspector or firefighter at their property,” Moritz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lake County: Many Fires, Few Inspections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One place struggling to enforce defensible space is also one of the hardest hit by wildfires in recent years: Lake County, just north of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal Fire unit that covers Lake County inspected just 12% of properties in its overall region in 2018. Local fire departments have also tried to do inspections, but have been busy with the catastrophic fires of recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, the \u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1226\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valley Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> burned almost 2,000 homes and structures in the county. Then came the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1390\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clayton Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2016, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1876\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sulphur Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2017 and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6073/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mendocino Complex\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2018. That four-county blaze was the largest in state history, scorching 717 square miles, a bigger area than is taken up by the cities of Houston or Phoenix.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1943083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_190607C.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve burned up about 45 percent of our county land mass,” said Willie Sapeta, fire chief for the Lake County Fire Protection District. “Lake County as a whole is suffering from PTSD just because everyone is so traumatized by it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sapeta has seen first-hand the difference that maintaining defensible space can make. In 2015, the Clayton Fire was racing through tall grass and brush on the outskirts of the town of Lower Lake. But it slowed down when it approached the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum; there, the grasses had been mowed within 100 feet of the wooden building, creating a buffer. The shrubs around the museum also had large gaps between them, another important defensible space tactic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The museum, and the buildings behind it, were left untouched by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Definitely a big part of Lower Lake was saved by having that defensible space in place,” Sapeta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the hills remain covered with dead, blackened trees, but the undergrowth has sprung back, fed by this winter’s abundant rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the scars of wildfire still visible, Sapeta says, many homeowners still haven’t cleared their defensible space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life happens,” he said. “They’ve got kids. They’ve got jobs. And then all of a sudden they don’t realize we’re in June and all that brush is right up against their home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighters in Sapeta’s fire district, one of several covering the county, try to make defensible space inspections when they can. But mostly they’re responding to emergency calls like fires, car crashes and heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943085\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-800x752.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-800x752.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-160x150.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-768x722.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-1020x959.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake County, where Willie Sapeta leads the fire protection district, passed a defensible space ordinance for the first time this year. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To really educate homeowners and enforce the rules, Sapeta says, he needs dedicated inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would love to have a fire prevention program where I’ve got a staff of six or eight people,” he said. “Nothing more in the world I’d love, to be able to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the funds, however, aren’t there. “It takes everything we have just to keep our doors open. The small rural counties just don’t have the resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake County’s Board of Supervisors passed its first defensible space ordinance earlier this year, despite the opposition of some members of the public concerned about the cost of clearing their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, even without additional funding, inspectors are visiting homes for the first time. To do that, the planning department is temporarily pulling building inspectors off their jobs to focus on vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Other counties are in the same boat, particularly like Butte and Shasta counties,” said Mary Jane Montana, Lake County’s chief building official. “None of us have a lot money, and we’re faced with the same thing. So, we kind of just had to say, ‘We’re doing it this year.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Everybody Wants to Save Their Community’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire safety is very different in other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"small\" citation=\"Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta, on the lack of defensible space inspections in Lake County\"]‘It takes everything we have just to keep our doors open. The small rural counties just don’t have the resources.’[/pullquote]“All these homes have chimneys,” said Charles Butler, code enforcement officer for San Diego Fire-Rescue, squinting at a row of suburban homes. “Another thing I look for is tree canopy up over the chimney. That is a violation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butler enters the information on an iPad, something he does at thousands of homes every year. He’s one of five inspectors responsible for about 45,000 homes in San Diego’s wildland-urban interface, where houses are nestled against open space or rugged canyons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he finds dead brush or tall weeds, he leaves the homeowner a notice about what to fix, with several weeks to comply. The city then does another inspection, and if the work still isn’t complete, follows up a third time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If problems persist, the city hires a contractor to clear the brush. The owner is then on the hook for the cost, and a lien is put on their property. The city has to resort to this process, called “forced abatement,” on a few dozen properties each year, often at \u003ca href=\"https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/science-environment/this-company-will-clear-fire-hazards-from-your-property-whether-you-asked-it-to-or-not/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">considerable cost \u003c/a>to the owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people who don’t follow the rules are elderly or financially burdened, says Marcy Garcia\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> San Diego Fire-Rescue’s code compliance supervisor. In those cases, the city tries to connect violators with local fire-safe councils, the community-led groups that have \u003ca href=\"http://firesafesdcounty.org/dsap/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grants or have other resources\u003c/a> available to help get the work done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943081\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-800x714.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-800x714.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-160x143.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-768x685.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-1020x910.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Diego code enforcement officer Charles Butler enters defensible space inspection data. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garcia says the overall compliance rate is high because the city provides crucial reminders to homeowners who may care about fire safety but haven’t gotten around to fixing their property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially in the areas where there have been fires before, they’re very receptive to it,” said Garcia. “Everybody wants to save their community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cal Fire Struggling\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to local governments, Cal Fire is also responsible for enforcing defensible space regulations, for more than 750,000 homes and buildings within 31 million acres that fall outside city and town limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across that territory, Cal Fire is struggling to meet its inspection goals, especially in rural Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A defensible space law, passed in 2005, \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/communications_firesafety_100feet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requires a 100-foot buffer\u003c/a> around homes in fire zones. From zero to 30 feet, homeowners must create a “lean and green” zone by trimming trees so they don’t hang over roofs and clearing dead grass and brush. Between 30 and 100 feet, they must keep shrubs spaced apart and grasses mowed to 4 inches or less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to inspect every property in our responsibility area every three years,” said Steven Hawks, deputy chief for Cal Fire’s wildland fire-prevention engineering program. “Defensible space is a critical component to a home surviving a wildland fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire reports it’s close to its goal. From July 2017 through June 2018, it completed 217,666 inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But doesn’t mean Cal Fire visited 217,666 properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED analysis of almost a half- million inspection records shows the agency’s inspection rate was just 17% of properties in 2018, far below the agency’s 33% goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason for the discrepancy is that Cal Fire includes multiple trips to the same properties that failed a first inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also includes visits in areas where responsibility for inspections has been handed to county fire departments. And those rates are dramatically higher than Cal Fire’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Orange County and Ventura County fire departments each inspect 100% of properties in risky fire zones every year. The Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara County fire departments get to around 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Cal Fire sends money to those counties, as well as Marin and Kern, because they do their own firefighting, it generally doesn’t cover the costs of their entire defensible space programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943088\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1943088\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B-160x224.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s defensible space law requires managing vegetation 100 feet around structures. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Achieving those high inspection rates takes substantial county investment. Some county fire departments have dedicated teams of year-round inspectors, while others rely on firefighting engine crews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does take resources and commitment, but we do it because it’s one of the most important programs in the department,” says Ventura County Fire Marshal Massoud Araghi. “This is what we believe will save structures and will help our firefighters be safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Araghi estimated a 99.9% compliance rate from the county’s homeowners, something he attributes to annual inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very important the time period is consistent,” he said. “Everyone knows they have to have it clean by a certain time. If you have long periods of time in between, you won’t be successful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources Lacking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some high-risk fire areas where Cal Fire does inspections, properties receive dramatically few inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the low end, just 6% of properties received inspections in 2018 by the Cal Fire unit that covers the Sierra Nevada counties of Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento and Alpine. At that rate, which has remained mostly consistent since 2010, each property would be visited about once every 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same pattern is found in the nearby rural counties of Nevada, Yuba, Placer, Sierra and Sutter, where 7% of properties were inspected in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties, where recent fires have been historically devastating, Cal Fire inspected just 12% of properties last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire gives several reasons for the low numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, the agency hires between four and six defensible space inspectors in each of its 21 units throughout the state, but those inspectors are only funded to work three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in 2011, that money came from a $152 annual fee on homeowners within Cal Fire’s jurisdiction\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>But the levy was opposed by many in rural counties who saw it as an added tax, and in 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to suspend it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Cal Fire’s defensible space funding has come from revenue generated by the state’s cap-and-trade program, designed to lower carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without more funding, Cal Fire Deputy Chief Hawks says, it will be tough to increase the inspection rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another issue is that inspectors are not distributed in proportion to the number of properties in each region. A Cal Fire unit that covers 35,000 properties has four seasonal inspectors, for example, but one with double that number has just six.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943091\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-800x657.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-800x657.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-768x630.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-1020x837.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Tony Kochis discusses defensible space with a homeowner in Yountville, California in 2014. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We should look at the numbers like you’re looking at them,” Hawks told KQED. “We may have some units that have a larger number of parcels than others, and they should get more of the resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has the power to hire contractors to clean up properties when homeowners don’t comply, but it’s not something the agency currently does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t really have the staff to accomplish that mission,” Hawks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, Hawks says, Cal Fire hasn’t been able to hire enough people to take care of its defensible space responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have not been able to fill our defensible space inspectors in every unit every year,” he said. “So having enough qualified people on the list to fill our positions is important.” Hawks could not provide numbers for how many positions have gone unfilled or the reasons why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, some inspections are done by the agency’s firefighters during down times. But with fire seasons getting longer and more intense, there hasn’t been much of that in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult with the fire seasons being the way they’ve been,” Hawks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Doubling Inspections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in Sacramento are now considering a bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1516\u003c/a>, that mandates Cal Fire do inspections at a rate double what it does now. The bill requires the agency to inspect properties once every three years, beginning in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to change the way that we think about clearing the foliage off of private property,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale. “Having one property that’s badly out of compliance can put an entire neighborhood at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would also create new defensible space rules specifically for the zone within five feet of a building, something many defensible space experts recommend. Cal Fire would be responsible for identifying which kinds of plants homeowners aren’t allowed to grow in that zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say absolutely the zero-to-5 feet is the most important place to focus on,” said Alexandra Syphard, chief scientist at Sage Underwriters, a company that evaluates the fire risk of homes for the insurance industry. “The things that tend to be the most important are those things that are right up against the house: trees overhanging your roof, vegetation that’s touching the structure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many homes are ignited by embers that are blown ahead of a wildfire as opposed to actually being lit by flames. If a tree or bush next to a house catches fire that way, it can spread to the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defensible space can reduce that risk and also give firefighters the necessary space to maneuver and defend a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t have to be drastic,” said Syphard. “You can still have a lot of vegetation on your property, but reducing it by at least 20% is a critical threshold where you do significantly improve survival chances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she cautions that there’s no guarantee a home will be spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of homes with more defensible space than is even required are still destroyed by fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With many Californians struggling to get fire insurance policies, there’s also a push for insurance companies to consider the maintenance of defensible space when setting rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to look at how do we allow Californians to get maybe a discount for mitigating wildfire risk, for hardening their home … similar to what we give in terms of discounts for good drivers,” said Ricardo Lara, California’s insurance commissioner. “We’re pushing insurance companies now, and surprisingly they’re coming to the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has not said what doubling inspections would cost, but if AB 1516 passes, the agency would request the funding as part of its annual budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do need more resources for Cal Fire,” said Assemblymember Friedman. “I do believe that Governor Newsom is very serious about investing to make our communities more resilient to fire and he’ll see the wisdom in investing in these kinds of programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"780\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.carto.com/builder/eb7d93a3-2cc8-410e-826a-22d3e7e97721/embed\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A KQED investigation found homes and buildings in rural parts of Northern California, in some of the state's most fire-prone areas, are rarely inspected for brush and grass that can ignite and put whole neighborhoods in jeopardy.",
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"description": "A KQED investigation found homes and buildings in rural parts of Northern California, in some of the state's most fire-prone areas, are rarely inspected for brush and grass that can ignite and put whole neighborhoods in jeopardy.",
