Living With Fire: Inside Northern California’s First ‘Wildfire-Prepared Neighborhood’
New California Insurance Laws on the Books in 2026
Maidu Tribes Reignite Ancestral Fire Stewardship in the Sierra Foothills
Stories That Stuck With Us This Year, Handpicked by the KQED Science Team
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How Ember Stomp Is Helping Marin Get Fire-Ready, 1 Go Bag at a Time
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Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods?
Bay Area Turns Up the Heat as Dry Lightning Looms Later This Week
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"content": "\u003cp>In the small \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/sierra-nevada\">Sierra\u003c/a> foothills community of Cameron Park, state officials, Cal Fire leaders, members of the insurance and construction industries, and a group of “El Dorado Roses” gathered around a yellow ceremonial ribbon. The Roses — mature women in Victorian dresses with large hats festooned in artificial flowers who serve as ambassadors for El Dorado County’s Chamber of Commerce — had come to celebrate the opening of new model homes for a unique neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 24 single-story homes planned for the Stone Canyon development in Cameron Park, now under construction and up for sale, will form Northern California’s first “wildfire-prepared neighborhood.” Developers and policymakers hope the designation from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety could offer a blueprint for building — and insuring — homes in an era of megafires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With insurance companies reluctant to insure fire-prone parts of California after a string of catastrophic blazes, state officials and builders are increasingly looking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024420/rebuilding-la-heres-what-fire-survivors-and-experts-say-is-key\">fire-hardened construction\u003c/a> to keep housing both insurable and habitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire-hardened homes are the future of the state of California,” El Dorado County Supervisor George Turnboo said. He bemoaned the plight of Caldor Fire survivors in his district who find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">insurance difficult to obtain\u003c/a> — including himself. He said he now pays $10,000 a year for insurance that once cost $900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The construction company leading the Stone Canyon project, KB Home, is betting that fire-prepared construction will attract buyers seeking peace of mind — and make it easier for them to obtain insurance. Nam Joe, Sacramento division president for KB Home, said buyers in the company’s first wildfire-prepared neighborhood, in fire-prone Escondido, enjoy more insurance options than owners of non-prepared homes nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roy Wright, president and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, stands in front of a home built to fire-ready specifications he helped design. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rachael Gauthier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Walking around a model home at the Stone Canyon ribbon-cutting on Thursday, visitors’ feet crunched on small pebbles of crushed granite beside a circulating water fountain, paved stones, river rocks and drought-resistant plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is some of the most beautiful Zone 0 landscapes I’ve seen,” said Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS, as he detailed features of a model home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Zone 0” refers to the five-foot perimeter of crushed rock surrounding the entire house, designed to keep burning embers from collecting at the base of the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In examining homes that burned in last year’s L.A. fires, Wright said he and his team found that houses within range of fire had a 90% chance of damage or destruction if burnable material was within five feet of the home. They published their \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-findings-on-la-countys-palisades-and-eaton-fires/\">post-fire investigation\u003c/a> findings last month.[aside postID=news_11833686 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/pexels-dids-1986996-1-1020x680-1.jpg']Clearing flammable material within that perimeter is one of the most effective ways of hardening a home — and among the most accessible to homeowners. The practice is now the subject of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068943/after-devastating-la-fires-california-is-drafting-nations-toughest-rules-for-homes\">much-debated policy\u003c/a> under review by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection for high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some homeowners associations have raised concerns that compliant homes will be unattractive or stripped of charm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s folks who have created an [inaccurate] narrative about what’s going to be required,” Wright said. “I think what we see here is something that really is survivable and beautiful at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The home’s backyard looks out onto mature oak woodland and wide green fields. Young trees, planted away from the house, line a fence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overhead, enclosed eaves stretch along the low edge of the Class A fire-resistant roof, designed to keep out embers blown in from a nearby wildfire. The windows are dual-paned and tempered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So if one of them was to break, the other could still survive,” Wright said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The house’s siding and shutters are made of fiber cement board, covered in stucco all the way to the base of the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The entire facade of this is non-combustible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This newly-built model home in El Dorado County is designed to survive wildfires. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rachael Gauthier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A vinyl fence surrounds the house, but it is connected to the structure by a five-foot metal gate. That way, Wright explained, even if the vinyl fence were to catch fire, it wouldn’t act as a connective wick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright stressed the importance of all the safety components working together, noting that when every home on a block adheres to fire-prepared standards, the entire neighborhood becomes safer. In this sense, wildfire resilience differs from other weather- and climate-related hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unlike rain, wind, hail, simply doing the upgrades to one home, while important, is not enough,” Wright said. “The adjacent properties begin to affect the wildfire risk of these homes. And so the collective action across the entire development is what fundamentally changes the risk profile of this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even nearby homes built decades ago will benefit, as a fire moving through the surrounding oaklands is less likely to ignite one of the fire-ready homes and trigger a structure-to-structure conflagration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The new Stone Canyon development in El Dorado County was built with wildfire in mind. It could offer a blueprint for building — and insuring — homes in an era of megafires.",
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"title": "Living With Fire: Inside Northern California’s First ‘Wildfire-Prepared Neighborhood’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the small \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/sierra-nevada\">Sierra\u003c/a> foothills community of Cameron Park, state officials, Cal Fire leaders, members of the insurance and construction industries, and a group of “El Dorado Roses” gathered around a yellow ceremonial ribbon. The Roses — mature women in Victorian dresses with large hats festooned in artificial flowers who serve as ambassadors for El Dorado County’s Chamber of Commerce — had come to celebrate the opening of new model homes for a unique neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 24 single-story homes planned for the Stone Canyon development in Cameron Park, now under construction and up for sale, will form Northern California’s first “wildfire-prepared neighborhood.” Developers and policymakers hope the designation from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety could offer a blueprint for building — and insuring — homes in an era of megafires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With insurance companies reluctant to insure fire-prone parts of California after a string of catastrophic blazes, state officials and builders are increasingly looking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024420/rebuilding-la-heres-what-fire-survivors-and-experts-say-is-key\">fire-hardened construction\u003c/a> to keep housing both insurable and habitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire-hardened homes are the future of the state of California,” El Dorado County Supervisor George Turnboo said. He bemoaned the plight of Caldor Fire survivors in his district who find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021019/la-fires-threaten-california-insurance-market-stability-housing-costs\">insurance difficult to obtain\u003c/a> — including himself. He said he now pays $10,000 a year for insurance that once cost $900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The construction company leading the Stone Canyon project, KB Home, is betting that fire-prepared construction will attract buyers seeking peace of mind — and make it easier for them to obtain insurance. Nam Joe, Sacramento division president for KB Home, said buyers in the company’s first wildfire-prepared neighborhood, in fire-prone Escondido, enjoy more insurance options than owners of non-prepared homes nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roy Wright, president and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, stands in front of a home built to fire-ready specifications he helped design. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rachael Gauthier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Walking around a model home at the Stone Canyon ribbon-cutting on Thursday, visitors’ feet crunched on small pebbles of crushed granite beside a circulating water fountain, paved stones, river rocks and drought-resistant plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is some of the most beautiful Zone 0 landscapes I’ve seen,” said Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS, as he detailed features of a model home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Zone 0” refers to the five-foot perimeter of crushed rock surrounding the entire house, designed to keep burning embers from collecting at the base of the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In examining homes that burned in last year’s L.A. fires, Wright said he and his team found that houses within range of fire had a 90% chance of damage or destruction if burnable material was within five feet of the home. They published their \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-findings-on-la-countys-palisades-and-eaton-fires/\">post-fire investigation\u003c/a> findings last month.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Clearing flammable material within that perimeter is one of the most effective ways of hardening a home — and among the most accessible to homeowners. The practice is now the subject of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068943/after-devastating-la-fires-california-is-drafting-nations-toughest-rules-for-homes\">much-debated policy\u003c/a> under review by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection for high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some homeowners associations have raised concerns that compliant homes will be unattractive or stripped of charm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s folks who have created an [inaccurate] narrative about what’s going to be required,” Wright said. “I think what we see here is something that really is survivable and beautiful at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The home’s backyard looks out onto mature oak woodland and wide green fields. Young trees, planted away from the house, line a fence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overhead, enclosed eaves stretch along the low edge of the Class A fire-resistant roof, designed to keep out embers blown in from a nearby wildfire. The windows are dual-paned and tempered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So if one of them was to break, the other could still survive,” Wright said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The house’s siding and shutters are made of fiber cement board, covered in stucco all the way to the base of the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The entire facade of this is non-combustible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/260123-Insurance-Home-03-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This newly-built model home in El Dorado County is designed to survive wildfires. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rachael Gauthier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A vinyl fence surrounds the house, but it is connected to the structure by a five-foot metal gate. That way, Wright explained, even if the vinyl fence were to catch fire, it wouldn’t act as a connective wick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright stressed the importance of all the safety components working together, noting that when every home on a block adheres to fire-prepared standards, the entire neighborhood becomes safer. In this sense, wildfire resilience differs from other weather- and climate-related hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unlike rain, wind, hail, simply doing the upgrades to one home, while important, is not enough,” Wright said. “The adjacent properties begin to affect the wildfire risk of these homes. And so the collective action across the entire development is what fundamentally changes the risk profile of this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even nearby homes built decades ago will benefit, as a fire moving through the surrounding oaklands is less likely to ignite one of the fire-ready homes and trigger a structure-to-structure conflagration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "new-california-insurance-laws-on-the-books-in-2026",
"title": "New California Insurance Laws on the Books in 2026",
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"headTitle": "New California Insurance Laws on the Books in 2026 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A new suite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> laws aimed at improving property insurance for the state’s people took effect Jan. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Primarily, the legislation focuses on promoting wildfire safety and consumer protections, with steps that increase transparency or customer convenience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance is crucial because it gives our lives some stability in an inherently and increasingly unstable world. Climate change is accelerating natural disasters, making insurance more expensive and less available. The laws the state passed in 2025 attempted to increase oversight, protections and convenience for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom noted that insurance companies are returning or expanding coverage in California in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069094/in-final-state-of-state-speech-gov-newsom-says-california-offers-model-for-the-nation\">final State of the State speech\u003c/a>, but acknowledged that there is still “a lot of work to do here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His latest budget includes a financing program to help survivors of wildfires bridge the gap between insurance payouts and the costs of rebuilding. “This will help get survivors back in their homes much, much faster,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom, above right, speaks during his State of the State address on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That may be the case, but many Californians are still saddled with high insurance premiums that threaten affordable housing across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the key insurance-focused measures:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>Eliminate “The List” Act (SB 495)\u003c/strong>: Insurance companies have generally required wildfire survivors to submit a detailed list of everything in their house destroyed in a disaster in order to get reimbursed for those items. A \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB495/id/3261341\">new law\u003c/a>, authored by state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, eliminated this requirement. Insurance companies must now pay 60% of contents coverage limits, capped at $350,000, when customers lose their home in a qualifying disaster. Customers who do have a detailed list of all their belongings and their value can get 100%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was one of the laws Dave Jones, former state Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018, thinks will have the greatest impact for Californians. Creating “the list” following a catastrophic loss was emotionally taxing and logistically difficult for many people. As commissioner, he said, his office got insurance companies to voluntarily reimburse people for up to 50% of coverage limits for personal contents. He was glad to see this codified in law and raised to 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The California Wildfire Public Model Act (SB 429)\u003c/strong>: Jones, who is now the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, was also glad to see a law passed that funds the nation’s first publicly available wildfire loss catastrophe model. More than a decade ago, the state of Florida built a catastrophe model for hurricanes and the state, insurers and residents have found it useful in understanding their risk from severe storms. California now allows insurance companies to use forward-looking “cat models,” which factor in risks due to climate change, and legislators felt a public model was needed as a transparent comparison point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of just having to rely on the private proprietary models that the insurers have or that they license from private modeling vendors and then use and submit to the department for purposes of seeking approval of their rates,” Jones said, “there would be a publicly owned model.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999801\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altadena resident Herb Wilson, 67, walks with his dog, Rosie, to survey the home he shares with his wife, Loyda, after it was destroyed in the Eaton Fire northeast of Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The couple was on vacation in Hawaii when the fire broke out, so they were not able to retrieve any belongings. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When insurance companies ask the Department of Insurance for a rate increase, the state can now compare estimates of the private and public models. Officials hope it will be useful for local and state planning and administrative agencies to get a grip on the potential catastrophic risks that California faces. It can also guide the state of California or local governments that want to guard against disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San José, authored \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB429/id/3191123\">the law\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The California Safe Homes Grant Program (AB 888)\u003c/strong>: Steps like installing fire-resistant roofs or changing landscaping around the home can do much to protect a home from fire, but the changes can come with a hefty price tag. \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB888/id/3131905\">This bill\u003c/a> establishes a program to help cover homeowner and community costs. The amount in the fund hasn’t yet been communicated. Authored by state Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, D-Whitter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The Insurance and Wildfire Safety Act (AB 1)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1/id/3272734\">This bill\u003c/a> requires California’s insurance regulators to regularly review and update their regulations designed to promote wildfire safety and encourage insurers to offer discounts for wildfire mitigation. Authored by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The Business Insurance Protection Act (SB 547)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB547/id/3272909\">This extends\u003c/a> the protections homeowners receive after a fire, a one-year prohibition of non-renewals from insurance companies, to businesses, homeowners’ associations, condominiums, affordable housing units and nonprofits. Authored by state senators Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, and Susan Rubio, D-West Covina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The FAIR Plan Stabilization Act (AB 226)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB226/id/3046897\">This law\u003c/a> permits the FAIR plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, to access bonds if it’s at risk of bankruptcy. Jointly authored by Assemblymembers Lisa Calderon, D-Whitter, and David Alvarez, D-Chula Vista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>FAIR Plan oversight (AB 234)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB234/id/3053669\">This act\u003c/a> places two lawmakers, or someone they designate, on the FAIR Plan governing board in an attempt to increase transparency. This is one of the property insurance-related laws Karl Susman, insurance broker and owner of Susman Insurance Agency, said is overdue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never had an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes with the FAIR Plan,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan has not publicly disclosed who is on the board and doesn’t have to explain their deliberations. The lawmakers on the board won’t have voting power, but they will be able to communicate with the public about what is happening. “I think that’s a really big one,” Susman said. “At least now when there’s a major problem we’re not going: ‘We don’t even know who to ask.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>FAIR Plan automatic payments (AB 290)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB290/id/3227449\">This bill\u003c/a> tries to prevent unintentional policy lapses in coverage from the FAIR Plan due to missed or delayed payments. It requires the FAIR plan to set up a system to accept automatic payments from policyholders. Authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan “has an online portal where you can make payments, but it’s notoriously bad,” Susman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This law may make payments more convenient for FAIR Plan policyholders, he said, even if it seems like an odd thing to have to legislate. “If I told you how much time gets wasted on their payment portal, you’d say, ‘Oh my God, that’s crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bills that didn’t pass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A bill that did not pass last year, to Jones’ disappointment, sought damages from the oil and gas industry for its role in rising temperatures and extreme weather-related disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would have allowed individuals, small businesses, and even the FAIR Plan to bring lawsuits directly against the industry for damages associated with emissions-driven, climate catastrophes.[aside postID=news_12069177 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/HJA_2939_SOTS_001-2000x1333.jpg']Last year, Colorado passed a bill (\u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1182\">HB25-1182\u003c/a>) that requires insurance companies to take into account home hardening, defensible space and landscape-scale forest management projects when they write or renew policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would mean lower prices for customers who mitigate their fire risk. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1060\">similar bill\u003c/a> failed in California in 2024, but Jones hopes the idea is revisited. “It’s embarrassing that California not only is not the first state in the nation to enact it, but has not enacted it at all,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, California’s recent changes to how insurance works, he believes, will keep the industry going in the near and mid-term. But in the long run, he said, these tweaks won’t cut it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase of climate-driven disasters, Jones said, will overwhelm any of these regulatory changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless we address the root cause, which are the emissions that are causing temperature rise, more severe and extreme weather-related events, killing more people, injuring more people, destroying more homes and businesses and then causing insurers to pay out more,” he said. “Unless we address the root causes, we’re going to continue to march towards an uninsurable future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new suite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> laws aimed at improving property insurance for the state’s people took effect Jan. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Primarily, the legislation focuses on promoting wildfire safety and consumer protections, with steps that increase transparency or customer convenience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance is crucial because it gives our lives some stability in an inherently and increasingly unstable world. Climate change is accelerating natural disasters, making insurance more expensive and less available. The laws the state passed in 2025 attempted to increase oversight, protections and convenience for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom noted that insurance companies are returning or expanding coverage in California in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069094/in-final-state-of-state-speech-gov-newsom-says-california-offers-model-for-the-nation\">final State of the State speech\u003c/a>, but acknowledged that there is still “a lot of work to do here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His latest budget includes a financing program to help survivors of wildfires bridge the gap between insurance payouts and the costs of rebuilding. “This will help get survivors back in their homes much, much faster,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/GavinNewsomStateoftheState2026AP2-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom, above right, speaks during his State of the State address on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That may be the case, but many Californians are still saddled with high insurance premiums that threaten affordable housing across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the key insurance-focused measures:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>Eliminate “The List” Act (SB 495)\u003c/strong>: Insurance companies have generally required wildfire survivors to submit a detailed list of everything in their house destroyed in a disaster in order to get reimbursed for those items. A \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB495/id/3261341\">new law\u003c/a>, authored by state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, eliminated this requirement. Insurance companies must now pay 60% of contents coverage limits, capped at $350,000, when customers lose their home in a qualifying disaster. Customers who do have a detailed list of all their belongings and their value can get 100%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was one of the laws Dave Jones, former state Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018, thinks will have the greatest impact for Californians. Creating “the list” following a catastrophic loss was emotionally taxing and logistically difficult for many people. As commissioner, he said, his office got insurance companies to voluntarily reimburse people for up to 50% of coverage limits for personal contents. He was glad to see this codified in law and raised to 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The California Wildfire Public Model Act (SB 429)\u003c/strong>: Jones, who is now the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, was also glad to see a law passed that funds the nation’s first publicly available wildfire loss catastrophe model. More than a decade ago, the state of Florida built a catastrophe model for hurricanes and the state, insurers and residents have found it useful in understanding their risk from severe storms. California now allows insurance companies to use forward-looking “cat models,” which factor in risks due to climate change, and legislators felt a public model was needed as a transparent comparison point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of just having to rely on the private proprietary models that the insurers have or that they license from private modeling vendors and then use and submit to the department for purposes of seeking approval of their rates,” Jones said, “there would be a publicly owned model.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999801\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999801\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/01/240109-CAWindStorm-029_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altadena resident Herb Wilson, 67, walks with his dog, Rosie, to survey the home he shares with his wife, Loyda, after it was destroyed in the Eaton Fire northeast of Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The couple was on vacation in Hawaii when the fire broke out, so they were not able to retrieve any belongings. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When insurance companies ask the Department of Insurance for a rate increase, the state can now compare estimates of the private and public models. Officials hope it will be useful for local and state planning and administrative agencies to get a grip on the potential catastrophic risks that California faces. It can also guide the state of California or local governments that want to guard against disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San José, authored \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB429/id/3191123\">the law\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The California Safe Homes Grant Program (AB 888)\u003c/strong>: Steps like installing fire-resistant roofs or changing landscaping around the home can do much to protect a home from fire, but the changes can come with a hefty price tag. \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB888/id/3131905\">This bill\u003c/a> establishes a program to help cover homeowner and community costs. The amount in the fund hasn’t yet been communicated. Authored by state Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, D-Whitter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The Insurance and Wildfire Safety Act (AB 1)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1/id/3272734\">This bill\u003c/a> requires California’s insurance regulators to regularly review and update their regulations designed to promote wildfire safety and encourage insurers to offer discounts for wildfire mitigation. Authored by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The Business Insurance Protection Act (SB 547)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB547/id/3272909\">This extends\u003c/a> the protections homeowners receive after a fire, a one-year prohibition of non-renewals from insurance companies, to businesses, homeowners’ associations, condominiums, affordable housing units and nonprofits. Authored by state senators Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, and Susan Rubio, D-West Covina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>The FAIR Plan Stabilization Act (AB 226)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB226/id/3046897\">This law\u003c/a> permits the FAIR plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, to access bonds if it’s at risk of bankruptcy. Jointly authored by Assemblymembers Lisa Calderon, D-Whitter, and David Alvarez, D-Chula Vista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>FAIR Plan oversight (AB 234)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB234/id/3053669\">This act\u003c/a> places two lawmakers, or someone they designate, on the FAIR Plan governing board in an attempt to increase transparency. This is one of the property insurance-related laws Karl Susman, insurance broker and owner of Susman Insurance Agency, said is overdue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never had an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes with the FAIR Plan,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan has not publicly disclosed who is on the board and doesn’t have to explain their deliberations. The lawmakers on the board won’t have voting power, but they will be able to communicate with the public about what is happening. “I think that’s a really big one,” Susman said. “At least now when there’s a major problem we’re not going: ‘We don’t even know who to ask.