"title": "Who’s Checking Your Neighborhood for Flammable Brush? Maybe No One | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s one of the most confounding sights of California’s recent firestorms: One home is completely destroyed, and another right next door is still standing, even untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "Cal Fire inspected just 17% of properties in 2018 in areas where the agency is responsible for checking defensible space, according to a KQED analysis of almost a half-million inspection records. That is just over half of the agency’s 33% goal.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Might be luck. Or it could be because that homeowner took care of the property’s “defensible space,” an area around the building where flammable brush and grass have been cut back, depriving the fire of fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say even a few homes surrounded by too much growth can put an entire neighborhood at risk. So in many parts of the state, inspectors go door to door, checking a home’s defensible space and issuing citations for violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a KQED investigation has found homes and buildings in Northern California, in some of the most at-risk fire areas in the state, are rarely inspected \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency responsible for checking defensible space in much of California\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Cal Fire region in the Sierra Nevada, just 6% of properties were inspected in 2018. In the Bay Area, Cal Fire inspected just 12% of properties in its jurisdiction that includes Napa and Sonoma counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in Southern California coastal counties, county fire departments are checking homes at much higher rates, with some counties looking at 100% of properties and sending homeowners multiple reminders to make their houses safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be doing more, doing better,” said Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension, after reviewing the findings. “We need to have more people aware they live on a fire-prone landscape and taking action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Having one property that’s badly out of compliance can put an entire neighborhood at risk.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cal Fire, for its part, says it’s struggling to meet its inspection goals due to a lack of inspectors and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many Californians, a defensible space inspection will be the only exposure to wildfire planning they get.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not too many other ways people will learn about the vulnerability of their own home other than having an inspector or firefighter at their property,” Moritz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lake County: Many Fires, Few Inspections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One place struggling to enforce defensible space is also one of the hardest hit by wildfires in recent years: Lake County, just north of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal Fire unit that covers Lake County inspected just 12% of properties in its overall region in 2018. Local fire departments have also tried to do inspections, but have been busy with the catastrophic fires of recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, the \u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1226\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valley Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> burned almost 2,000 homes and structures in the county. Then came the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1390\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clayton Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2016, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1876\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sulphur Fire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2017 and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6073/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mendocino Complex\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2018. That four-county blaze was the largest in state history, scorching 717 square miles, a bigger area than is taken up by the cities of Houston or Phoenix.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1943083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_190607C.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve burned up about 45 percent of our county land mass,” said Willie Sapeta, fire chief for the Lake County Fire Protection District. “Lake County as a whole is suffering from PTSD just because everyone is so traumatized by it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sapeta has seen first-hand the difference that maintaining defensible space can make. In 2015, the Clayton Fire was racing through tall grass and brush on the outskirts of the town of Lower Lake. But it slowed down when it approached the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum; there, the grasses had been mowed within 100 feet of the wooden building, creating a buffer. The shrubs around the museum also had large gaps between them, another important defensible space tactic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The museum, and the buildings behind it, were left untouched by the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Definitely a big part of Lower Lake was saved by having that defensible space in place,” Sapeta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the hills remain covered with dead, blackened trees, but the undergrowth has sprung back, fed by this winter’s abundant rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the scars of wildfire still visible, Sapeta says, many homeowners still haven’t cleared their defensible space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life happens,” he said. “They’ve got kids. They’ve got jobs. And then all of a sudden they don’t realize we’re in June and all that brush is right up against their home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighters in Sapeta’s fire district, one of several covering the county, try to make defensible space inspections when they can. But mostly they’re responding to emergency calls like fires, car crashes and heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943085\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-800x752.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-800x752.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-160x150.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-768x722.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county-1020x959.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/lake-county.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake County, where Willie Sapeta leads the fire protection district, passed a defensible space ordinance for the first time this year. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To really educate homeowners and enforce the rules, Sapeta says, he needs dedicated inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would love to have a fire prevention program where I’ve got a staff of six or eight people,” he said. “Nothing more in the world I’d love, to be able to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the funds, however, aren’t there. “It takes everything we have just to keep our doors open. The small rural counties just don’t have the resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake County’s Board of Supervisors passed its first defensible space ordinance earlier this year, despite the opposition of some members of the public concerned about the cost of clearing their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, even without additional funding, inspectors are visiting homes for the first time. To do that, the planning department is temporarily pulling building inspectors off their jobs to focus on vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Other counties are in the same boat, particularly like Butte and Shasta counties,” said Mary Jane Montana, Lake County’s chief building official. “None of us have a lot money, and we’re faced with the same thing. So, we kind of just had to say, ‘We’re doing it this year.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Everybody Wants to Save Their Community’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire safety is very different in other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It takes everything we have just to keep our doors open. The small rural counties just don’t have the resources.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“All these homes have chimneys,” said Charles Butler, code enforcement officer for San Diego Fire-Rescue, squinting at a row of suburban homes. “Another thing I look for is tree canopy up over the chimney. That is a violation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butler enters the information on an iPad, something he does at thousands of homes every year. He’s one of five inspectors responsible for about 45,000 homes in San Diego’s wildland-urban interface, where houses are nestled against open space or rugged canyons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he finds dead brush or tall weeds, he leaves the homeowner a notice about what to fix, with several weeks to comply. The city then does another inspection, and if the work still isn’t complete, follows up a third time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If problems persist, the city hires a contractor to clear the brush. The owner is then on the hook for the cost, and a lien is put on their property. The city has to resort to this process, called “forced abatement,” on a few dozen properties each year, often at \u003ca href=\"https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/science-environment/this-company-will-clear-fire-hazards-from-your-property-whether-you-asked-it-to-or-not/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">considerable cost \u003c/a>to the owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people who don’t follow the rules are elderly or financially burdened, says Marcy Garcia\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> San Diego Fire-Rescue’s code compliance supervisor. In those cases, the city tries to connect violators with local fire-safe councils, the community-led groups that have \u003ca href=\"http://firesafesdcounty.org/dsap/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grants or have other resources\u003c/a> available to help get the work done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943081\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-800x714.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-800x714.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-160x143.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-768x685.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire-1020x910.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/san-diego-fire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Diego code enforcement officer Charles Butler enters defensible space inspection data. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garcia says the overall compliance rate is high because the city provides crucial reminders to homeowners who may care about fire safety but haven’t gotten around to fixing their property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially in the areas where there have been fires before, they’re very receptive to it,” said Garcia. “Everybody wants to save their community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cal Fire Struggling\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to local governments, Cal Fire is also responsible for enforcing defensible space regulations, for more than 750,000 homes and buildings within 31 million acres that fall outside city and town limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across that territory, Cal Fire is struggling to meet its inspection goals, especially in rural Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A defensible space law, passed in 2005, \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/communications_firesafety_100feet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requires a 100-foot buffer\u003c/a> around homes in fire zones. From zero to 30 feet, homeowners must create a “lean and green” zone by trimming trees so they don’t hang over roofs and clearing dead grass and brush. Between 30 and 100 feet, they must keep shrubs spaced apart and grasses mowed to 4 inches or less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to inspect every property in our responsibility area every three years,” said Steven Hawks, deputy chief for Cal Fire’s wildland fire-prevention engineering program. “Defensible space is a critical component to a home surviving a wildland fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire reports it’s close to its goal. From July 2017 through June 2018, it completed 217,666 inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But doesn’t mean Cal Fire visited 217,666 properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED analysis of almost a half- million inspection records shows the agency’s inspection rate was just 17% of properties in 2018, far below the agency’s 33% goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason for the discrepancy is that Cal Fire includes multiple trips to the same properties that failed a first inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also includes visits in areas where responsibility for inspections has been handed to county fire departments. And those rates are dramatically higher than Cal Fire’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Orange County and Ventura County fire departments each inspect 100% of properties in risky fire zones every year. The Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara County fire departments get to around 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Cal Fire sends money to those counties, as well as Marin and Kern, because they do their own firefighting, it generally doesn’t cover the costs of their entire defensible space programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943088\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1943088\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/KQEDScience_Defensible_SideBar_190607B-160x224.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s defensible space law requires managing vegetation 100 feet around structures. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Achieving those high inspection rates takes substantial county investment. Some county fire departments have dedicated teams of year-round inspectors, while others rely on firefighting engine crews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does take resources and commitment, but we do it because it’s one of the most important programs in the department,” says Ventura County Fire Marshal Massoud Araghi. “This is what we believe will save structures and will help our firefighters be safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Araghi estimated a 99.9% compliance rate from the county’s homeowners, something he attributes to annual inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very important the time period is consistent,” he said. “Everyone knows they have to have it clean by a certain time. If you have long periods of time in between, you won’t be successful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources Lacking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some high-risk fire areas where Cal Fire does inspections, properties receive dramatically few inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the low end, just 6% of properties received inspections in 2018 by the Cal Fire unit that covers the Sierra Nevada counties of Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento and Alpine. At that rate, which has remained mostly consistent since 2010, each property would be visited about once every 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same pattern is found in the nearby rural counties of Nevada, Yuba, Placer, Sierra and Sutter, where 7% of properties were inspected in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties, where recent fires have been historically devastating, Cal Fire inspected just 12% of properties last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire gives several reasons for the low numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, the agency hires between four and six defensible space inspectors in each of its 21 units throughout the state, but those inspectors are only funded to work three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in 2011, that money came from a $152 annual fee on homeowners within Cal Fire’s jurisdiction\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>But the levy was opposed by many in rural counties who saw it as an added tax, and in 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to suspend it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Cal Fire’s defensible space funding has come from revenue generated by the state’s cap-and-trade program, designed to lower carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without more funding, Cal Fire Deputy Chief Hawks says, it will be tough to increase the inspection rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another issue is that inspectors are not distributed in proportion to the number of properties in each region. A Cal Fire unit that covers 35,000 properties has four seasonal inspectors, for example, but one with double that number has just six.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943091\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-800x657.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-800x657.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-768x630.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited-1020x837.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/Cal-fire-edited.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Tony Kochis discusses defensible space with a homeowner in Yountville, California in 2014. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We should look at the numbers like you’re looking at them,” Hawks told KQED. “We may have some units that have a larger number of parcels than others, and they should get more of the resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has the power to hire contractors to clean up properties when homeowners don’t comply, but it’s not something the agency currently does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t really have the staff to accomplish that mission,” Hawks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, Hawks says, Cal Fire hasn’t been able to hire enough people to take care of its defensible space responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have not been able to fill our defensible space inspectors in every unit every year,” he said. “So having enough qualified people on the list to fill our positions is important.” Hawks could not provide numbers for how many positions have gone unfilled or the reasons why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Typically, some inspections are done by the agency’s firefighters during down times. But with fire seasons getting longer and more intense, there hasn’t been much of that in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult with the fire seasons being the way they’ve been,” Hawks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Doubling Inspections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in Sacramento are now considering a bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1516\u003c/a>, that mandates Cal Fire do inspections at a rate double what it does now. The bill requires the agency to inspect properties once every three years, beginning in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to change the way that we think about clearing the foliage off of private property,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale. “Having one property that’s badly out of compliance can put an entire neighborhood at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would also create new defensible space rules specifically for the zone within five feet of a building, something many defensible space experts recommend. Cal Fire would be responsible for identifying which kinds of plants homeowners aren’t allowed to grow in that zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say absolutely the zero-to-5 feet is the most important place to focus on,” said Alexandra Syphard, chief scientist at Sage Underwriters, a company that evaluates the fire risk of homes for the insurance industry. “The things that tend to be the most important are those things that are right up against the house: trees overhanging your roof, vegetation that’s touching the structure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many homes are ignited by embers that are blown ahead of a wildfire as opposed to actually being lit by flames. If a tree or bush next to a house catches fire that way, it can spread to the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defensible space can reduce that risk and also give firefighters the necessary space to maneuver and defend a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t have to be drastic,” said Syphard. “You can still have a lot of vegetation on your property, but reducing it by at least 20% is a critical threshold where you do significantly improve survival chances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she cautions that there’s no guarantee a home will be spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of homes with more defensible space than is even required are still destroyed by fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With many Californians struggling to get fire insurance policies, there’s also a push for insurance companies to consider the maintenance of defensible space when setting rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to look at how do we allow Californians to get maybe a discount for mitigating wildfire risk, for hardening their home … similar to what we give in terms of discounts for good drivers,” said Ricardo Lara, California’s insurance commissioner. “We’re pushing insurance companies now, and surprisingly they’re coming to the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has not said what doubling inspections would cost, but if AB 1516 passes, the agency would request the funding as part of its annual budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do need more resources for Cal Fire,” said Assemblymember Friedman. “I do believe that Governor Newsom is very serious about investing to make our communities more resilient to fire and he’ll see the wisdom in investing in these kinds of programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"780\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.carto.com/builder/eb7d93a3-2cc8-410e-826a-22d3e7e97721/embed\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The New Pollution: Monterey Bay is Swimming in Microplastic",