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*\u003cstrong>FAIR Plan automatic payments (AB 290)\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB290/id/3227449\">This bill\u003c/a> tries to prevent unintentional policy lapses in coverage from the FAIR Plan due to missed or delayed payments. It requires the FAIR plan to set up a system to accept automatic payments from policyholders. Authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan “has an online portal where you can make payments, but it’s notoriously bad,” Susman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This law may make payments more convenient for FAIR Plan policyholders, he said, even if it seems like an odd thing to have to legislate. “If I told you how much time gets wasted on their payment portal, you’d say, ‘Oh my God, that’s crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bills that didn’t pass\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A bill that did not pass last year, to Jones’ disappointment, sought damages from the oil and gas industry for its role in rising temperatures and extreme weather-related disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would have allowed individuals, small businesses, and even the FAIR Plan to bring lawsuits directly against the industry for damages associated with emissions-driven, climate catastrophes.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last year, Colorado passed a bill (\u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1182\">HB25-1182\u003c/a>) that requires insurance companies to take into account home hardening, defensible space and landscape-scale forest management projects when they write or renew policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would mean lower prices for customers who mitigate their fire risk. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1060\">similar bill\u003c/a> failed in California in 2024, but Jones hopes the idea is revisited. “It’s embarrassing that California not only is not the first state in the nation to enact it, but has not enacted it at all,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, California’s recent changes to how insurance works, he believes, will keep the industry going in the near and mid-term. But in the long run, he said, these tweaks won’t cut it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase of climate-driven disasters, Jones said, will overwhelm any of these regulatory changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless we address the root cause, which are the emissions that are causing temperature rise, more severe and extreme weather-related events, killing more people, injuring more people, destroying more homes and businesses and then causing insurers to pay out more,” he said. “Unless we address the root causes, we’re going to continue to march towards an uninsurable future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "maidu-tribes-reignite-ancestral-fire-stewardship-in-the-sierra-foothills",
"title": "Maidu Tribes Reignite Ancestral Fire Stewardship in the Sierra Foothills",
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"content": "\u003cp>Magan Herrera stood in the middle of a sloping meadow this fall, wearing a hard hat, sturdy boots, and a yellow fire-resistant jacket framing her pregnant belly. The meadow, in the midst of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sierra-nevada\">Sierra\u003c/a> foothills, may once have been a Maidu basket weaver’s garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deer grass juts from the ground in bunches — good habitat for grazing animals and material for the tribe’s baskets. The meadow also holds yerba santa, an evergreen shrub used to treat colds, and manzanita, with its brilliant green leaves identical on both sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For thousands of years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">native people used fire\u003c/a> to tend this land in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933052/the-burn-scars-of-the-sierra-foothills-tell-a-story-and-offer-lessons\">Sierra foothills\u003c/a>, in what is now known as Butte County, spurring growth of the plants they wanted, knocking back the ones they didn’t and constraining the lightning-ignited wildfires that burned the area every few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came Western settlement, firefighters suppressing the flames, and conifers tangling thickly together. Eventually, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887158/in-california-restoring-our-relationship-with-fire-is-possible\">conditions grew ripe\u003c/a> for the ferocious, wind-driven flames of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever\">North Complex Fire and Bear Fire\u003c/a>, which consumed nearly everything along nearby Berry Creek and killed 11 people in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Herrera, who is part of the Maidu tribe, surveyed the meadow, she saw the promise of a place her people could, once again, rely on for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Magan Herrera of the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My hope is for our people to use this land so that everybody will have everything that they need,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To steward the land, she was helping to lead a planned burn. Maidu people from five local tribal groups participated: Berry Creek Rancheria, Mechoopa, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley. It’s the first time in living memory that they’ve come together to burn, Herrera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of indigenous fire stewardship and the corresponding Western settler obsession with suppressing all fire have fueled our current era of devastating megafires. Returning fire stewardship to indigenous communities helps restore the land and people’s souls. This is the spirit embodied in the November meadow burn. The land will be safer from future wildfires and tended according to the traditions of the Maidu ancestors who lived here for generations.[aside postID=science_1998787 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed.jpg']Fire, in this region of Northern California between Interstate 5 and the Sierra Nevada, is a defining problem of life. For native people like the Maidu, it is also a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The burn was formally a training, with the goal of enabling the Berry Creek Maidu to reestablish their traditional relationship with fire. But it was more than that. Jedediah Brown, the tribe’s historic preservation officer, described it as “a homecoming, a return of fire to the land and the people. […] Through the continuation of this work, the relationship between fire, people, and place is renewed in the way our ancestors intended.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before burning the meadow, Herrera urged everyone to think about those who would gather materials in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be a place where our people can gather food, fibers and medicines,” she said. “We want to make sure all of that stuff stays really clean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basket weavers often hold materials in their mouths, and it’s long been a challenge to find plants free of fuel or herbicides. Here, the tribe can tend its garden as it chooses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burners didn’t use drip torches, which plop lit gasoline on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999164\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fires burn as part of a CAL-TREX prescribed burn in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, in the months prior to the burn, Herrera trained a crew of Maidu women in traditional ecological knowledge — “my girls,” she calls them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My girls harvested a lot of sticks,” she said, picking up one of the many bundles set aside for the burn. She held a lighter to the long twigs. “You light the stick, and the leaves start falling exactly like a drip torch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 90 people came to the burn from all over Northern California. More than a dozen agencies and organizations — including resource conservation districts, prescribed burn associations and fire safe councils — partnered to make the training possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some tribes, like the Karuk and Yurok along the Klamath River, have robust fire programs built over decades of working to reclaim intentional fire from agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire, the reclamation in Berry Creek — formally the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu Indians of California — is in early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Maidu tribe of Butte County-Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley set out to begin a CAL-TREX prescribed burn in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ability to practice their culture and revitalize traditions will provide the Berry Creek Maidu “a strong connection with their land in a way that helps to overcome the past traumas, including the traumas of the North Complex fire,” said Don Hankins, an indigenous fire expert and professor at California State University, Chico, who did not attend the Berry Creek burn but knows others who did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restoration, he said, can help the tribe feel ownership and responsibility “to shape their future with fire so that they don’t have to go through that again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hankins, who is a California Plains Miwok traditional cultural practitioner, writes about the stories that indigenous people tell of devastating “first fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the fires we’re experiencing today are no different,” Hankins said. “Those stories tell us, after that happened, people learned to take care of the land. And so we’re at that time, this is the opportunity when there’s a fire footprint, even though there’s been devastation, the only good choice, I think, is to step back in and learn to steward [with fire] again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants in the CAL-TREX prescribed burn bundle fuels and set them alight in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The intense 2020 fires burned through thick forests and uncovered Berry Creek Maidu ancestral village sites and gathering grounds, allowing the tribe to care for those places again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looked to [our cultural monitors] like everything was laid where our ancestors had left it,” Herrera said. “Just like if you walked into an abandoned house and there’s a pair of glasses and a newspaper and half a cup of tea. Like somebody just got up and left.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This 60-acre parcel, which used to host village sites, is part of that story. It was home to their ancestors for many thousands of years. But the land had been held privately for generations, and the tribes accessed it only recently, when it came up for sale and they collectively purchased it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The morning after the meadow burn, Brown, the cultural preservation officer, walked a short distance away. Leaves, acorns and pebbles crunched under his feet. He stopped at a small rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jedediah Brown of the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a village site. The old name for it is Piube. It means ‘rooted food,’” Brown said. “We now call it Hyhcetim kumbali, ‘the place to know’ or ‘the learning place.’ Because it’s like our school now, our classroom. We learn every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the North Complex fire, Brown and other volunteers cleaned up the burned land, tending to it on the weekends over the course of three years. In that time, many acquired first aid and chainsaw certification, allowing them to safely remove burned trees at risk of falling on people — a big but necessary task to make events like this training day possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They uncovered a broad, flat rock with about 60 circular cups carved into the surface, each roughly the diameter of a coffee mug. Brown’s ancestors processed acorns for food in this bedrock mortar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe still uses acorns heavily. The day of the meadow burn, tribal members served acorn soup to all participants. Its pleasant, mild flavor was so popular that their entire batch disappeared, to their own surprise. Volunteers helped gather acorns underneath black oak trees — it was only fair to help replenish the stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants in the prescribed burn listen to a weather and safety briefing in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After a full day of burning and a dinner of venison, corn and mashed potatoes hosted by tribal members in an indoor gym, Herrera reflected on the progress and her hopes for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t even believe that today happened,” she said. Herrera organized the volunteers into groups with tribal names and became emotional listening to volunteers calling “out their squads in Maidu because the land here recognizes the language, it’s been spoken to it since time immemorial. I think that put a lot of intention down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we were lighting the fires, every bunch of deer grass got hit with just the right gust of wind [to light it], every single time,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a good day’s work. She looked down at her abundant belly. Herrera expects her second child, a son, in February. She will develop her weaving skills as she waits, crafting both a new life and a basket to hold him, made of willow, oak and wild roses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The basket’s backboard will grow from the land she burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Amongst the ponderosa pines in California’s Butte County, Maidu women light fires not to destroy but to heal — restoring an ancient garden, and themselves. ",
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"title": "Maidu Tribes Reignite Ancestral Fire Stewardship in the Sierra Foothills | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Magan Herrera stood in the middle of a sloping meadow this fall, wearing a hard hat, sturdy boots, and a yellow fire-resistant jacket framing her pregnant belly. The meadow, in the midst of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sierra-nevada\">Sierra\u003c/a> foothills, may once have been a Maidu basket weaver’s garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deer grass juts from the ground in bunches — good habitat for grazing animals and material for the tribe’s baskets. The meadow also holds yerba santa, an evergreen shrub used to treat colds, and manzanita, with its brilliant green leaves identical on both sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For thousands of years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">native people used fire\u003c/a> to tend this land in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933052/the-burn-scars-of-the-sierra-foothills-tell-a-story-and-offer-lessons\">Sierra foothills\u003c/a>, in what is now known as Butte County, spurring growth of the plants they wanted, knocking back the ones they didn’t and constraining the lightning-ignited wildfires that burned the area every few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came Western settlement, firefighters suppressing the flames, and conifers tangling thickly together. Eventually, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11887158/in-california-restoring-our-relationship-with-fire-is-possible\">conditions grew ripe\u003c/a> for the ferocious, wind-driven flames of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998245/the-summer-that-changed-california-forever\">North Complex Fire and Bear Fire\u003c/a>, which consumed nearly everything along nearby Berry Creek and killed 11 people in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Herrera, who is part of the Maidu tribe, surveyed the meadow, she saw the promise of a place her people could, once again, rely on for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_91_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Magan Herrera of the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My hope is for our people to use this land so that everybody will have everything that they need,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To steward the land, she was helping to lead a planned burn. Maidu people from five local tribal groups participated: Berry Creek Rancheria, Mechoopa, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley. It’s the first time in living memory that they’ve come together to burn, Herrera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of indigenous fire stewardship and the corresponding Western settler obsession with suppressing all fire have fueled our current era of devastating megafires. Returning fire stewardship to indigenous communities helps restore the land and people’s souls. This is the spirit embodied in the November meadow burn. The land will be safer from future wildfires and tended according to the traditions of the Maidu ancestors who lived here for generations.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Fire, in this region of Northern California between Interstate 5 and the Sierra Nevada, is a defining problem of life. For native people like the Maidu, it is also a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The burn was formally a training, with the goal of enabling the Berry Creek Maidu to reestablish their traditional relationship with fire. But it was more than that. Jedediah Brown, the tribe’s historic preservation officer, described it as “a homecoming, a return of fire to the land and the people. […] Through the continuation of this work, the relationship between fire, people, and place is renewed in the way our ancestors intended.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before burning the meadow, Herrera urged everyone to think about those who would gather materials in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be a place where our people can gather food, fibers and medicines,” she said. “We want to make sure all of that stuff stays really clean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basket weavers often hold materials in their mouths, and it’s long been a challenge to find plants free of fuel or herbicides. Here, the tribe can tend its garden as it chooses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burners didn’t use drip torches, which plop lit gasoline on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999164\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999164\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_203_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fires burn as part of a CAL-TREX prescribed burn in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, in the months prior to the burn, Herrera trained a crew of Maidu women in traditional ecological knowledge — “my girls,” she calls them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My girls harvested a lot of sticks,” she said, picking up one of the many bundles set aside for the burn. She held a lighter to the long twigs. “You light the stick, and the leaves start falling exactly like a drip torch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 90 people came to the burn from all over Northern California. More than a dozen agencies and organizations — including resource conservation districts, prescribed burn associations and fire safe councils — partnered to make the training possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some tribes, like the Karuk and Yurok along the Klamath River, have robust fire programs built over decades of working to reclaim intentional fire from agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire, the reclamation in Berry Creek — formally the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu Indians of California — is in early stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_177_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Maidu tribe of Butte County-Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Mooretown, Enterprise and Konkow Valley set out to begin a CAL-TREX prescribed burn in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ability to practice their culture and revitalize traditions will provide the Berry Creek Maidu “a strong connection with their land in a way that helps to overcome the past traumas, including the traumas of the North Complex fire,” said Don Hankins, an indigenous fire expert and professor at California State University, Chico, who did not attend the Berry Creek burn but knows others who did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restoration, he said, can help the tribe feel ownership and responsibility “to shape their future with fire so that they don’t have to go through that again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hankins, who is a California Plains Miwok traditional cultural practitioner, writes about the stories that indigenous people tell of devastating “first fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the fires we’re experiencing today are no different,” Hankins said. “Those stories tell us, after that happened, people learned to take care of the land. And so we’re at that time, this is the opportunity when there’s a fire footprint, even though there’s been devastation, the only good choice, I think, is to step back in and learn to steward [with fire] again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_190_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants in the CAL-TREX prescribed burn bundle fuels and set them alight in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The intense 2020 fires burned through thick forests and uncovered Berry Creek Maidu ancestral village sites and gathering grounds, allowing the tribe to care for those places again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looked to [our cultural monitors] like everything was laid where our ancestors had left it,” Herrera said. “Just like if you walked into an abandoned house and there’s a pair of glasses and a newspaper and half a cup of tea. Like somebody just got up and left.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This 60-acre parcel, which used to host village sites, is part of that story. It was home to their ancestors for many thousands of years. But the land had been held privately for generations, and the tribes accessed it only recently, when it came up for sale and they collectively purchased it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The morning after the meadow burn, Brown, the cultural preservation officer, walked a short distance away. Leaves, acorns and pebbles crunched under his feet. He stopped at a small rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_68_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jedediah Brown of the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a village site. The old name for it is Piube. It means ‘rooted food,’” Brown said. “We now call it Hyhcetim kumbali, ‘the place to know’ or ‘the learning place.’ Because it’s like our school now, our classroom. We learn every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the North Complex fire, Brown and other volunteers cleaned up the burned land, tending to it on the weekends over the course of three years. In that time, many acquired first aid and chainsaw certification, allowing them to safely remove burned trees at risk of falling on people — a big but necessary task to make events like this training day possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They uncovered a broad, flat rock with about 60 circular cups carved into the surface, each roughly the diameter of a coffee mug. Brown’s ancestors processed acorns for food in this bedrock mortar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe still uses acorns heavily. The day of the meadow burn, tribal members served acorn soup to all participants. Its pleasant, mild flavor was so popular that their entire batch disappeared, to their own surprise. Volunteers helped gather acorns underneath black oak trees — it was only fair to help replenish the stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/KQED_PRESCRIBED-BURN_AT_01_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants in the prescribed burn listen to a weather and safety briefing in Berry Creek on Nov. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After a full day of burning and a dinner of venison, corn and mashed potatoes hosted by tribal members in an indoor gym, Herrera reflected on the progress and her hopes for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t even believe that today happened,” she said. Herrera organized the volunteers into groups with tribal names and became emotional listening to volunteers calling “out their squads in Maidu because the land here recognizes the language, it’s been spoken to it since time immemorial. I think that put a lot of intention down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we were lighting the fires, every bunch of deer grass got hit with just the right gust of wind [to light it], every single time,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a good day’s work. She looked down at her abundant belly. Herrera expects her second child, a son, in February. She will develop her weaving skills as she waits, crafting both a new life and a basket to hold him, made of willow, oak and wild roses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The basket’s backboard will grow from the land she burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>2025 has been a year of upheaval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We saw a new administration in Washington take sweeping action to cut the work of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029795/california-scientists-left-adrift-mass-federal-layoffs-noaa\">federal scientists and researchers\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909572/how-president-trump-aims-to-dismantle-environmental-protections\"> gut environmental\u003c/a> and species protections. We saw the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">destructive fires in California’s history\u003c/a> ravage areas of Los Angeles. We saw a protracted government shutdown and a state government more or less constantly at war with the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also saw people taking local action to improve land and communities they care about, and people reaching out to others – again and again – in the hopes of making their lives a little better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through it all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science\">KQED’s Science\u003c/a> and climate team has been here bringing you the stories you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we wrap up this year, we’ve handpicked some of the stories that we find especially memorable, thought-provoking or that changed how we thought about something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999092\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikola Alexandre, of Shelterwood Collective, performs a burn at the property in Cazadero on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero, climate reporter:\u003c/strong> “They want to change the culture to make this place one that’s not just about a party, but a place that cares about the river and cares about the ecosystem, so that it can have a long life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ezra David Romero chose his Dec. 1 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13984173/shelterwood-collective-soloar-punk-farms-lgbtq-history-russian-river\">“A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River” \u003c/a>profiling people caring for land in an area with a long queer legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a big year of negative environmental news, with the Trump administration rolling back so much. I wrote dozens of those stories earlier this year. I wanted to do something that felt more regenerative, something focusing on positive news in the climate world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I kept meeting so many queer people in interviews, so I wondered if there were any interesting stories about queer people and climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found these two groups who purchased land up in the Guerneville area and are sort of reinvigorating this idea that the Russian River area had all these queer communes, in the ’60s, ’70s, but in a climate conscious way. They want to make sure the Russian River remains a queer place — that’s only going to happen if there’s forest restoration there, because the area is prone to fires, and if the place is able to withstand the future floods, because in a warming climate atmospheric rivers will be wetter and make bigger floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so it’s cool to hear that they’re not just changing the land, but they want to change the culture to make this place a place that’s not just about a party, but a place that cares about the river and cares about the ecosystem, so that it can have a long life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Milner (left) and Rupert Mayer work to install solar panels in Milner’s backyard in Kensington on May 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nLaura Klivans, climate reporter:\u003c/strong> “This helped me see what trends look like in the beginning — things might start out like the Wild West — before larger entities can wrap their heads around procedures and make policy around it. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Klivans chose her Jul. 28 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997918/forget-rooftops-bay-area-residents-are-plugging-solar-into-the-wall\">“Forget Rooftops — Bay Area Residents Are Plugging Solar Into the Wall” \u003c/a>about an emerging climate solution: people installing solar panels on balconies or in their backyards to get clean energy, even if they don’t own their homes or have the capital to invest in traditional solar setups. Laura’s reporting captured the attention of regulators and PBS Newshour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I saw that I was informing some of the interested parties, important stakeholders in this matter, that this was even happening. Someone at the California Energy Commission wrote to me and said ‘We’re all passing this around the office today.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That felt great because a lot of my stories are on trends, solutions, events that have already happened or been established for a long time. That doesn’t do much to inform policy. But with this story, the people who have yet to write the policy are looking at my work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Using solar panels in this way isn’t really allowed in its current form. It was interesting to talk to so many people who were willing to go on the record with something that is emerging right now and not really sanctioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like the work has more reach. And I think that’s why the post was so popular. I caught this wave of developing news.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997768\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997768\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1202\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giovanni Figueroa, a mental health specialist with the Orange County Health Care Agency, writes a to-do list before meeting with a client at the Central Men’s & Women’s Jails in Orange County on July 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(David Rodriguez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>April Dembosky, health correspondent:\u003c/strong> “If you have a person whose illness makes them believe they’re not ill, how do you convince them to accept treatment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April Dembosky chose her July 17 post \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997759/he-relentlessly-drove-30000-miles-asking-one-question-do-you-want-help\">‘Do You Want Help?’: Inside Orange County’s Bet on Voluntary Mental Health Care\u003c/a>” looking at Orange County’s implementation of a new state program that seeks to help the people with serious mental illness, through radical patience and relentless outreach.