"headTitle": "The New Pollution: Monterey Bay is Swimming in Microplastic | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiH3f6AKFbc]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey Bay — long considered an environmental success story–is now facing a new threat: tiny particles of plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And scientists are finding that it’s far worse than they suspected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay is a national marine sanctuary, a place where environmental protections and sustainable fishing have transformed what was once a stew of dumped waste products from local sardine canneries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long gone is the industrial filth that John Steinbeck described in his Depression-era novel Cannery Row. Now, the bay is cleaned up and home to seals, otters, and the occasional humpback whale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not where you would expect to find tons of marine pollution,” said Kyle Van Houtan, who oversees research for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s exactly what researchers found when they sent a robot trolling into the water. Van Houtan’s team found microplastics in quantities much higher than previously expected at nearly every level of the water column, according to a paper \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44117-2\">published\u003c/a> this week in \u003cem>Scientific Reports \u003c/em>from the publishers of \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This suggests that the deep sea, the Earth’s largest habitat, could be its “biggest repository of small plastic debris,” said Anela Choy, the report’s lead author, in a statement released with the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At about a quarter-mile below the surface they found plastic particles at concentrations four times that near the surface or along the sea floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the samples were collected in Monterey Canyon, about 15 miles off the coast. The team took a smaller number of samples from Moss Landing Harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous studies focused on plastic on the surface of the ocean, in places such as the much-publicized mid-ocean vortex known as the Great Pacific garbage patch, and on the sea floor. But Scientists have recently begun to focus on degraded motes of microplastics floating around in the water column.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To marine life, scientists say the plastic is indistinguishable from the organic material known as “marine snow,” commonly eaten by small crabs and filter feeders, which consume the plastic and introduce the pollution into the larger food web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our study demonstrates a link between microplastics distributed across the water column and entry of this foreign material into marine food webs,” said Choy, a marine biologist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The paper is a joint study between Scripps, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and its sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plastic particles are not likely local, but the accreted debris from plastics that have been in the ocean for years, maybe decades. Much of it was probably once single-use plastic that has broken down over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are finding material that circulated throughout perhaps the entire North Pacific,” Van Houtan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using robots that filtered seawater to capture particles smaller than 5 millimeters in size, they collected repeated samples at a range of depths, from just below the surface to 3,000 feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943012\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943012\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-800x492.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-800x492.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-768x473.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-1200x738.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both.jpg 1755w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute engineers spent considerable time and effort developing a device to collect and filter microplastic deep below the surface of Monterey Bay. \u003ccite>(Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In order for us to access these areas, we rely on robotics to do that work,” said Kakani Katija, an engineer with MBARI. “We were able to find microplastics even in the deep sea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Removing the plastic from the ocean is a real challenge, Katija said, adding that a solution might be to prevent more of it from polluting the water in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are considering legislation to phase out the sale and distribution of some plastics. The companion bills, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB54\">SB 54\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1080\">AB 1080, \u003c/a> target a wide range of single-use plastics, such as utensils, containers, and other items that can’t be recycled. The bills \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1942666/which-environmental-bills-made-it-to-the-next-legislative-round\">moved forward\u003c/a> in the Legislature last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a dive that I’ve been on that I haven’t seen some form of plastic, whether it be plastic bottles, or plastic bags,” said Amanda Kahn, who studies deep sea sponges in Monterey Bay as a postdoctoral fellow for MBARI. “One time we saw a plastic lawn chair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED Fuhs Fellow Jazmine Mejia Munoz contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/LiH3f6AKFbc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/LiH3f6AKFbc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monterey Bay — long considered an environmental success story–is now facing a new threat: tiny particles of plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And scientists are finding that it’s far worse than they suspected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay is a national marine sanctuary, a place where environmental protections and sustainable fishing have transformed what was once a stew of dumped waste products from local sardine canneries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long gone is the industrial filth that John Steinbeck described in his Depression-era novel Cannery Row. Now, the bay is cleaned up and home to seals, otters, and the occasional humpback whale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not where you would expect to find tons of marine pollution,” said Kyle Van Houtan, who oversees research for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s exactly what researchers found when they sent a robot trolling into the water. Van Houtan’s team found microplastics in quantities much higher than previously expected at nearly every level of the water column, according to a paper \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44117-2\">published\u003c/a> this week in \u003cem>Scientific Reports \u003c/em>from the publishers of \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This suggests that the deep sea, the Earth’s largest habitat, could be its “biggest repository of small plastic debris,” said Anela Choy, the report’s lead author, in a statement released with the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At about a quarter-mile below the surface they found plastic particles at concentrations four times that near the surface or along the sea floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the samples were collected in Monterey Canyon, about 15 miles off the coast. The team took a smaller number of samples from Moss Landing Harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous studies focused on plastic on the surface of the ocean, in places such as the much-publicized mid-ocean vortex known as the Great Pacific garbage patch, and on the sea floor. But Scientists have recently begun to focus on degraded motes of microplastics floating around in the water column.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To marine life, scientists say the plastic is indistinguishable from the organic material known as “marine snow,” commonly eaten by small crabs and filter feeders, which consume the plastic and introduce the pollution into the larger food web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our study demonstrates a link between microplastics distributed across the water column and entry of this foreign material into marine food webs,” said Choy, a marine biologist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The paper is a joint study between Scripps, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and its sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plastic particles are not likely local, but the accreted debris from plastics that have been in the ocean for years, maybe decades. Much of it was probably once single-use plastic that has broken down over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are finding material that circulated throughout perhaps the entire North Pacific,” Van Houtan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using robots that filtered seawater to capture particles smaller than 5 millimeters in size, they collected repeated samples at a range of depths, from just below the surface to 3,000 feet below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1943012\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1943012\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-800x492.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-800x492.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-768x473.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both-1200x738.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/plastic-sampler-both.jpg 1755w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute engineers spent considerable time and effort developing a device to collect and filter microplastic deep below the surface of Monterey Bay. \u003ccite>(Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In order for us to access these areas, we rely on robotics to do that work,” said Kakani Katija, an engineer with MBARI. “We were able to find microplastics even in the deep sea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Removing the plastic from the ocean is a real challenge, Katija said, adding that a solution might be to prevent more of it from polluting the water in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are considering legislation to phase out the sale and distribution of some plastics. The companion bills, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB54\">SB 54\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1080\">AB 1080, \u003c/a> target a wide range of single-use plastics, such as utensils, containers, and other items that can’t be recycled. The bills \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1942666/which-environmental-bills-made-it-to-the-next-legislative-round\">moved forward\u003c/a> in the Legislature last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a dive that I’ve been on that I haven’t seen some form of plastic, whether it be plastic bottles, or plastic bags,” said Amanda Kahn, who studies deep sea sponges in Monterey Bay as a postdoctoral fellow for MBARI. “One time we saw a plastic lawn chair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED Fuhs Fellow Jazmine Mejia Munoz contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>College is where youth set out on their own, but UC Davis was not the right fit for this one Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before dawn, a male black bear, weighing about 100 pounds, was spotted on the southside of campus between the arboretum’s redwood grove and Old Davis Road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I got to the scene about half past seven, it was up a tree by the Hyatt hotel on campus,” said Andy Fell, a spokesperson for the university. Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife responded, along with local police and fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When spooked, bears climb trees. Officials cleared a perimeter to give the bear space. That worked, and the bear climbed down. Then the wildlife team shot it with a tranquilizing dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the tranquilizer could take effect, it climbed up another tree, then passed out and fell down, Fell said. The wildlife team examined the bear and did not find any broken bones or major injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bear’s tenure as an Aggie was brief, as it was released to the “closest suitable habitat,” which you can see here:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCaliforniaDFW%2Fvideos%2F668661273604414%2F&show_text=0&width=560\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why was the bear on campus? It was likely kicked out of its home by a mother who just had cubs, officials said. Fish and Wildlife Officer Kyle Glau said that while the bear is not a cub, it is a younger bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a younger bear looking for his own home territory,” Glau said. “He was looking to solve three simple needs: food, water and habitat. And he happened to run up on UC Davis Campus.”\u003cbr>\n“It’s rare, it’s unexpected, but it’s not impossible. It might happen again,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bear sightings were also reported Monday in Vacaville and Dixon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>College is where youth set out on their own, but UC Davis was not the right fit for this one Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before dawn, a male black bear, weighing about 100 pounds, was spotted on the southside of campus between the arboretum’s redwood grove and Old Davis Road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I got to the scene about half past seven, it was up a tree by the Hyatt hotel on campus,” said Andy Fell, a spokesperson for the university. Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife responded, along with local police and fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When spooked, bears climb trees. Officials cleared a perimeter to give the bear space. That worked, and the bear climbed down. Then the wildlife team shot it with a tranquilizing dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the tranquilizer could take effect, it climbed up another tree, then passed out and fell down, Fell said. The wildlife team examined the bear and did not find any broken bones or major injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bear’s tenure as an Aggie was brief, as it was released to the “closest suitable habitat,” which you can see here:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCaliforniaDFW%2Fvideos%2F668661273604414%2F&show_text=0&width=560\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why was the bear on campus? It was likely kicked out of its home by a mother who just had cubs, officials said. Fish and Wildlife Officer Kyle Glau said that while the bear is not a cub, it is a younger bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a younger bear looking for his own home territory,” Glau said. “He was looking to solve three simple needs: food, water and habitat. And he happened to run up on UC Davis Campus.”\u003cbr>\n“It’s rare, it’s unexpected, but it’s not impossible. It might happen again,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bear sightings were also reported Monday in Vacaville and Dixon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday over whether climate change violates the rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said the young people wrongly want the courts to direct energy policy, instead of government officials. Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general, told three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the lawsuit is “a direct attack on the separation of powers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An attorney for the young people countered that government action that increases global warming puts “children in harm’s way” and urged the judges to let the lawsuit move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The government devalues the lives of these young children when making energy policy,” said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asks the courts to declare federal energy policies unconstitutional. The Obama and Trump administrations have tried to get it dismissed since it was filed in Oregon in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really disappointing to see the lengths that they go to — to not only not let us get the remedy that we’re seeking, but not even let us have the chance to prove our facts or present our case at trial,” said Nathan Baring, a 19-year-old from Fairbanks, Alaska, who joined the lawsuit when he was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the case drags on, sea ice that protects coastal Alaska communities from fierce storms is forming later in the year, leaving those villages vulnerable, he said. Earlier today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a bleak milestone. Carbon dioxide levels hit a record high in May, with average levels peaking at 414.7 parts per million, which surpassed the previous record of 411.2 ppm a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch Wednesday’s proceedings before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland\u003c/em>:\u003cbr>\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PGCSWm86OI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young people argue that government officials have known for more than 50 years that carbon pollution from fossil fuels causes climate change and that policies promoting oil and gas deprive them of their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say the young people didn’t find any “historical basis for a fundamental right to a stable climate system or any other constitutional right related to the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit says the young are more vulnerable to serious effects from climate change in the future. The American Academy of Pediatrics, 14 other health organizations and nearly 80 scientists and physicians agreed in a brief filed with the appeals court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed out that the World Health Organization estimates that 88% of the global health burden of climate change falls on children younger than 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit wants the U.S. District Court in Eugene, where the lawsuit was filed, to declare that the U.S. government is violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by substantially causing or contributing to a dangerous concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the 9th Circuit judges decide the lawsuit can move forward, it would go before the federal court in Eugene. The appeals court judges heard arguments Tuesday but were not expected to rule right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case has become a focal point for many youth activists, and the courtroom in Portland was packed. Baring said he and his co-plaintiffs have matured as the case has wound through the legal system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never anticipated how much I was going to grow up, or how much the group was going to grow up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really disappointing to see the lengths that they go to — to not only not let us get the remedy that we’re seeking, but not even let us have the chance to prove our facts or present our case at trial,” said Nathan Baring, a 19-year-old from Fairbanks, Alaska, who joined the lawsuit when he was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the case drags on, sea ice that protects coastal Alaska communities from fierce storms is forming later in the year, leaving those villages vulnerable, he said. Earlier today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a bleak milestone. Carbon dioxide levels hit a record high in May, with average levels peaking at 414.7 parts per million, which surpassed the previous record of 411.2 ppm a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch Wednesday’s proceedings before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland\u003c/em>:\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6PGCSWm86OI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6PGCSWm86OI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The young people argue that government officials have known for more than 50 years that carbon pollution from fossil fuels causes climate change and that policies promoting oil and gas deprive them of their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say the young people didn’t find any “historical basis for a fundamental right to a stable climate system or any other constitutional right related to the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit says the young are more vulnerable to serious effects from climate change in the future. The American Academy of Pediatrics, 14 other health organizations and nearly 80 scientists and physicians agreed in a brief filed with the appeals court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed out that the World Health Organization estimates that 88% of the global health burden of climate change falls on children younger than 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit wants the U.S. District Court in Eugene, where the lawsuit was filed, to declare that the U.S. government is violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by substantially causing or contributing to a dangerous concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the 9th Circuit judges decide the lawsuit can move forward, it would go before the federal court in Eugene. The appeals court judges heard arguments Tuesday but were not expected to rule right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case has become a focal point for many youth activists, and the courtroom in Portland was packed. Baring said he and his co-plaintiffs have matured as the case has wound through the legal system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never anticipated how much I was going to grow up, or how much the group was going to grow up,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1941477,science_1941182,news_11739302]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California bills and their sponsors, Friday was pass-or-die time in the Legislature. It’s an annual rite of spring: If on a certain date proposed bills don’t pass out of their house of origin, be it the Assembly or the Senate, they die for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the Legislature considered a slate of new environmental policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bill that prohibits California from authorizing new oil and gas infrastructure on state public lands, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 342\u003c/a>, moved on to the Senate. A bill that would require smog checks for semitrucks, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 210\u003c/a>, moved on to the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A mandated buffer between new oil wells and homes and schools, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB345\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 345\u003c/a>, failed in the Appropriations Committee, but it will be considered in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, the group’s legislative and regulatory lobbying arm in Sacramento, said she couldn’t remember a year that so many new environmental bills passed their house of origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many of them did, and they were good bills that protect wildlife, protect clean air, clean water, and help make sure Californians are getting the kind of environment they want,” Phillips said. “On balance, the first half of this year was very good\u003cem>.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Howard Penn, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, a California environmental advocacy organization, saw the glass as half-empty when it comes to big environmental issues. He pointed to the Legislature’s failure, at least for this year, of increasing transit-oriented development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a goal shared by many of the state’s leading environmentalists.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 50\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747809/controversial-state-housing-density-bill-blocked-in-legislature\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">controversial housing density bill\u003c/a> proposed by San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener, sought to achieve this goal, but it was blocked in the Legislature. Penn’s group did not endorse or oppose the bill because it sought legislative changes that did not materialize.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From our perspective, we keep trying to push climate change, greenhouse gases, and better land-use policies for affordable housing forward,” Penn said. “It’s not moving at the sustenance level that we would want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these environmental bills are good, don’t get me wrong, but they’re nibbling away at the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond bills concerning oil and gas, California is considering major changes in the recycling and manufacture of plastics, as well as legislation to counter President Trump’s agenda of general environmental deregulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 54\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1080 \u003c/a>moved forward last week. The companion bills seek to phase out the sale and distribution of plastics, passing despite industry opposition, though in slightly watered-down form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, the legislation targeted a wide range of plastics, such as utensils, containers and other single-use items that can’t be recycled. The original language called for a 75% reduction by 2030. After that, all plastic manufacturing would have needed to be recyclable or compostable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After amendments, the legislation now applies to only what California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery identifies as the most commonly littered items based on surveys. Lawmakers also extended the timeline for implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amendments are “tolerable changes,” said Mark Murray, an executive director of Californians Against Waste, which supports the legislation.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>We’re excited about the passage of the bills in the very strong form that they got out of both houses of the Legislature,” he said. “We’re hopeful that the Legislature will embrace this and put it on the governor’s desk.”\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB792\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 792\u003c/a>, another plastics bill, proposed by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, moved to the Senate on May 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting’s bill establishes a minimum recycled content level in plastic bottles. It also compels the beverage industry to buy back used plastic as a way of driving a local plastics recycling market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, the bill required \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739302/a-future-with-100-recycled-beverage-bottles-a-new-state-bill-would-require-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">100% recycled beverage bottles\u003c/a> by the year 2035, but that requirement was stripped during a committee hearing last month. Now, the bill would require that plastic bottles be made with 75% recycled plastic by the year 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting said that it’s important that plastic bottles are recycled in-state. “The bottles [should be] broken down in California and repurposed here, rather than shipping our waste oversees,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Long-term, we should absolutely have 100 percent recycled content in our beverage bottles,” Ting added. “In the interim, I think setting very aggressive goals will greatly change the marketplace here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Trump Administration continues to pursue a rollback of federal environmental regulation, such as the Obama administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/clean-power-plan-only-first-target-for-foes-of-climate-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clean Power Plan\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 1\u003c/a> would replace them with state rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, is the bill’s author. In an email, she called the proposed law “California’s insurance against reckless deregulation at the federal level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dozens of vital clean air, clean water, and endangered species standards have been weakened or eliminated,” Atkins wrote. “Further, worker protections have been eroded and workplace incidents and fatalities have increased. Whatever actions the new federal regime may take, California will continue to enforce the same environmental and public health protections that have been in effect for years, as a matter of state law.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California bills and their sponsors, Friday was pass-or-die time in the Legislature. It’s an annual rite of spring: If on a certain date proposed bills don’t pass out of their house of origin, be it the Assembly or the Senate, they die for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the Legislature considered a slate of new environmental policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bill that prohibits California from authorizing new oil and gas infrastructure on state public lands, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 342\u003c/a>, moved on to the Senate. A bill that would require smog checks for semitrucks, \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 210\u003c/a>, moved on to the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A mandated buffer between new oil wells and homes and schools, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB345\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 345\u003c/a>, failed in the Appropriations Committee, but it will be considered in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, the group’s legislative and regulatory lobbying arm in Sacramento, said she couldn’t remember a year that so many new environmental bills passed their house of origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many of them did, and they were good bills that protect wildlife, protect clean air, clean water, and help make sure Californians are getting the kind of environment they want,” Phillips said. “On balance, the first half of this year was very good\u003cem>.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Howard Penn, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, a California environmental advocacy organization, saw the glass as half-empty when it comes to big environmental issues. He pointed to the Legislature’s failure, at least for this year, of increasing transit-oriented development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a goal shared by many of the state’s leading environmentalists.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 50\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747809/controversial-state-housing-density-bill-blocked-in-legislature\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">controversial housing density bill\u003c/a> proposed by San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener, sought to achieve this goal, but it was blocked in the Legislature. Penn’s group did not endorse or oppose the bill because it sought legislative changes that did not materialize.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From our perspective, we keep trying to push climate change, greenhouse gases, and better land-use policies for affordable housing forward,” Penn said. “It’s not moving at the sustenance level that we would want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of these environmental bills are good, don’t get me wrong, but they’re nibbling away at the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond bills concerning oil and gas, California is considering major changes in the recycling and manufacture of plastics, as well as legislation to counter President Trump’s agenda of general environmental deregulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 54\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1080 \u003c/a>moved forward last week. The companion bills seek to phase out the sale and distribution of plastics, passing despite industry opposition, though in slightly watered-down form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, the legislation targeted a wide range of plastics, such as utensils, containers and other single-use items that can’t be recycled. The original language called for a 75% reduction by 2030. After that, all plastic manufacturing would have needed to be recyclable or compostable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After amendments, the legislation now applies to only what California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery identifies as the most commonly littered items based on surveys. Lawmakers also extended the timeline for implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amendments are “tolerable changes,” said Mark Murray, an executive director of Californians Against Waste, which supports the legislation.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>We’re excited about the passage of the bills in the very strong form that they got out of both houses of the Legislature,” he said. “We’re hopeful that the Legislature will embrace this and put it on the governor’s desk.”\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB792\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 792\u003c/a>, another plastics bill, proposed by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, moved to the Senate on May 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting’s bill establishes a minimum recycled content level in plastic bottles. It also compels the beverage industry to buy back used plastic as a way of driving a local plastics recycling market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, the bill required \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739302/a-future-with-100-recycled-beverage-bottles-a-new-state-bill-would-require-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">100% recycled beverage bottles\u003c/a> by the year 2035, but that requirement was stripped during a committee hearing last month. Now, the bill would require that plastic bottles be made with 75% recycled plastic by the year 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting said that it’s important that plastic bottles are recycled in-state. “The bottles [should be] broken down in California and repurposed here, rather than shipping our waste oversees,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Long-term, we should absolutely have 100 percent recycled content in our beverage bottles,” Ting added. “In the interim, I think setting very aggressive goals will greatly change the marketplace here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Trump Administration continues to pursue a rollback of federal environmental regulation, such as the Obama administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/clean-power-plan-only-first-target-for-foes-of-climate-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clean Power Plan\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 1\u003c/a> would replace them with state rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, is the bill’s author. In an email, she called the proposed law “California’s insurance against reckless deregulation at the federal level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dozens of vital clean air, clean water, and endangered species standards have been weakened or eliminated,” Atkins wrote. “Further, worker protections have been eroded and workplace incidents and fatalities have increased. Whatever actions the new federal regime may take, California will continue to enforce the same environmental and public health protections that have been in effect for years, as a matter of state law.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "We Can Make California Wildfires Less Horrific. Will We?",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em; float: left; line-height: 0.733em; padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0; font-family: times, serif, georgia;\">A\u003c/span>s California wildfires scar more lives and char more property year after year, residents must now grapple with the distinct possibility of opening their front door one day to the sight of a raging inferno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be sure, fire has always been a part of life in the state, and it always will — many landscapes are actually unhealthy without periodic blazes. What’s new is the increasing scale of catastrophe and the corresponding toll on human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fires of 2017 were the worst on record, that is, until the fires of 2018. Of the \u003ca href=\"http://fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/top20_destruction.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">top 20\u003c/a> most destructive California wildfires, 10 have occured since 2015. Of the top 10, seven have burned over the last four years. (See sidebar.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"small\"]Why Are Wildfires Getting Worse?