[aside postID=news_12068387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04242019_measles-vaccination-california-legislature-qut.jpg']“Getting people with serious mental illness into treatment has been a historical problem and in recent years has resparked a vexing ethical debate: is treating people against their will an act of cruelty or compassion? California has been experimenting with new policies that make it easier to coerce people into treatment. ‘Care Court’ is one of those programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Orange County ’s healthcare leaders surprised me because, while they volunteered to be one of the first counties to implement the program, they are completely against forcing people into care. They believe we need to invest in long-term relationships if we want to see long-term results. Their approach is to coax, rather than coerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went down there to see what this looks like and I met Giovanni Figueroa. He’s a social worker for the county who spends his days looking for and building trust with people with psychotic illness. He builds trust one bottle of water, one hamburger at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it can take six months or more before someone finally says, ‘OK, I’ll go see the doctor. OK, I’ll think about taking medication.’ He is incredibly patient and devoted to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His approach looks completely different from any other I have ever seen in the healthcare system – which is basically ‘take it or leave it.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He continues to show up for people, over and over, no matter what. It’s not a quick fix by any means and time will tell if it ultimately works. But this story showed me a different way of doing things is possible. Giovanni is an inspiration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kayakers paddle through Elkhorn Slough as a sea otter floats nearby. Conservationists warn that proposed rollbacks to Endangered Species Act protections could threaten the species’ recovery. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Mohamad, science engagement producer: \u003c/strong>“Watching otters float by, completely unaware of the decisions being made about their future, made the policy debate feel immediate and human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Mohamad chose a piece she worked on with Ezra David Romero that published on Oct. 16, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998802/california-otters-could-face-new-threats-if-trump-weakens-law-for-endangered-animals\">“California Sea Otters Could Face New Threats if Trump Weakens Law for Endangered Animals.”\u003c/a> It’s about southern sea otters in Elkhorn Slough. The reporters kayaked to see otters up close for a s\u003ca class=\"hoverZoomLink\" title=\"\" href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMy_WnjzuF/\">ocial video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I expected to be a pretty straightforward wildlife comeback story ended up being something much bigger, a reminder of just how interconnected ecosystems are, and how fragile those connections can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always thought of sea otters as these really charismatic animals — they’re adorable, and I knew they were important in a general conservation sense. But seeing them in the water, watching them float with their pups, and listening to scientists talk about what they actually do in this ecosystem shifted my thinking. The otters aren’t just surviving in Elkhorn Slough, they’re actively shaping it. By eating crabs, they help stabilize marsh banks, make space for eelgrass to grow, and even help the ecosystem store carbon. They’re influencing biodiversity, habitat health, and climate resilience all at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998311\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Sims rests under a tree with his belongings across from St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County in Oakland on Aug. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lesley McClurg, health correspondent: \u003c/strong>“What happens to people living on the street when encampments are swept away?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her Sept. 15 post \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998435/the-hidden-health-risk-behind-bay-area-homeless-encampment-sweeps#:~:text=For%20people%20using%20illicit%20drugs,deaths%20in%20the%20next%20decade.\">“The Hidden Health Risk Behind Bay Area Homeless Encampment Sweeps”\u003c/a> Lesley McClurg investigated the unintentional health harms to unhoused people when authorities move them off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year ago the Supreme Court made it possible for communities to move people living on the street, even if there weren’t enough shelter beds to offer them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sweeps are sold as being good for public health. Officials tell the public, ‘Look, it’s not healthy for people to be defecating in the streets or for all the garbage to be there. And yet it endangers the people who are displaced. What we found, and what the studies show, is that displacing people does lead to a higher rate of overdoses, instability, and mental health issues. They’re in a much more precarious physical and mental position, which overall is going to hurt society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I spent about 10 hours on the streets talking to people.They all had understandable reasons for being there. It gave me a window into their lives that I didn’t have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teddy holds his fleece stuffed animal, Bunny, at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Jan. 2, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle Venton, science reporter:\u003c/strong> “There’s no ‘away’ to throw our stuff to, everything is connected and comes back to us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danielle Venton chose her Mar. 25 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1996394/cuddly-costly-unseen-dangers-fleece-kids-clothes-toys\">“Cuddly but Costly: The Unseen Dangers of Fleece in Kids Clothes and Toys”\u003c/a> where she tried to answer the question for herself, ‘Should I let my kid wear fleece and play with fleece toys?’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was interested in this question for practical reasons. I’m concerned about microplastic pollution coming from fleece and my son has a lot of beloved polyester stuffed animals and warm fleece jacket hand-me-downs. Should I let him have these things? If yes, how do I best care for them?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It opened my eyes to this new way of looking at consumption, the lifecycle of our products and the burden our bodies bear in this era where we are surrounded by plastic all the time. I was especially dismayed to learn that landfills often leak material they’re holding into groundwater and they give off pollution into the air as well. This made me question, ‘Can we ever truly throw something away?’ Instead I now feel more responsibility for the entire life cycle of a product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fortunately, reporting this piece made me somewhat less worried about the fleece in my home. And it cemented a game plan for how we [at home] wash it, treat it, we avoid the dryer and we always pass it on. But we do not purchase any new fleece items because there is far too much of it in the world already.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Stories That Stuck With Us This Year, Handpicked by the KQED Science Team | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>2025 has been a year of upheaval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We saw a new administration in Washington take sweeping action to cut the work of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029795/california-scientists-left-adrift-mass-federal-layoffs-noaa\">federal scientists and researchers\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909572/how-president-trump-aims-to-dismantle-environmental-protections\"> gut environmental\u003c/a> and species protections. We saw the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">destructive fires in California’s history\u003c/a> ravage areas of Los Angeles. We saw a protracted government shutdown and a state government more or less constantly at war with the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also saw people taking local action to improve land and communities they care about, and people reaching out to others – again and again – in the hopes of making their lives a little better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through it all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science\">KQED’s Science\u003c/a> and climate team has been here bringing you the stories you need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we wrap up this year, we’ve handpicked some of the stories that we find especially memorable, thought-provoking or that changed how we thought about something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999092\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-24-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikola Alexandre, of Shelterwood Collective, performs a burn at the property in Cazadero on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero, climate reporter:\u003c/strong> “They want to change the culture to make this place one that’s not just about a party, but a place that cares about the river and cares about the ecosystem, so that it can have a long life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ezra David Romero chose his Dec. 1 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13984173/shelterwood-collective-soloar-punk-farms-lgbtq-history-russian-river\">“A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River” \u003c/a>profiling people caring for land in an area with a long queer legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was a big year of negative environmental news, with the Trump administration rolling back so much. I wrote dozens of those stories earlier this year. I wanted to do something that felt more regenerative, something focusing on positive news in the climate world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I kept meeting so many queer people in interviews, so I wondered if there were any interesting stories about queer people and climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found these two groups who purchased land up in the Guerneville area and are sort of reinvigorating this idea that the Russian River area had all these queer communes, in the ’60s, ’70s, but in a climate conscious way. They want to make sure the Russian River remains a queer place — that’s only going to happen if there’s forest restoration there, because the area is prone to fires, and if the place is able to withstand the future floods, because in a warming climate atmospheric rivers will be wetter and make bigger floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so it’s cool to hear that they’re not just changing the land, but they want to change the culture to make this place a place that’s not just about a party, but a place that cares about the river and cares about the ecosystem, so that it can have a long life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250523-SOLAR-BALCONY-MD-01-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Milner (left) and Rupert Mayer work to install solar panels in Milner’s backyard in Kensington on May 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nLaura Klivans, climate reporter:\u003c/strong> “This helped me see what trends look like in the beginning — things might start out like the Wild West — before larger entities can wrap their heads around procedures and make policy around it. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Klivans chose her Jul. 28 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997918/forget-rooftops-bay-area-residents-are-plugging-solar-into-the-wall\">“Forget Rooftops — Bay Area Residents Are Plugging Solar Into the Wall” \u003c/a>about an emerging climate solution: people installing solar panels on balconies or in their backyards to get clean energy, even if they don’t own their homes or have the capital to invest in traditional solar setups. Laura’s reporting captured the attention of regulators and PBS Newshour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I saw that I was informing some of the interested parties, important stakeholders in this matter, that this was even happening. Someone at the California Energy Commission wrote to me and said ‘We’re all passing this around the office today.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That felt great because a lot of my stories are on trends, solutions, events that have already happened or been established for a long time. That doesn’t do much to inform policy. But with this story, the people who have yet to write the policy are looking at my work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Using solar panels in this way isn’t really allowed in its current form. It was interesting to talk to so many people who were willing to go on the record with something that is emerging right now and not really sanctioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like the work has more reach. And I think that’s why the post was so popular. I caught this wave of developing news.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1997768\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1997768\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1202\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/Rodriguez_CARE_07_07_2025-4-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giovanni Figueroa, a mental health specialist with the Orange County Health Care Agency, writes a to-do list before meeting with a client at the Central Men’s & Women’s Jails in Orange County on July 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(David Rodriguez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>April Dembosky, health correspondent:\u003c/strong> “If you have a person whose illness makes them believe they’re not ill, how do you convince them to accept treatment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>April Dembosky chose her July 17 post \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997759/he-relentlessly-drove-30000-miles-asking-one-question-do-you-want-help\">‘Do You Want Help?’: Inside Orange County’s Bet on Voluntary Mental Health Care\u003c/a>” looking at Orange County’s implementation of a new state program that seeks to help the people with serious mental illness, through radical patience and relentless outreach.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Getting people with serious mental illness into treatment has been a historical problem and in recent years has resparked a vexing ethical debate: is treating people against their will an act of cruelty or compassion? California has been experimenting with new policies that make it easier to coerce people into treatment. ‘Care Court’ is one of those programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Orange County ’s healthcare leaders surprised me because, while they volunteered to be one of the first counties to implement the program, they are completely against forcing people into care. They believe we need to invest in long-term relationships if we want to see long-term results. Their approach is to coax, rather than coerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went down there to see what this looks like and I met Giovanni Figueroa. He’s a social worker for the county who spends his days looking for and building trust with people with psychotic illness. He builds trust one bottle of water, one hamburger at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it can take six months or more before someone finally says, ‘OK, I’ll go see the doctor. OK, I’ll think about taking medication.’ He is incredibly patient and devoted to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His approach looks completely different from any other I have ever seen in the healthcare system – which is basically ‘take it or leave it.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He continues to show up for people, over and over, no matter what. It’s not a quick fix by any means and time will tell if it ultimately works. But this story showed me a different way of doing things is possible. Giovanni is an inspiration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250916_SEAOTTERS_GH-9-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kayakers paddle through Elkhorn Slough as a sea otter floats nearby. Conservationists warn that proposed rollbacks to Endangered Species Act protections could threaten the species’ recovery. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Mohamad, science engagement producer: \u003c/strong>“Watching otters float by, completely unaware of the decisions being made about their future, made the policy debate feel immediate and human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Mohamad chose a piece she worked on with Ezra David Romero that published on Oct. 16, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998802/california-otters-could-face-new-threats-if-trump-weakens-law-for-endangered-animals\">“California Sea Otters Could Face New Threats if Trump Weakens Law for Endangered Animals.”\u003c/a> It’s about southern sea otters in Elkhorn Slough. The reporters kayaked to see otters up close for a s\u003ca class=\"hoverZoomLink\" title=\"\" href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMy_WnjzuF/\">ocial video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I expected to be a pretty straightforward wildlife comeback story ended up being something much bigger, a reminder of just how interconnected ecosystems are, and how fragile those connections can be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always thought of sea otters as these really charismatic animals — they’re adorable, and I knew they were important in a general conservation sense. But seeing them in the water, watching them float with their pups, and listening to scientists talk about what they actually do in this ecosystem shifted my thinking. The otters aren’t just surviving in Elkhorn Slough, they’re actively shaping it. By eating crabs, they help stabilize marsh banks, make space for eelgrass to grow, and even help the ecosystem store carbon. They’re influencing biodiversity, habitat health, and climate resilience all at the same time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998311\" title=\"\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250826_ALAMEDASWEEPS_GH-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donald Sims rests under a tree with his belongings across from St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County in Oakland on Aug. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lesley McClurg, health correspondent: \u003c/strong>“What happens to people living on the street when encampments are swept away?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her Sept. 15 post \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998435/the-hidden-health-risk-behind-bay-area-homeless-encampment-sweeps#:~:text=For%20people%20using%20illicit%20drugs,deaths%20in%20the%20next%20decade.\">“The Hidden Health Risk Behind Bay Area Homeless Encampment Sweeps”\u003c/a> Lesley McClurg investigated the unintentional health harms to unhoused people when authorities move them off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year ago the Supreme Court made it possible for communities to move people living on the street, even if there weren’t enough shelter beds to offer them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sweeps are sold as being good for public health. Officials tell the public, ‘Look, it’s not healthy for people to be defecating in the streets or for all the garbage to be there. And yet it endangers the people who are displaced. What we found, and what the studies show, is that displacing people does lead to a higher rate of overdoses, instability, and mental health issues. They’re in a much more precarious physical and mental position, which overall is going to hurt society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I spent about 10 hours on the streets talking to people.They all had understandable reasons for being there. It gave me a window into their lives that I didn’t have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/250102-KidsFleece-14-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teddy holds his fleece stuffed animal, Bunny, at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Jan. 2, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle Venton, science reporter:\u003c/strong> “There’s no ‘away’ to throw our stuff to, everything is connected and comes back to us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danielle Venton chose her Mar. 25 story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1996394/cuddly-costly-unseen-dangers-fleece-kids-clothes-toys\">“Cuddly but Costly: The Unseen Dangers of Fleece in Kids Clothes and Toys”\u003c/a> where she tried to answer the question for herself, ‘Should I let my kid wear fleece and play with fleece toys?’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was interested in this question for practical reasons. I’m concerned about microplastic pollution coming from fleece and my son has a lot of beloved polyester stuffed animals and warm fleece jacket hand-me-downs. Should I let him have these things? If yes, how do I best care for them?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It opened my eyes to this new way of looking at consumption, the lifecycle of our products and the burden our bodies bear in this era where we are surrounded by plastic all the time. I was especially dismayed to learn that landfills often leak material they’re holding into groundwater and they give off pollution into the air as well. This made me question, ‘Can we ever truly throw something away?’ Instead I now feel more responsibility for the entire life cycle of a product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fortunately, reporting this piece made me somewhat less worried about the fleece in my home. And it cemented a game plan for how we [at home] wash it, treat it, we avoid the dryer and we always pass it on. But we do not purchase any new fleece items because there is far too much of it in the world already.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003cimg id=\"hzDownscaled\" style=\"position: absolute;top: -10000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Children climbed up fire engines, gripped hoses, and fired bursts of water to knock down wooden flames in the windows of small model houses. Local gardening experts offered tips on growing native plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I heard someone was lighting things on fire somewhere. And nearby goats lounged in the shade in a pen. Some looked around. Some serenely closed their eyes. I was hoping one of them might like to make a sound into my microphone for a radio story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not very personable,” said their human, Bianca Shapiro, project manager at Star Creek Land Stewards, a targeted grazing operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to Ember Stomp, a free festival hosted by the nonprofit Fire Safe Marin, focused on wildfire safety and preparedness. Held at the Marin Civic Center last month — home to the county fair — Ember Stomp felt like a small-town music festival, complete with food trucks and kid-friendly activities. There were no beer gardens or concert stages, but a lively marching band did parade through the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of agencies — including all of Marin’s fire departments — joined forces with nonprofits to showcase fire prevention programs and community resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vendors offered fire-resistant building materials, rooftop sprinklers, and landscape design for defensible space. Everyone was eager to share their piece of the wildfire protection puzzle. Organizers estimate about 6,000 people attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998826 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-160x134.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-768x642.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-1536x1284.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Quarles, a pioneering researcher in how to make buildings more resistant to fire, begins a burn demonstration to illustrate the difference between fire-resistant siding and normal siding at the Ember Stomp festival in Marin on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I came curious: What do you see at a fire-prep festival? What did people who were willing to devote part of a precious Saturday to learning about fire-resistant siding make of it? Should Marin’s model be an example?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin’s public outreach around wildfire resilience has grown in recent years, thanks in large part to something unique in California — and possibly the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years ago, Marin charged a county-wide group of officials with the task of preventing wildfire destruction, organized around a joint powers authority and funded by a voter-approved parcel tax.[aside postID=science_1998746 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg']This organization, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, supports Fire Safe Marin and helps drive local preparedness initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marin has found a great way to create a local funding stream that has been a critical innovation, especially in a landscape where we see fluctuations in the availability of state and federal funds,” said Jacy Hyde, executive director for the California Fire Safe Council, during a recent state wildfire task force meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She cited Marin’s group as a model for other counties looking to invest directly in their own wildfire resilience priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s fire risk is still substantial, the way to start chipping away at that danger is through spurring people to take action. Money invested for safety ahead of time generally pays off richly down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building go bags and prepping fire-ready homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jessamyn Hise, community outreach manager for Fire Safe Marin, greeted people at a table about assembling a “go bag.” What many don’t understand, she said, is that a go bag need not be expensive and likely will not require the purchase of a lot of new stuff. I came away with a printed checklist and renewed mental resolve to check and revamp my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed the sound of excited squeals to an activity on the edge of the festival. Kids and firefighters aimed water hoses at a small pretend house and knocked down wooden flames in the upper window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After whoops and cheers for each kid, firefighters then popped the flames back up, pulling a length of rope — the same sort of technology used in old carnival games where players might knock down a duck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998824 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Different types of bark mulch display varying resistance to carrying fire, as part of the live burn demonstrations at Marin’s Ember Stomp Festival on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Close to the human kids, the aloof goats from Star Creek Land Stewards gave project manager Shapiro a chance to talk about the case for using adorable grazers to prepare landscapes for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Star Creek manages about 8,000 goats and 3,000 sheep that work around the state to eat grass and brush, leaving the land safer in case a fire breaks out. Shapiro explained that grazing, like all vegetation management techniques, has advantages and drawbacks. Some of the pluses include avoiding chemical herbicides that are used by some land managers to knock back weeds, and avoiding smoke or the risk of a fire escape, as would be present during a prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shapiro said, crews that use tools to clear plants by hand work well in many places, but noted, “There are lots of zones where goats or sheep just have a much easier time climbing the hill and munching at the same time. The other asset is that sheep and goats, rather than just cutting things and leaving them on the ground, they digest it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, I scouted out a few vendors. Pacific Gas and Electric offered free manzanita and California laurel plant starters the size of small basketballs, along with advice on landscaping with other utility-friendly plants, whose roots won’t puncture watermains or whose branches won’t grow so tall as to interfere with powerlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998825\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees observe a live burn demonstration at Marin’s fire safety festival, Ember Stomp, on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>United Policyholders, a nonprofit helping consumers navigate fire insurance, shared advice, a listening ear and giveaway flashlights, powered by a hand crank instead of batteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the main attraction of the day was live burn demonstrations, showing the effectiveness of fire-resistant building materials and retrofitting techniques.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a penned-off area, at the end of the two charmingly named corridors “Home Hardening Way” and “Environmental Alley,” Steve Quarles was setting things on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quarles, an experienced researcher and expert in how to keep buildings safe from fires, showed how things like fire-resistant soffits perform when fires burn underneath them. A firefighter assisting him piled glowing embers on top of four different types of mesh vents. Depending on the size of the grain, the mesh let burning embers in or kept them out. The best performers are clearly the sixteenth-of-an-inch mesh.[aside postID=science_1998787 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240110-CAWindStorm-007_qed.jpg']“Embers that can pass through here typically don’t have enough energy to ignite things on the other side,” Quarles said. “Not the case for the quarter-inch and not the case of the half-inch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One type of sixteenth-inch mesh is ember-resistant but could let in flames. The state fire marshal approves the other to be flame-resistant, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of home ignitions during fires start from embers sneaking inside the house, not from flames. So, keeping them out was a main message for the day. Hence the name, “Ember Stomp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is a main focus of Fire Safe Marin’s public education efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the festival, people carried their giveaways from exhibitors, masks to shield from smoke, buckets to hold evacuation supplies and a couple of big smiles from Peter Kacherginsky and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live nearby in Lucas Valley and had a fire near them last year. They attended for tips on how to make their home safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was great, very informative,” he said. “We want to do some kind of sprinkler system on the roof – that seemed to have worked in L.A. fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re looking to design their backyard to be ready for fires. He looked down at his two kids with red plastic firefighter helmets on their heads, bouncing up and down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids loved it also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to Ember Stomp, a free festival hosted by the nonprofit Fire Safe Marin, focused on wildfire safety and preparedness. Held at the Marin Civic Center last month — home to the county fair — Ember Stomp felt like a small-town music festival, complete with food trucks and kid-friendly activities. There were no beer gardens or concert stages, but a lively marching band did parade through the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of agencies — including all of Marin’s fire departments — joined forces with nonprofits to showcase fire prevention programs and community resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vendors offered fire-resistant building materials, rooftop sprinklers, and landscape design for defensible space. Everyone was eager to share their piece of the wildfire protection puzzle. Organizers estimate about 6,000 people attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998826 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-160x134.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-768x642.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-03-KQED-1536x1284.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Quarles, a pioneering researcher in how to make buildings more resistant to fire, begins a burn demonstration to illustrate the difference between fire-resistant siding and normal siding at the Ember Stomp festival in Marin on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I came curious: What do you see at a fire-prep festival? What did people who were willing to devote part of a precious Saturday to learning about fire-resistant siding make of it? Should Marin’s model be an example?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin’s public outreach around wildfire resilience has grown in recent years, thanks in large part to something unique in California — and possibly the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years ago, Marin charged a county-wide group of officials with the task of preventing wildfire destruction, organized around a joint powers authority and funded by a voter-approved parcel tax.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This organization, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, supports Fire Safe Marin and helps drive local preparedness initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Marin has found a great way to create a local funding stream that has been a critical innovation, especially in a landscape where we see fluctuations in the availability of state and federal funds,” said Jacy Hyde, executive director for the California Fire Safe Council, during a recent state wildfire task force meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She cited Marin’s group as a model for other counties looking to invest directly in their own wildfire resilience priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s fire risk is still substantial, the way to start chipping away at that danger is through spurring people to take action. Money invested for safety ahead of time generally pays off richly down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building go bags and prepping fire-ready homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jessamyn Hise, community outreach manager for Fire Safe Marin, greeted people at a table about assembling a “go bag.” What many don’t understand, she said, is that a go bag need not be expensive and likely will not require the purchase of a lot of new stuff. I came away with a printed checklist and renewed mental resolve to check and revamp my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I followed the sound of excited squeals to an activity on the edge of the festival. Kids and firefighters aimed water hoses at a small pretend house and knocked down wooden flames in the upper window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After whoops and cheers for each kid, firefighters then popped the flames back up, pulling a length of rope — the same sort of technology used in old carnival games where players might knock down a duck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998824 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-01-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Different types of bark mulch display varying resistance to carrying fire, as part of the live burn demonstrations at Marin’s Ember Stomp Festival on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Close to the human kids, the aloof goats from Star Creek Land Stewards gave project manager Shapiro a chance to talk about the case for using adorable grazers to prepare landscapes for fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Star Creek manages about 8,000 goats and 3,000 sheep that work around the state to eat grass and brush, leaving the land safer in case a fire breaks out. Shapiro explained that grazing, like all vegetation management techniques, has advantages and drawbacks. Some of the pluses include avoiding chemical herbicides that are used by some land managers to knock back weeds, and avoiding smoke or the risk of a fire escape, as would be present during a prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shapiro said, crews that use tools to clear plants by hand work well in many places, but noted, “There are lots of zones where goats or sheep just have a much easier time climbing the hill and munching at the same time. The other asset is that sheep and goats, rather than just cutting things and leaving them on the ground, they digest it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, I scouted out a few vendors. Pacific Gas and Electric offered free manzanita and California laurel plant starters the size of small basketballs, along with advice on landscaping with other utility-friendly plants, whose roots won’t puncture watermains or whose branches won’t grow so tall as to interfere with powerlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998825\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1349\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251015-EMBER-STOMP-02-KQED-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees observe a live burn demonstration at Marin’s fire safety festival, Ember Stomp, on Sept. 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Terry Scussel/Fire Safe Marin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>United Policyholders, a nonprofit helping consumers navigate fire insurance, shared advice, a listening ear and giveaway flashlights, powered by a hand crank instead of batteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the main attraction of the day was live burn demonstrations, showing the effectiveness of fire-resistant building materials and retrofitting techniques.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a penned-off area, at the end of the two charmingly named corridors “Home Hardening Way” and “Environmental Alley,” Steve Quarles was setting things on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quarles, an experienced researcher and expert in how to keep buildings safe from fires, showed how things like fire-resistant soffits perform when fires burn underneath them. A firefighter assisting him piled glowing embers on top of four different types of mesh vents. Depending on the size of the grain, the mesh let burning embers in or kept them out. The best performers are clearly the sixteenth-of-an-inch mesh.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Embers that can pass through here typically don’t have enough energy to ignite things on the other side,” Quarles said. “Not the case for the quarter-inch and not the case of the half-inch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One type of sixteenth-inch mesh is ember-resistant but could let in flames. The state fire marshal approves the other to be flame-resistant, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of home ignitions during fires start from embers sneaking inside the house, not from flames. So, keeping them out was a main message for the day. Hence the name, “Ember Stomp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is a main focus of Fire Safe Marin’s public education efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the festival, people carried their giveaways from exhibitors, masks to shield from smoke, buckets to hold evacuation supplies and a couple of big smiles from Peter Kacherginsky and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live nearby in Lucas Valley and had a fire near them last year. They attended for tips on how to make their home safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was great, very informative,” he said. “We want to do some kind of sprinkler system on the roof – that seemed to have worked in L.A. fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re looking to design their backyard to be ready for fires. He looked down at his two kids with red plastic firefighter helmets on their heads, bouncing up and down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids loved it also.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>While fire safety advocates want California to take a new approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfires\u003c/a>, with more emphasis on anticipating and preventing the worst damage, legislation to do just that has failed to win over Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said it would have cost too much unbudgeted money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year was the third in a row that state lawmakers tried to mandate broadscale strategic planning for avoiding catastrophic fires, and the first such a measure made it to the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, SB 326, on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sponsoring lawmaker, Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), hasn’t committed to bringing it forward again in the next legislative session. In the meantime, the ideas it contained will be pursued in a patchwork way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326 would have accelerated the timelines for implementing Zone 0 mandates, which require clearing landscaping within five feet of homes in fire-prone areas. On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sent a \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DhWqCzpn0ysnrGKKSKsAu9yD9N?domain=ooagbytab.cc.rs6.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter\u003c/a> (PDF) to the state’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, urging a speedy finalization of those regulations anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a related bill also sponsored by Becker, SB 254, will have the state’s wildfire fund administrator model utility risk and make suggestions about how to prevent fires and manage utility costs after Newsom signed it last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s budget has doubled to around $4 billion in recent years, but the agency is not required to do strategic planning for how to best prepare for and avoid the worst wildfires. SB 326 would have called on Cal Fire to model fire risks and estimate how they change as safety projects like defensible space or fire breaks are completed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other states do long-term strategic planning for hazards such as hurricanes, California does not for wildfires. Fire experts and policy advocates have pushed for this sort of planning for years, as some have criticized California’s current fire prevention efforts as looking like “random acts of conservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was disappointed,” Becker said of Newsom’s veto. “I did notice, however, that the governor didn’t criticize the content of the bill at all in his vetoed message. He said that it was vetoed solely on the basis of cost.”[aside postID=science_1998746 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/240109-CAWindStorm-076_qed.jpg']In a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">letter\u003c/a> from the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cal Fire estimated it would cost more than $100 million a year to build its own model to assess and forecast risk. SB 326 would have allowed the agency to use an off-the-shelf model for around $20 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates of what it would take to accomplish strategic planning, meanwhile, have varied significantly. In the 2024 version of the bill, Cal Fire estimated the cost around $12 million. But in the version proposed just a year earlier, which would have tasked the Office of Emergency Services with forecasting and planning, OES estimated the cost of complying to be under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$3 million per year\u003c/a> (PDF). The 2023 bill died in committee and faced opposition from the Cal Fire employees union, which objected to fire-related jobs being given to a different department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [SB 326] would have saved money, not cost money for the state of California,” said Michael Wara, climate and energy expert at Stanford and an advocate for the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 2017 North Bay fires, he said, utility companies have made a lot of progress on safety, and after the 2018 Camp Fire, they were required to create comprehensive mitigation plans. But without the need to holistically look at risk and plan for safety in fire-prone neighborhoods, Wara said, California has made comparatively little progress on making communities more resilient to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just as important as the utility safety side,” he said. “Where we are is not OK. It should not be acceptable to any Californian. And we need to make progress — measurable progress — at a much faster rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326, which passed through committees and both houses without a single no vote, was supported by the insurance industry and insurance regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker has not committed to reintroducing a new version next year, he acknowledges the issue is only growing more urgent — especially as the costs of wildfires become stratospheric. Damage from this year’s Los Angeles fires, for example, is estimated to be over $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While fire safety advocates want California to take a new approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfires\u003c/a>, with more emphasis on anticipating and preventing the worst damage, legislation to do just that has failed to win over Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said it would have cost too much unbudgeted money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year was the third in a row that state lawmakers tried to mandate broadscale strategic planning for avoiding catastrophic fires, and the first such a measure made it to the governor’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, SB 326, on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sponsoring lawmaker, Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), hasn’t committed to bringing it forward again in the next legislative session. In the meantime, the ideas it contained will be pursued in a patchwork way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326 would have accelerated the timelines for implementing Zone 0 mandates, which require clearing landscaping within five feet of homes in fire-prone areas. On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sent a \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DhWqCzpn0ysnrGKKSKsAu9yD9N?domain=ooagbytab.cc.rs6.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter\u003c/a> (PDF) to the state’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, urging a speedy finalization of those regulations anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a related bill also sponsored by Becker, SB 254, will have the state’s wildfire fund administrator model utility risk and make suggestions about how to prevent fires and manage utility costs after Newsom signed it last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998790\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/mette.lampcov.church.bell-30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burnt remains of St. Mark’s Church and the school’s playground in\u003cbr>Altadena, California, on April 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s budget has doubled to around $4 billion in recent years, but the agency is not required to do strategic planning for how to best prepare for and avoid the worst wildfires. SB 326 would have called on Cal Fire to model fire risks and estimate how they change as safety projects like defensible space or fire breaks are completed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other states do long-term strategic planning for hazards such as hurricanes, California does not for wildfires. Fire experts and policy advocates have pushed for this sort of planning for years, as some have criticized California’s current fire prevention efforts as looking like “random acts of conservation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was disappointed,” Becker said of Newsom’s veto. “I did notice, however, that the governor didn’t criticize the content of the bill at all in his vetoed message. He said that it was vetoed solely on the basis of cost.