\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/GettyImages-591627312.jpg\">\u003cbr>\nThe threat from wildfire comes partly from weak building codes, a lack of fire breaks, and poorly thought out evacuation routes, and partly from a history of logging big trees, which were replaced with those that are smaller and more flammable. More than a century of fire suppression has also resulted in the accumulation of scrub vegetation and other fuels that cover the forest floor and contribute to hotter, more destructive flames. And climate change has altered fire behavior, making it more unpredictable.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does It Have to Be This way?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the great question,” said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley, before thinking for a moment. “No. In a lot of ways, it could be better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation can’t be fixed easily or quickly, not even in the next decade or two, Stephens says. “But you can change the trajectory of where we’re headed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians could have safer homes, healthier forests, cleaner air and a drastically reduced risk of catastrophic fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this future requires sweeping changes in fire management, state and local policy, and individual behavior, California has a history of making bold changes and coming out the better. Stephens thinks the state can do it again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this became a priority for health, for our kids, our grandkids and everybody else, it would just happen. It’s not like something that’s impossible,” he said. “It’s going to take time, but we really need to think about this and move a little bit decisively.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, in eight stories, we examine some of the issues Californians will need to grapple with if we’re going to adapt to the increasing wildfire threat. We’re calling the series “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can We Make Sure It Never Happens Again?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"small\"]10 Most Destructive Fires in California\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Camp Fire, Nov. 2018; 85 deaths; 18,804 structures destroyed; 153,336 acres burned in Butte County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tubbs, Oct. 2017; 22 deaths; 5,636 structures; 36,807 acres; Napa and Sonoma counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tunnel, Oct. 1991; 25 deaths; 2,900 structures; 1,600 acres; Alameda County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cedar, Oct. 2003; 15 deaths; 2,820 structures; 273,246 acres; San Diego County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Valley, Sept. 2015; 4 deaths; 1,955 structures; 76,067 acres; Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Witch, Oct. 2007; 2 deaths; 1,650 structures; 197,990 acres; San Diego County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Woolsey, Nov. 2018; 3 deaths; 1,643 structures; 96,949 acres; Ventura County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Carr, July 2018; 8 deaths; 1,614 structures; 229,651 acres; Shasta, Trinity counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>CZU August Complex, Aug. 2020; 1 death; 1,490 structures; 85,467 acres; Santa Cruz County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>LNU Lightning Complex, Aug. 2020; 5 deaths; 1,457 structures; 375,209 acres; Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Yolo & Solano counties\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]The Camp Fire that ripped through the communities of Paradise and Concow last November was the deadliest blaze anywhere in the United States in 100 years. It killed 85 people, more than the Loma Prieta earthquake, and left a path of ash and ruin that stunned people across the state. The devastation was so severe, the obvious question is:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Can we prevent it from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many may think a California constantly aflame is the state’s inevitable future. But it seems worth remembering that transformations around public safety rarely come easily or unprompted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americans were in a similar moment in 1912, after the sinking of the Titanic. It wasn’t the first time a ship had gone down, but the disaster was so high-profile, so shocking, that the public demanded immediate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the moment the ship sank, it became clear that there hadn’t been provision to save everybody’s life on the ship,” said Steven Biel, a Harvard Historian and author of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1426951.Down_with_the_Old_Canoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941412\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941412 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Sto%CC%88wer_Titanic-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sinking of the Titanic prompted swift safety overhauls for the shipping industry. Untergang der Titanic (“Sinking of the Titanic”) by Willy Stöwer, 1912\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shipbuilders, from their perspective, took safety seriously. In fact, they’d installed more than the required number of lifeboats on board. But that number was based on a vessel’s tonnage, not on how many people it carried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so there was a huge outcry about this,” Biel said. “And that’s really what led to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within two years, new safety regulations were adopted worldwide, a common — and not unreasonable — reaction to catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things about the story of disasters is that we don’t want them to be meaningless,” said Biel. “We want some good to have come from this … so that supposedly this kind of thing, whatever the disaster is, will never happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Collective Safety Versus Personal Freedom\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California is to do all it can to prevent disasters like the 2018 Camp Fire, it will mean working through some contentious issues. Are there some locations where we shouldn’t rebuild? Should we fine homeowners who don’t clear vegetation? Can we agree on how to manage forests?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grappling with these questions will call on Californians to evaluate competing priorities. In some cases, personal freedom and property rights may be pitted against collective safety and the common good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That debate also played out during the years the country came to grips with its cigarette problem. The first report of the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health in 1964 identified smoking as a cause of lung cancer. The first major studies demonstrating a link between second-hand smoke and lung cancer were published in 1981. Yet, smoking in public places such as restaurants persisted for many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People simply took it for granted that the indoor spaces were going to be contaminated with tobacco smoke,” said James Repace, an anti-smoking advocate who helped pass some of the first nonsmoking bills in New England in the late 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1941870 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-1020x1294.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-1020x1294.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-800x1015.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-768x974.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-946x1200.jpg 946w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\">“At the time, the thought of telling people they couldn’t smoke wherever they liked was unthinkable,” Repace said. That started to shift when public information campaigns taught people about the dangers of breathing tobacco smoke. “You know, you might have the right to smoke, but you don’t have a right to let your smoke make other people sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grassroots pressure and the political will to change led to prioritizing public health over individual desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it did take a generation,” said Repace. “But with respect to climate issues, we don’t have a generation. Time is running out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California state Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://sd03.senate.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Dodd\u003c/a>, whose district includes areas burned during the 2017 Wine Country fires, already sees an attitude change among his constituents. Dodd says the once unpalatable idea of fining homeowners who don’t maintain what fire officials call “\u003ca href=\"https://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/DefensibleSpaceFlyer.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defensible space\u003c/a>” around their homes is seeming more reasonable to those who lived through recent conflagrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of government intrusion in their life,” said Dodd, characterizing the public’s change of thinking, “this is something where we all have to work together to protect not only your land, but your neighbor’s land as well, because if you don’t, that puts your neighbor in harm’s way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americans have made great strides toward solving a host of problems. The air used to be dirtier, rivers more polluted, food-safety regulations nonexistent. Acid rain once fell from the sky and the ozone hole continually grew. These issues, if not totally behind us, are vastly improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is hope for our ecosystems to be more fire resilient, better adapted to climate change,” Scott Stephens said. “So there really is hope, a way to step forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California is in a state of crisis over more frequent, intense and deadly wildfires. But it doesn't have to be this way. Can the state summon the will to fix the problem?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em; float: left; line-height: 0.733em; padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0; font-family: times, serif, georgia;\">A\u003c/span>s California wildfires scar more lives and char more property year after year, residents must now grapple with the distinct possibility of opening their front door one day to the sight of a raging inferno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be sure, fire has always been a part of life in the state, and it always will — many landscapes are actually unhealthy without periodic blazes. What’s new is the increasing scale of catastrophe and the corresponding toll on human life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fires of 2017 were the worst on record, that is, until the fires of 2018. Of the \u003ca href=\"http://fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/top20_destruction.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">top 20\u003c/a> most destructive California wildfires, 10 have occured since 2015. Of the top 10, seven have burned over the last four years. (See sidebar.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "Why Are Wildfires Getting Worse?\u003cbr>\n\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/06/GettyImages-591627312.jpg\">\u003cbr>\nThe threat from wildfire comes partly from weak building codes, a lack of fire breaks, and poorly thought out evacuation routes, and partly from a history of logging big trees, which were replaced with those that are smaller and more flammable. More than a century of fire suppression has also resulted in the accumulation of scrub vegetation and other fuels that cover the forest floor and contribute to hotter, more destructive flames. And climate change has altered fire behavior, making it more unpredictable.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does It Have to Be This way?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the great question,” said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley, before thinking for a moment. “No. In a lot of ways, it could be better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation can’t be fixed easily or quickly, not even in the next decade or two, Stephens says. “But you can change the trajectory of where we’re headed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians could have safer homes, healthier forests, cleaner air and a drastically reduced risk of catastrophic fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this future requires sweeping changes in fire management, state and local policy, and individual behavior, California has a history of making bold changes and coming out the better. Stephens thinks the state can do it again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this became a priority for health, for our kids, our grandkids and everybody else, it would just happen. It’s not like something that’s impossible,” he said. “It’s going to take time, but we really need to think about this and move a little bit decisively.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, in eight stories, we examine some of the issues Californians will need to grapple with if we’re going to adapt to the increasing wildfire threat. We’re calling the series “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can We Make Sure It Never Happens Again?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "10 Most Destructive Fires in California\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Camp Fire, Nov. 2018; 85 deaths; 18,804 structures destroyed; 153,336 acres burned in Butte County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tubbs, Oct. 2017; 22 deaths; 5,636 structures; 36,807 acres; Napa and Sonoma counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tunnel, Oct. 1991; 25 deaths; 2,900 structures; 1,600 acres; Alameda County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cedar, Oct. 2003; 15 deaths; 2,820 structures; 273,246 acres; San Diego County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Valley, Sept. 2015; 4 deaths; 1,955 structures; 76,067 acres; Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Witch, Oct. 2007; 2 deaths; 1,650 structures; 197,990 acres; San Diego County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Woolsey, Nov. 2018; 3 deaths; 1,643 structures; 96,949 acres; Ventura County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Carr, July 2018; 8 deaths; 1,614 structures; 229,651 acres; Shasta, Trinity counties\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>CZU August Complex, Aug. 2020; 1 death; 1,490 structures; 85,467 acres; Santa Cruz County\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>LNU Lightning Complex, Aug. 2020; 5 deaths; 1,457 structures; 375,209 acres; Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Yolo & Solano counties\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Camp Fire that ripped through the communities of Paradise and Concow last November was the deadliest blaze anywhere in the United States in 100 years. It killed 85 people, more than the Loma Prieta earthquake, and left a path of ash and ruin that stunned people across the state. The devastation was so severe, the obvious question is:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Can we prevent it from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many may think a California constantly aflame is the state’s inevitable future. But it seems worth remembering that transformations around public safety rarely come easily or unprompted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americans were in a similar moment in 1912, after the sinking of the Titanic. It wasn’t the first time a ship had gone down, but the disaster was so high-profile, so shocking, that the public demanded immediate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the moment the ship sank, it became clear that there hadn’t been provision to save everybody’s life on the ship,” said Steven Biel, a Harvard Historian and author of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1426951.Down_with_the_Old_Canoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941412\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941412 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Sto%CC%88wer_Titanic-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/20120507201420Stöwer_Titanic.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sinking of the Titanic prompted swift safety overhauls for the shipping industry. Untergang der Titanic (“Sinking of the Titanic”) by Willy Stöwer, 1912\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shipbuilders, from their perspective, took safety seriously. In fact, they’d installed more than the required number of lifeboats on board. But that number was based on a vessel’s tonnage, not on how many people it carried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so there was a huge outcry about this,” Biel said. “And that’s really what led to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within two years, new safety regulations were adopted worldwide, a common — and not unreasonable — reaction to catastrophes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things about the story of disasters is that we don’t want them to be meaningless,” said Biel. “We want some good to have come from this … so that supposedly this kind of thing, whatever the disaster is, will never happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Collective Safety Versus Personal Freedom\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California is to do all it can to prevent disasters like the 2018 Camp Fire, it will mean working through some contentious issues. Are there some locations where we shouldn’t rebuild? Should we fine homeowners who don’t clear vegetation? Can we agree on how to manage forests?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grappling with these questions will call on Californians to evaluate competing priorities. In some cases, personal freedom and property rights may be pitted against collective safety and the common good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That debate also played out during the years the country came to grips with its cigarette problem. The first report of the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health in 1964 identified smoking as a cause of lung cancer. The first major studies demonstrating a link between second-hand smoke and lung cancer were published in 1981. Yet, smoking in public places such as restaurants persisted for many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People simply took it for granted that the indoor spaces were going to be contaminated with tobacco smoke,” said James Repace, an anti-smoking advocate who helped pass some of the first nonsmoking bills in New England in the late 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1941870 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-1020x1294.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-1020x1294.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-160x203.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-800x1015.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-768x974.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09-946x1200.jpg 946w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/babies_09.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\">“At the time, the thought of telling people they couldn’t smoke wherever they liked was unthinkable,” Repace said. That started to shift when public information campaigns taught people about the dangers of breathing tobacco smoke. “You know, you might have the right to smoke, but you don’t have a right to let your smoke make other people sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grassroots pressure and the political will to change led to prioritizing public health over individual desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it did take a generation,” said Repace. “But with respect to climate issues, we don’t have a generation. Time is running out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California state Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://sd03.senate.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Dodd\u003c/a>, whose district includes areas burned during the 2017 Wine Country fires, already sees an attitude change among his constituents. Dodd says the once unpalatable idea of fining homeowners who don’t maintain what fire officials call “\u003ca href=\"https://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/DefensibleSpaceFlyer.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defensible space\u003c/a>” around their homes is seeming more reasonable to those who lived through recent conflagrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of government intrusion in their life,” said Dodd, characterizing the public’s change of thinking, “this is something where we all have to work together to protect not only your land, but your neighbor’s land as well, because if you don’t, that puts your neighbor in harm’s way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Americans have made great strides toward solving a host of problems. The air used to be dirtier, rivers more polluted, food-safety regulations nonexistent. Acid rain once fell from the sky and the ozone hole continually grew. These issues, if not totally behind us, are vastly improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is hope for our ecosystems to be more fire resilient, better adapted to climate change,” Scott Stephens said. “So there really is hope, a way to step forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In recent drought years, some sunny January days felt like summer. But this year, the opposite was true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The region was soaked with the most May rain it has received in 21 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weather pattern literally looked like something straight out of January, but it’s May,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA. “This regression back towards winter like conditions is amazing. There was a significant amount of rain near the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was San Francisco’s 12th wettest May on record, according to the National Weather Service. The agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=mtr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records\u003c/a> show 2 inches of rainfall collected at San Francisco International Airport in May, the most since 1998, when 2.37 inches fell there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of all the rain is an unusually strong jet stream located farther south than normal, Swain said. The rain is even stranger, Swain added, because the region’s long-term trend is towards drier springs. “This May really stands out as an outlier from that perspective,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a rainier-than-normal winter, there was an abrupt end to the rainfall in March and virtually no rain in April. That’s a major reason why this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941908/this-years-bay-area-pollen-season-is-really-bad-heres-why\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">year’s pollen season\u003c/a> has been so tough for people with allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swain said the pollen season will likely last even longer this year after all the rain. June’s forecast shows warmer than average days on the horizon as the beginning of summer approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allergy sufferers can find KQED’s pollen forecast \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1940604/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In recent drought years, some sunny January days felt like summer. But this year, the opposite was true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The region was soaked with the most May rain it has received in 21 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weather pattern literally looked like something straight out of January, but it’s May,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA. “This regression back towards winter like conditions is amazing. There was a significant amount of rain near the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was San Francisco’s 12th wettest May on record, according to the National Weather Service. The agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=mtr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records\u003c/a> show 2 inches of rainfall collected at San Francisco International Airport in May, the most since 1998, when 2.37 inches fell there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause of all the rain is an unusually strong jet stream located farther south than normal, Swain said. The rain is even stranger, Swain added, because the region’s long-term trend is towards drier springs. “This May really stands out as an outlier from that perspective,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a rainier-than-normal winter, there was an abrupt end to the rainfall in March and virtually no rain in April. That’s a major reason why this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941908/this-years-bay-area-pollen-season-is-really-bad-heres-why\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">year’s pollen season\u003c/a> has been so tough for people with allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swain said the pollen season will likely last even longer this year after all the rain. June’s forecast shows warmer than average days on the horizon as the beginning of summer approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allergy sufferers can find KQED’s pollen forecast \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1940604/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Lagging Way Behind Southeast in Prescribed Burns to Curb Wildfire",
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"content": "\u003cp>Federal agencies are not performing enough prescribed burns in California and other Western states to curb the risk of wildfire, even as the practice has been adopted more widely by land managers in other regions in the U.S. That’s according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/2019Wildfires_kolden_prescribed_fire_trends_embargoed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis \u003c/a>published Wednesday in the journal \u003cem>Fire\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='science_1927354,science_1134217,science_1917346']Prescribed fires are deliberately ignited by forest managers to burn away brush and vegetation that can act as fuel during an uncontrolled wildfire. These prescribed burns are widely considered to be an \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\">effective tool\u003c/a> in reducing wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The paper, published by fire researcher Crystal Kolden, found that between 1998 and 2018, the number of acres subjected to prescribed burns skyrocketed in the Southeast while basically remaining flat in both Northern and Southern California. Less than 3% of all controlled burns in the U.S. occurred in the state, while 70 percent occurred in the Southeast. Kolden used data from the National Interagency Fire Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/N9fC2/5/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Miller, a reporter who worked on a \u003ca href=\"https://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/May2019_Report_The_Burning_Solution.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research brief\u003c/a> on the study for \u003ca href=\"https://climatecentral.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate Central\u003c/a>, told KQED’s Brian Watt Wednesday that California is lagging in its use of prescribed burns as a wildfire mitigation tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Further analysis state by state shows that California has been burning at one of the lowest rates nationwide,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, federal agencies continue to spend considerably more on fire suppression than on prescribed burns, according to data analyzed by Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lack of Acceptance in the West\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to helping prevent catastrophic wildfires, prescribed burns are good for overall forest health and can restore balance to ecological processes disrupted by years of fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study notes that prescribed burns produce smoke that can create bad air quality. In rare circumstances, prescribed fires have grown out of control. Kolden, in her paper, suggests that these factors contribute to “social barriers” that have disincentivized fire managers, particularly on the federal level, from utilizing prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke, however, contains three times as much pollution as smoke from prescribed fires, according to a groundbreaking 2017 study \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016JD026315\">published\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said prescribed fires that burn out of control are rare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a risk and a contributing factor as to why some agencies have been more skeptical to embrace the practice,” she said. “Having said that, when agencies do cultivate the skill set to be able to conduct a burn in a safe way, 99 percent of the time it’s a safe and productive tool to use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Cal Fire published a \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/downloads/45-Day%20Report-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report\u003c/a> that found the state’s forests were being poorly managed by state, federal and private landowners. The report recommended California immediately start to reduce its fuel load. On March 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/03/22/governor-newsom-proclaims-state-of-emergency-on-wildfires-to-protect-states-most-vulnerable-communities/\">state of emergency on wildfires\u003c/a> and approved a plan to speed up prescribed burn projects in some locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jon Brooks contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Federal agencies are not performing enough prescribed burns in California and other Western states to curb the risk of wildfire, even as the practice has been adopted more widely by land managers in other regions in the U.S. That’s according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/2019Wildfires_kolden_prescribed_fire_trends_embargoed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis \u003c/a>published Wednesday in the journal \u003cem>Fire\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Prescribed fires are deliberately ignited by forest managers to burn away brush and vegetation that can act as fuel during an uncontrolled wildfire. These prescribed burns are widely considered to be an \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\">effective tool\u003c/a> in reducing wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The paper, published by fire researcher Crystal Kolden, found that between 1998 and 2018, the number of acres subjected to prescribed burns skyrocketed in the Southeast while basically remaining flat in both Northern and Southern California. Less than 3% of all controlled burns in the U.S. occurred in the state, while 70 percent occurred in the Southeast. Kolden used data from the National Interagency Fire Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/N9fC2/5/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Miller, a reporter who worked on a \u003ca href=\"https://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/May2019_Report_The_Burning_Solution.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research brief\u003c/a> on the study for \u003ca href=\"https://climatecentral.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate Central\u003c/a>, told KQED’s Brian Watt Wednesday that California is lagging in its use of prescribed burns as a wildfire mitigation tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Further analysis state by state shows that California has been burning at one of the lowest rates nationwide,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, federal agencies continue to spend considerably more on fire suppression than on prescribed burns, according to data analyzed by Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lack of Acceptance in the West\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to helping prevent catastrophic wildfires, prescribed burns are good for overall forest health and can restore balance to ecological processes disrupted by years of fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study notes that prescribed burns produce smoke that can create bad air quality. In rare circumstances, prescribed fires have grown out of control. Kolden, in her paper, suggests that these factors contribute to “social barriers” that have disincentivized fire managers, particularly on the federal level, from utilizing prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke, however, contains three times as much pollution as smoke from prescribed fires, according to a groundbreaking 2017 study \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016JD026315\">published\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said prescribed fires that burn out of control are rare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a risk and a contributing factor as to why some agencies have been more skeptical to embrace the practice,” she said. “Having said that, when agencies do cultivate the skill set to be able to conduct a burn in a safe way, 99 percent of the time it’s a safe and productive tool to use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Cal Fire published a \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/downloads/45-Day%20Report-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report\u003c/a> that found the state’s forests were being poorly managed by state, federal and private landowners. The report recommended California immediately start to reduce its fuel load. On March 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/03/22/governor-newsom-proclaims-state-of-emergency-on-wildfires-to-protect-states-most-vulnerable-communities/\">state of emergency on wildfires\u003c/a> and approved a plan to speed up prescribed burn projects in some locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jon Brooks contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why",
"headTitle": "PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ripped across the North Bay hills in 2017\u003c/a> was propelled by hurricane-force winds in some places, even as weather stations in the flat lands of Santa Rosa and Napa registered little more than a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same was true in the town of Paradise when it was consumed by the Camp Fire. The winds near Paradise were blowing hard and fast, propelling the fire forward, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. However just a few miles away in the Sacramento Valley, the winds were nearly calm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many cases, there haven’t been weather stations in close enough proximity to these fires to get a really good handle of what the conditions are actually like on the ground — we are essentially poking around in the dark,” says Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following years of deadly wildfires sparked by faulty electrical equipment, the California Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689873/california-legislature-passes-major-reforms-to-wildfire-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> last August requiring power utilities to come up with detailed proposals to reduce the risk of blazes. On May 30, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to approve PG&E’s proposal, which includes the construction of hundreds of new weather stations across its Northern California territory. The company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750455/what-you-need-to-know-about-pges-state-mandated-wildfire-mitigation-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire plan\u003c/a> could cost billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s rich landscape of rolling hills and steep canyons has potentially hundreds of thousands of microclimates, which makes fire prediction an incredible challenge. That’s why PG&E plans to build a dense network of weather stations, which they hope will illuminate the humidity, wind speed and temperature of Northern California’s varied landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Shutdown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators also unanimously approved a related plan to shut off power to areas of the electrical grid when wildfire risk is extreme.\u003cb> \u003c/b>Turning off consumer’s electricity has provoked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Supervisor-Warns-SDGE-Be-Careful-with-Power-Shut-Offs-462920363.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outcry in the past\u003c/a>, but lawmakers and regulators agree that it is — for now — necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The risk associated with another fire like the North Bay fires or the Camp Fire makes power shut downs a viable alternative, sadly,” says State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa. “We cannot have our utilities creating these massive wildfires and have the associated risk of ratepayers having to pay these costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the proceedings, CPUC President Michael Picker said that because of the increasing threat of wildfire, utilities are expanding on their “current strategies for weather tracking, and more precise and local predictive modeling for wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing weather conditions in portions of the state that have never been observed before, are not in the meteorological record, and certainly aren’t as granular as we need to be able to provide very precise and local kinds of situational awareness, which then can help us focus and isolate areas of risk and only cut power in those very specific areas,” Picker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker also announced that he will step down from his position as CPUC president later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s plan is, in part, inspired by changes that another utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, made after its power lines ignited wildfires in 2007 and the company\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-fire-lawsuit-witch-creek-settled-electric-2014dec05-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> shelled out billions in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, SDG&E installed a weather station in every circuit of its territory that had a high risk of fire, and in 2011, they added more. Meteorologists say that information derived from the stations dramatically improved their understanding of local weather patterns and has aided in their predictions of wildfire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 23\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>wildfire legislation proposed by Sen. Dodd \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750339/fire-weather-stations-could-get-expanded-under-state-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cleared the state Senate\u003c/a>; the two bills compel the state to coordinate with PG&E and other utilities on where weather stations are deployed. They also create a state wildfire warning center and a fire threat potential index.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to be more proactive in the state of California and have a wildfire warning center where we’ve got data points all throughout the state of California,” Dodd says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s proposal includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Installing an estimated 1,300 new weather stations by 2022, one for about every 20 circuit-miles in its highest fire risk areas. Currently, the utility has just over 350 weather stations across its territory, according to its meteorologists. PG&E will power down the grid based on information from predictive weather models, and overtime, the stations will improve the models. Additionally, weather data will be publicly available.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fixing approximately 600 high-definition cameras across its territory. PG&E, Cal Fire, and other agencies will use them to confirm wildfires. You can think of a camera as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">fire\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">look\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">out\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">tower\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\"> 2.0\u003c/a>. The cameras can pan, zoom, and stream images right to fire agencies, and they have near infrared capabilities — so they work at night, too. Thirty cameras are working now, and a live stream is available\u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html\"> here\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fire detection capabilities provided by NOAA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOES-R series\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\">satellites\u003c/a>, which rotate in sync with the Earth and scan California once a minute, and from three polar orbiting satellites — NASA’s Aqua, Terra, and VIIRS — that pass over the state each day. The utility’s meteorologists will use the satellites to identify when a wildfire breaks out in near real-time. This is helpful, but not groundbreaking, as the cameras and lookout towers can do the same. But, in filings with the CPUC, PG&E says it will pilot a system that disseminates alerts through a web application and emails to its team. For now, those alerts will stay in-house, but PG&E’s meteorologists hope in the future to notify fire agencies and the public.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Following San Diego \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SDG&E installed additional weather stations, meteorologists generally understood that the hot, dry Santa Ana winds sped up as they whipped through passes and canyons. They assumed the acceleration stemmed from the Venturi effect — when air or water speeds up as it’s forced through a constricted area, like a thumb on the end of a garden hose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using information from the weather stations — which now number 177 across San Diego County and parts of Orange County — meteorologists discovered that strong winds reached speeds upward of 100 mph on the hill and mountain slopes, too. That led the utility to replace some wood poles with steel poles and install stronger wires, in places, to better withstand the extreme winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian D’Agostino, director of the fire science and climate adaptation program at SDG&E, says the utility learned a great deal about how the Santa Ana winds behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew they were strong, but we didn’t realize we were having 100 miles-per-hour winds in our backcountry,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern California doesn’t have Santa Ana winds, but the region has strong gusts, sometimes called Diablo or Mono winds, according to Scott Strenfel, supervisor of meteorology operations and analytics for PG&E. He says there’s a lot the utility can learn about these winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping that we’re going to start to tease out some similar learnings of where these events are the most impactful,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Downs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the traditional mark of success in the utility business is keeping the lights on, not shutting them off, but the state’s deadly wildfires have reached a crisis point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the power shutdowns while introducing his latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\">budget\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>, which includes $75 million to study the shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about it,” he says. “We are all worried about it for [the] elderly. People’s power could be shut off not for a day or two, but potentially a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders say the policy is temporary, but it’s still unknown how long it will be used. Extreme fire conditions happen multiple times a year in California, which means every year communities could be without power for days or even a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCLA’s Swain says officials will need to carefully decide when to power the grid down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be a balancing act between deciding when it will cause more harm than good to shut off the power to thousands of people, or in which cases it will prevent a potential wildfire catastrophe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ripped across the North Bay hills in 2017\u003c/a> was propelled by hurricane-force winds in some places, even as weather stations in the flat lands of Santa Rosa and Napa registered little more than a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same was true in the town of Paradise when it was consumed by the Camp Fire. The winds near Paradise were blowing hard and fast, propelling the fire forward, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. However just a few miles away in the Sacramento Valley, the winds were nearly calm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many cases, there haven’t been weather stations in close enough proximity to these fires to get a really good handle of what the conditions are actually like on the ground — we are essentially poking around in the dark,” says Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following years of deadly wildfires sparked by faulty electrical equipment, the California Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689873/california-legislature-passes-major-reforms-to-wildfire-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> last August requiring power utilities to come up with detailed proposals to reduce the risk of blazes. On May 30, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to approve PG&E’s proposal, which includes the construction of hundreds of new weather stations across its Northern California territory. The company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750455/what-you-need-to-know-about-pges-state-mandated-wildfire-mitigation-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire plan\u003c/a> could cost billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s rich landscape of rolling hills and steep canyons has potentially hundreds of thousands of microclimates, which makes fire prediction an incredible challenge. That’s why PG&E plans to build a dense network of weather stations, which they hope will illuminate the humidity, wind speed and temperature of Northern California’s varied landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Shutdown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators also unanimously approved a related plan to shut off power to areas of the electrical grid when wildfire risk is extreme.\u003cb> \u003c/b>Turning off consumer’s electricity has provoked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Supervisor-Warns-SDGE-Be-Careful-with-Power-Shut-Offs-462920363.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outcry in the past\u003c/a>, but lawmakers and regulators agree that it is — for now — necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The risk associated with another fire like the North Bay fires or the Camp Fire makes power shut downs a viable alternative, sadly,” says State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa. “We cannot have our utilities creating these massive wildfires and have the associated risk of ratepayers having to pay these costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the proceedings, CPUC President Michael Picker said that because of the increasing threat of wildfire, utilities are expanding on their “current strategies for weather tracking, and more precise and local predictive modeling for wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing weather conditions in portions of the state that have never been observed before, are not in the meteorological record, and certainly aren’t as granular as we need to be able to provide very precise and local kinds of situational awareness, which then can help us focus and isolate areas of risk and only cut power in those very specific areas,” Picker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker also announced that he will step down from his position as CPUC president later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s plan is, in part, inspired by changes that another utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, made after its power lines ignited wildfires in 2007 and the company\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-fire-lawsuit-witch-creek-settled-electric-2014dec05-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> shelled out billions in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, SDG&E installed a weather station in every circuit of its territory that had a high risk of fire, and in 2011, they added more. Meteorologists say that information derived from the stations dramatically improved their understanding of local weather patterns and has aided in their predictions of wildfire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 23\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>wildfire legislation proposed by Sen. Dodd \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750339/fire-weather-stations-could-get-expanded-under-state-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cleared the state Senate\u003c/a>; the two bills compel the state to coordinate with PG&E and other utilities on where weather stations are deployed. They also create a state wildfire warning center and a fire threat potential index.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to be more proactive in the state of California and have a wildfire warning center where we’ve got data points all throughout the state of California,” Dodd says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s proposal includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Installing an estimated 1,300 new weather stations by 2022, one for about every 20 circuit-miles in its highest fire risk areas. Currently, the utility has just over 350 weather stations across its territory, according to its meteorologists. PG&E will power down the grid based on information from predictive weather models, and overtime, the stations will improve the models. Additionally, weather data will be publicly available.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fixing approximately 600 high-definition cameras across its territory. PG&E, Cal Fire, and other agencies will use them to confirm wildfires. You can think of a camera as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">fire\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">look\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">out\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">tower\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\"> 2.0\u003c/a>. The cameras can pan, zoom, and stream images right to fire agencies, and they have near infrared capabilities — so they work at night, too. Thirty cameras are working now, and a live stream is available\u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html\"> here\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fire detection capabilities provided by NOAA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOES-R series\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\">satellites\u003c/a>, which rotate in sync with the Earth and scan California once a minute, and from three polar orbiting satellites — NASA’s Aqua, Terra, and VIIRS — that pass over the state each day. The utility’s meteorologists will use the satellites to identify when a wildfire breaks out in near real-time. This is helpful, but not groundbreaking, as the cameras and lookout towers can do the same. But, in filings with the CPUC, PG&E says it will pilot a system that disseminates alerts through a web application and emails to its team. For now, those alerts will stay in-house, but PG&E’s meteorologists hope in the future to notify fire agencies and the public.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Following San Diego \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SDG&E installed additional weather stations, meteorologists generally understood that the hot, dry Santa Ana winds sped up as they whipped through passes and canyons. They assumed the acceleration stemmed from the Venturi effect — when air or water speeds up as it’s forced through a constricted area, like a thumb on the end of a garden hose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using information from the weather stations — which now number 177 across San Diego County and parts of Orange County — meteorologists discovered that strong winds reached speeds upward of 100 mph on the hill and mountain slopes, too. That led the utility to replace some wood poles with steel poles and install stronger wires, in places, to better withstand the extreme winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian D’Agostino, director of the fire science and climate adaptation program at SDG&E, says the utility learned a great deal about how the Santa Ana winds behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew they were strong, but we didn’t realize we were having 100 miles-per-hour winds in our backcountry,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern California doesn’t have Santa Ana winds, but the region has strong gusts, sometimes called Diablo or Mono winds, according to Scott Strenfel, supervisor of meteorology operations and analytics for PG&E. He says there’s a lot the utility can learn about these winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping that we’re going to start to tease out some similar learnings of where these events are the most impactful,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Downs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the traditional mark of success in the utility business is keeping the lights on, not shutting them off, but the state’s deadly wildfires have reached a crisis point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the power shutdowns while introducing his latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\">budget\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>, which includes $75 million to study the shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about it,” he says. “We are all worried about it for [the] elderly. People’s power could be shut off not for a day or two, but potentially a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders say the policy is temporary, but it’s still unknown how long it will be used. Extreme fire conditions happen multiple times a year in California, which means every year communities could be without power for days or even a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCLA’s Swain says officials will need to carefully decide when to power the grid down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be a balancing act between deciding when it will cause more harm than good to shut off the power to thousands of people, or in which cases it will prevent a potential wildfire catastrophe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L98vo3uoiAI&w=560&h=315]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first glance, it looks like a branch of kelp, but then an eye moves among its leafy appendages, and ridges of tiny, translucent fins start to flutter, sending the creature gliding through the water like something from a fairy tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Southern California aquarium has built what is believed to be one of the world’s largest habitats for the surreal sea dragons, whose native populations off Australia are threatened by pollution, warming oceans and the illegal pet and alternative medicine trades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjKv21RL3Q&w=560&h=315]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego hopes the exhibit, which opened this month, will lead to the leafy sea dragon, the lesser-known cousin of the seahorse, being bred for the first time in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It literally just looked like a piece of kelp,” said Steven Kowal, 25, who was visiting San Diego from Greensboro, North Carolina, and took time to see the exhibit. “It was crazy to me that it was, like, actually living and swimming around, so that’s cool. I’ve never seen anything like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a common reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They look like something out of this world,” said Leslee Matsushige, the aquarium’s associate curator, who noted the sea dragons’ amazing ability to camouflage themselves. “When people see them move, you hear them say, ‘What? That’s alive? Wow! That’s crazy.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists like Matsushige hope the creatures’ magnetic power will prompt people to read signs next to the tanks that outline ways to protect them and what can be done to make oceans healthier, such as picking up trash and stopping pollutants from going down the drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few aquariums have sea dragons. There are only two types of sea dragons, the leafy and the weedy, each representing its own genus. Both are found only in a small area of temperate waters off the southern and western coasts of Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAArcm32IJw&w=560&h=315]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little is known about them because their populations are so small and in remote areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, only the weedy sea dragon, a bony fish that resembles seaweed when floating, has been bred in captivity, and only a handful of times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach was the first in the world to breed the weedy sea dragons in 2001. It also is trying to breed leafy sea dragons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TpQS8uAUE0&w=560&h=315]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Birch Aquarium’s 18-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) tank has three leafy sea dragons — two males and one female — and 11 weedy sea dragons. The 5,300-gallon (20,062-liter) tank is a vast space, especially for the smaller leafy sea dragon, which grows to only about 14 inches (36 centimeters) in length. The tank has grassy plants, a sandy bottom and rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists hope the large space will foster breeding. Sea dragons mirror each other in a courtship dance, spiraling upward before the female deposits her eggs onto a patch on the underside of the male’s tail. Like seahorses, the male carries the young and gives birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re already seeing great courtship behaviors, and so we’re hopeful we can get some egg transfers really soon,” said Jenn Nero Moffatt, director of animal care at the Birch Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibit is the latest effort by the aquarium that is a world leader in seahorse propagation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea dragons swim by spinning translucent fins while their tails act as rudders. They have no natural predators, in part because their slender bodies are covered by bony plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If both types of sea dragons can be bred, scientists believe that could reduce the number being taken illegally from the wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/L98vo3uoiAI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/L98vo3uoiAI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first glance, it looks like a branch of kelp, but then an eye moves among its leafy appendages, and ridges of tiny, translucent fins start to flutter, sending the creature gliding through the water like something from a fairy tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Southern California aquarium has built what is believed to be one of the world’s largest habitats for the surreal sea dragons, whose native populations off Australia are threatened by pollution, warming oceans and the illegal pet and alternative medicine trades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/atjKv21RL3Q'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/atjKv21RL3Q'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego hopes the exhibit, which opened this month, will lead to the leafy sea dragon, the lesser-known cousin of the seahorse, being bred for the first time in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It literally just looked like a piece of kelp,” said Steven Kowal, 25, who was visiting San Diego from Greensboro, North Carolina, and took time to see the exhibit. “It was crazy to me that it was, like, actually living and swimming around, so that’s cool. I’ve never seen anything like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a common reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They look like something out of this world,” said Leslee Matsushige, the aquarium’s associate curator, who noted the sea dragons’ amazing ability to camouflage themselves. “When people see them move, you hear them say, ‘What? That’s alive? Wow! That’s crazy.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists like Matsushige hope the creatures’ magnetic power will prompt people to read signs next to the tanks that outline ways to protect them and what can be done to make oceans healthier, such as picking up trash and stopping pollutants from going down the drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few aquariums have sea dragons. There are only two types of sea dragons, the leafy and the weedy, each representing its own genus. Both are found only in a small area of temperate waters off the southern and western coasts of Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XAArcm32IJw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XAArcm32IJw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little is known about them because their populations are so small and in remote areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, only the weedy sea dragon, a bony fish that resembles seaweed when floating, has been bred in captivity, and only a handful of times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach was the first in the world to breed the weedy sea dragons in 2001. It also is trying to breed leafy sea dragons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1TpQS8uAUE0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1TpQS8uAUE0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Birch Aquarium’s 18-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) tank has three leafy sea dragons — two males and one female — and 11 weedy sea dragons. The 5,300-gallon (20,062-liter) tank is a vast space, especially for the smaller leafy sea dragon, which grows to only about 14 inches (36 centimeters) in length. The tank has grassy plants, a sandy bottom and rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists hope the large space will foster breeding. Sea dragons mirror each other in a courtship dance, spiraling upward before the female deposits her eggs onto a patch on the underside of the male’s tail. Like seahorses, the male carries the young and gives birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re already seeing great courtship behaviors, and so we’re hopeful we can get some egg transfers really soon,” said Jenn Nero Moffatt, director of animal care at the Birch Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibit is the latest effort by the aquarium that is a world leader in seahorse propagation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Half Dome Lottery System Was Supposed to Make the Hike Safer. This Study Says It Hasn’t",
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"content": "\u003cp>Anyone attempting to summit Yosemite National Park’s iconic Half Dome rock formation during the 2000s would have likely found a bottleneck of hikers along the breathtaking final push up a steep incline of sheer granite.\u003cbr>\n[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Susanne Spano, UCSF']‘The permits were put in place for the right reasons — to make it safer for the people that are participating. It just so happens that there is no safety benefit.’[/pullquote]On a busy day, more than 1,000 people made the climb, and park officials worried that so many hikers using the cables put in place to assist their ascent made for dangerous conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This restriction is needed to provide for visitor safety,” the park service wrote at the time in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/halfdomemanagement.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">policy paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The number of daily visitors was subsequently lowered even more, to 300.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an \u003ca href=\"https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(18)30218-7/fulltext\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the park’s injury numbers, out this month in the journal \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">found that the number of accidents involving Half Dome hikers were statistically the same for the five years before and after the park began its permitting policy, despite the fact that up to 66% fewer hikers summited each day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overcrowding does not seem to be the major factor influencing safety,” said Susanne Spano, the study’s lead author and director of the Wilderness Medicine fellowship program at UCSF Fresno. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The permits were put in place for the right reasons — to make it safer for the people that are participating. It just so happens that there is no safety benefit.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers found that from 2005 to 2009, before the lottery, Yosemite logged 85 search and rescue incidents, 134 accidents, and 38 major incidents. Between 2011 and 2015, the park saw 54 search and rescue incidents, 156 victims, and 35 major incidents. The park saw a decrease of three deaths, however, from seven to four. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Long, Steep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At between 14 to 16 miles round trip\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>including roughly 5,000 feet of elevation gain, the trek up Half Dome is one of the longest and steepest single-day hikes in the entire national park system, taking about 12 hours.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, the trailhead is easily accessible by car, which makes it a draw for more inexperienced hikers. Other hikes of similar difficulty, like the summit of nearby Mount Whitney (the tallest mountain in the Sierra), are less frequented, requiring more preparation and time in the backcountry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One stated reason for initiating the permitting system was the crowding on the incline up the summit. But the study in \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wilderness & Environmental Medicine \u003c/span>\u003c/i>suggests that hikers are mostly getting hurt on the trail before that final leg, according to John Rose, professor of emergency medicine at the UC Davis Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The research] supports the idea that the problem was probably not related to just having too many people on the cable.” Rose cautioned that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.statsdirect.com/help/basics/prospective.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retrospective \u003c/a>study’s limitations include a small data set.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trailhead quotas are often used in national parks to limit the number of visitors and provide opportunities for solitude, but it’s less common for permit policies to be created in order to protect the health of hikers and backpackers. Spano’s research team is unaware of any other program like Yosemite’s.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, if people are getting hurt, it’s important to figure out why, and the park should consider additional safety measures, says Kathryn Van Waes, executive director of the American Hiking Society. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It needs to be looked into,” she said, suggesting Yosemite consult safety measures taken by parks with similarly perilous trails. “There are other places with these kinds of dangerous hikes in China, Switzerland and places in South America.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Van Waes suggested that an educational video explaining the dangers of Half Dome , shown as part of the permitting process, could help deter inexperienced hikers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A more extreme measure would be requiring guides to assist with the climb, she said, acknowledging such a measure would be unpopular with visitors and could create liability concerns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941842\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941842 size-medium\" style=\"font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent; color: #767676;\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A warning sign posted on the trek up to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. (Mike Wexler/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Tough Ticket\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spano said one thing possibly contributing to Half Dome injuries is “summit fever,” predicated on the difficulty that average hikers have acquiring permits. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The park issues them through a preseason lottery in March and daily lotteries during hiking season, normally May to October, when the guide cables are up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that the opportunity to ascend Half Dome has been curtailed, Spano said, hikers may be pressing on even though they feel fatigued. “You might never have a chance to get back,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2017, the success rate for the preseason lottery was as low as 2% for weekend dates and 32% for weekdays, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tom Stienstra \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Yosemite-is-changing-Half-Dome-hiking-permits-13722202.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in March. Stienstra said that computer programmers “essentially have rigged the online-permit system.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, the average success rate improved to 47% on weekdays and 24% on weekends, according to the park’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lottery statistics\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>This year, the park tinkered with the system in order to curb the selling and transferring of permits, The Mercury News \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/13/yosemite-half-dome-permits-available-for-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yosemite officials recommend that Half Dome hikers wear boots with traction, protect themselves from the sun, and drink at least a gallon of water. It’s not common for cell phones to work in the backcountry, even though there is some \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/internet.htm\">cell reception in the park\u003c/a>, mostly in Yosemite Valley. The park also suggests a hard-and-fast turnaround time — if you haven’t reached the top by midafternoon, you should reverse course so you aren’t hiking by headlamp in the dark. But bring a light just in case.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally incorrectly cited the study’s injury statistics as parkwide and not limited to the area above Little Yosemite Valley.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In 2010, Yosemite began a permitting lottery for visitors to Half Dome, out of safety concerns due to overcrowding on the trail. But a recent analysis of the park’s injury numbers found that the system did not reduce accidents.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Anyone attempting to summit Yosemite National Park’s iconic Half Dome rock formation during the 2000s would have likely found a bottleneck of hikers along the breathtaking final push up a steep incline of sheer granite.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The permits were put in place for the right reasons — to make it safer for the people that are participating. It just so happens that there is no safety benefit.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On a busy day, more than 1,000 people made the climb, and park officials worried that so many hikers using the cables put in place to assist their ascent made for dangerous conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This restriction is needed to provide for visitor safety,” the park service wrote at the time in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/halfdomemanagement.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">policy paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. The number of daily visitors was subsequently lowered even more, to 300.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an \u003ca href=\"https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(18)30218-7/fulltext\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the park’s injury numbers, out this month in the journal \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">found that the number of accidents involving Half Dome hikers were statistically the same for the five years before and after the park began its permitting policy, despite the fact that up to 66% fewer hikers summited each day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overcrowding does not seem to be the major factor influencing safety,” said Susanne Spano, the study’s lead author and director of the Wilderness Medicine fellowship program at UCSF Fresno. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The permits were put in place for the right reasons — to make it safer for the people that are participating. It just so happens that there is no safety benefit.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers found that from 2005 to 2009, before the lottery, Yosemite logged 85 search and rescue incidents, 134 accidents, and 38 major incidents. Between 2011 and 2015, the park saw 54 search and rescue incidents, 156 victims, and 35 major incidents. The park saw a decrease of three deaths, however, from seven to four. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Long, Steep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At between 14 to 16 miles round trip\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>including roughly 5,000 feet of elevation gain, the trek up Half Dome is one of the longest and steepest single-day hikes in the entire national park system, taking about 12 hours.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, the trailhead is easily accessible by car, which makes it a draw for more inexperienced hikers. Other hikes of similar difficulty, like the summit of nearby Mount Whitney (the tallest mountain in the Sierra), are less frequented, requiring more preparation and time in the backcountry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One stated reason for initiating the permitting system was the crowding on the incline up the summit. But the study in \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wilderness & Environmental Medicine \u003c/span>\u003c/i>suggests that hikers are mostly getting hurt on the trail before that final leg, according to John Rose, professor of emergency medicine at the UC Davis Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The research] supports the idea that the problem was probably not related to just having too many people on the cable.” Rose cautioned that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.statsdirect.com/help/basics/prospective.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retrospective \u003c/a>study’s limitations include a small data set.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trailhead quotas are often used in national parks to limit the number of visitors and provide opportunities for solitude, but it’s less common for permit policies to be created in order to protect the health of hikers and backpackers. Spano’s research team is unaware of any other program like Yosemite’s.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, if people are getting hurt, it’s important to figure out why, and the park should consider additional safety measures, says Kathryn Van Waes, executive director of the American Hiking Society. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It needs to be looked into,” she said, suggesting Yosemite consult safety measures taken by parks with similarly perilous trails. “There are other places with these kinds of dangerous hikes in China, Switzerland and places in South America.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Van Waes suggested that an educational video explaining the dangers of Half Dome , shown as part of the permitting process, could help deter inexperienced hikers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A more extreme measure would be requiring guides to assist with the climb, she said, acknowledging such a measure would be unpopular with visitors and could create liability concerns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941842\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941842 size-medium\" style=\"font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent; color: #767676;\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/3655503955_b3a3fc9015_o.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A warning sign posted on the trek up to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. (Mike Wexler/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Tough Ticket\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spano said one thing possibly contributing to Half Dome injuries is “summit fever,” predicated on the difficulty that average hikers have acquiring permits. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The park issues them through a preseason lottery in March and daily lotteries during hiking season, normally May to October, when the guide cables are up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that the opportunity to ascend Half Dome has been curtailed, Spano said, hikers may be pressing on even though they feel fatigued. “You might never have a chance to get back,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2017, the success rate for the preseason lottery was as low as 2% for weekend dates and 32% for weekdays, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tom Stienstra \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Yosemite-is-changing-Half-Dome-hiking-permits-13722202.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in March. Stienstra said that computer programmers “essentially have rigged the online-permit system.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, the average success rate improved to 47% on weekdays and 24% on weekends, according to the park’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lottery statistics\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>This year, the park tinkered with the system in order to curb the selling and transferring of permits, The Mercury News \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/13/yosemite-half-dome-permits-available-for-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yosemite officials recommend that Half Dome hikers wear boots with traction, protect themselves from the sun, and drink at least a gallon of water. It’s not common for cell phones to work in the backcountry, even though there is some \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/internet.htm\">cell reception in the park\u003c/a>, mostly in Yosemite Valley. The park also suggests a hard-and-fast turnaround time — if you haven’t reached the top by midafternoon, you should reverse course so you aren’t hiking by headlamp in the dark. But bring a light just in case.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally incorrectly cited the study’s injury statistics as parkwide and not limited to the area above Little Yosemite Valley.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
},
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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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. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
},
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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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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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
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