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">letter\u003c/a> from the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cal Fire estimated it would cost more than $100 million a year to build its own model to assess and forecast risk. SB 326 would have allowed the agency to use an off-the-shelf model for around $20 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates of what it would take to accomplish strategic planning, meanwhile, have varied significantly. In the 2024 version of the bill, Cal Fire estimated the cost around $12 million. But in the version proposed just a year earlier, which would have tasked the Office of Emergency Services with forecasting and planning, OES estimated the cost of complying to be under \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$3 million per year\u003c/a> (PDF). The 2023 bill died in committee and faced opposition from the Cal Fire employees union, which objected to fire-related jobs being given to a different department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think [SB 326] would have saved money, not cost money for the state of California,” said Michael Wara, climate and energy expert at Stanford and an advocate for the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the 2017 North Bay fires, he said, utility companies have made a lot of progress on safety, and after the 2018 Camp Fire, they were required to create comprehensive mitigation plans. But without the need to holistically look at risk and plan for safety in fire-prone neighborhoods, Wara said, California has made comparatively little progress on making communities more resilient to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just as important as the utility safety side,” he said. “Where we are is not OK. It should not be acceptable to any Californian. And we need to make progress — measurable progress — at a much faster rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 326, which passed through committees and both houses without a single no vote, was supported by the insurance industry and insurance regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker has not committed to reintroducing a new version next year, he acknowledges the issue is only growing more urgent — especially as the costs of wildfires become stratospheric. Damage from this year’s Los Angeles fires, for example, is estimated to be over $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a year marked by the costliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> fires on record, state lawmakers sent a large package of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfire\u003c/a> bills to the governor’s desk. One measure in particular promises outsized impacts for protecting neighborhoods — and it’s largely flown under the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326&cversion=20250SB32698AMD\">Senate Bill 326\u003c/a>, sponsored by State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), would accelerate fire mitigation efforts, particularly in these older, at-risk neighborhoods, by mandating the removal of flammable trees and bushes for certain homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing more extreme weather conditions and we’re seeing wildfires spread at a speed that we’ve never seen before,” Becker said. “That’s why we need this bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “not a panacea,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, “it’s the biggest step we can take this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thorniest problem in the state’s effort to guard against wildfire devastation is how to protect the millions of homes that already exist in fire-prone areas, Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg\" alt=\"A before and after picture of a small, one-story, nicely kept home, and the remains of it after it was burned down.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-768x380.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1536x760.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1920x950.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family home in Altadena, California, before and after the Eaton Fire ravaged the community in January. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Moreno family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What we need to do is change how flammable people’s gardens are in places where there’s high risk,” he said. “That’s important if we want to have affordable insurance, affordable electricity. It’s important if we don’t want to lose communities like we did in Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While newer homes are built to relatively high fire safety standards, the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/california/housing-statistics\">majority\u003c/a> of California’s housing stock — built before the 1990s — was not designed with fire resilience in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new regulations mandate a Zone 0 space, or an ember-resistant zone extending five feet around a house, where there is non-burnable material like river rocks instead of plants or mulch. It’s controversial, in part because it would dramatically alter the appearance of many neighborhoods. Homeowners are understandably reluctant to tear out beloved, beautiful plants.[aside postID=news_12059123 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/GettyImages-2194137909-1020x696.jpg']However, fire prevention advocates see this as the simplest, most affordable way to quickly improve fire resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods. Tearing out a bush, for instance, costs far less — and is much quicker — than retrofits like replacing a roof. And the \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/bof-website/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-2/previous-public-workshops-and-materials/2025/sept-22/august-zone-0-rule-plead.pdf?rev=86f548de3486423c995bb2394aaaa4c1&hash=F8723E42A201545B808CBC0B68FF937B\">current draft regulations\u003c/a> do not call for removing permanent features like a wooden deck or fence within 5 feet of the home. Supporters argue that the absence of coordinated fire-resilience planning wastes state resources. While California develops long-term plans for resources like water, it lacks a comparable approach for wildfire prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill moves up the timeline for Zone 0 requirements in high-risk areas, implementing some of the requirements as early as Jan. 1, 2026. If enacted, the legislation would also require Cal Fire to create a strategic, regularly updated plan for better assessing fire danger in the state and planning how to prevent destruction before a disaster hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vetoed, Zone 0 requirements — the details of which are still being \u003ca href=\"https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-and-2\">hammered out\u003c/a> by the state Board of Forestry — would apply to new construction after Jan.1. Three years from now, at the end of 2028, it would apply to all homes in high-risk zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If SB 326 is signed, it would also apply to rental properties and houses for sale as of Jan.1. Wara said the rationale is to take a measured approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home destroyed by the Boyles Fire in Clearlake on Sept. 9, 2024, after the wildfire swept through the area on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t say everybody has to do this right away, because that would be too much,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the bill authors believe, people who have rentals and are making money from their house in a high-risk area should contribute to reducing risk in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Also, if you’re selling your house, you’ve got to do this,” Wara said, “because it’s a time when there’s cash available and where you might be more open to making changes in your backyard that will create safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has 1.3 million homes in high or very high severity areas, and retrofitting those homes would cost tens of billions of dollars, said Matt Weiner, CEO of Megafire Action, a nonprofit advancing policy to avoid catastrophic wildfire.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']For right now, Zone 0 is “the most important tool that we can move quickly on to guard against ember-driven fires like we saw in Palisades and Altadena,” Weiner said. The bill also provides funding to counties working to implement Zone 0.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of homes destroyed in a wildfire burn down from embers finding their way inside the structure and burning it down from the inside. Relatively few homes burn down from coming into contact with a flaming front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/28/california-communities-can-reduce-wildfire-damage-by-half-heres-how/\">Researchers from UC Berkeley estimate\u003c/a> that 50% fewer homes would burn down in the extreme kind of conditions seen in the L.A. fires if neighborhoods hardened homes and had defensible space. Just complying with Zone 0 alone would reduce structure loss by an estimated 17%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With California spending billions on firefighting and homeowners bearing soaring insurance costs, advocates have argued that it’s time to move beyond the traditional “business as usual” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, we knew we needed to do this back in 2017 and 2018,” Wara said. Those years saw terrible losses in Wine Country fires and the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. “There was legislation [passed in 2020] that would have required it; it was supposed to take effect in 2023,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a podium in a cloud of wildfire smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses California’s wildfires, before signing a $15 billion climate package, during a ceremony at Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers, on Sept. 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Board of Forestry missed the deadline, struggling to balance the concerns of homeowners with the desires of the insurance industry. In February, following the Los Angeles firestorm, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/02/06/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-further-prepare-for-future-urban-firestorms-stepping-up-already-nation-leading-strategies/\">ordered the rules\u003c/a> to be completed by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will also require Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal to develop and use models to assess where risk is highest and how risk changes as safety projects are completed. The key, Weiner said, is to have cohesion between wildfire prevention work being done on the landscape level, the neighborhood level and the parcel level, by communities, utilities and homeowners. Currently, there is little to no coordination, which advocates have said risks wasting money and effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposals to require comprehensive fire planning have been introduced before, but have never made it to the governor’s desk. The heart- and record-breaking devastation from January’s fires in Los Angeles helped give it added urgency this year, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You want “somebody looking at the entire picture and helping inform the highest impact work to be done,” Weiner said. The state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for fires. “You want somebody to assess that holistically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s technical nature may have hidden it from public attention — despite its potential to save homes and lives, Weiner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Nolan Graham sprays water around a scorched garage as the Boyles fire burns in Clearlake on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons [this proposal] doesn’t get enough attention is because whenever you start talking ‘tech,’ people think about it as a sideshow, nice to have but not a fundamental need,” Weiner said. “And nobody gets excited about creating the enabling conditions for future work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If signed, the bill would increase the responsibility and work demands placed on Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal. It would also impose some accountability in the form of requiring annual reports that would give a comprehensive overview of how they could strategically lessen wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reports would aid lawmakers in overseeing their work. When it passed its \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">final vote\u003c/a> in September, no representatives voted against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Cal Fire to discuss SB 326. An agency spokesperson said they do not comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics have claimed that the state’s fire agency has been more motivated by responding to and fighting fires than working to prevent them, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">and has fumbled key \u003c/a>responsibilities for management and mitigation, despite a historic budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler has, however, spoken extensively about the need for the agency to be able to both prevent and fight fires, and is making progress in their preparedness goals. Becker aided Cal Fire in getting their budget doubled to 4 billion dollars this year as chair of the state’s budget subcommittee for natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better, more targeted prevention action to reduce the risk of losing entire communities like what happened in January,” the lawmaker said. “This is about getting every dollar we spend on wildfire prevention exactly where it needs to be as fast as possible … and making sure every dollar truly reduces wildfire risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For homeowners, wildfires costs have exploded. Recent analysis by Wara and colleagues indicates that the average state homeowner is paying $266 more per month in insurance and electricity costs than they were in 2020, largely because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-releases-updated-wildfire-prepared-home-standard/\">insurance industry\u003c/a> has also openly supported the bill. Industry scientists said in a report this summer that Zone 0 was critical in preventing home ignitions. In a September letter to Newsom urging his signature on SB 326, the state’s top insurance regulator, Ricardo Lara, said: “With millions of homes in the Wildland Urban Interface, the early adoption of mitigation is critical to wildfire safety and insurability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a year marked by the costliest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> fires on record, state lawmakers sent a large package of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfire\u003c/a> bills to the governor’s desk. One measure in particular promises outsized impacts for protecting neighborhoods — and it’s largely flown under the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326&cversion=20250SB32698AMD\">Senate Bill 326\u003c/a>, sponsored by State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), would accelerate fire mitigation efforts, particularly in these older, at-risk neighborhoods, by mandating the removal of flammable trees and bushes for certain homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing more extreme weather conditions and we’re seeing wildfires spread at a speed that we’ve never seen before,” Becker said. “That’s why we need this bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “not a panacea,” said Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, “it’s the biggest step we can take this year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thorniest problem in the state’s effort to guard against wildfire devastation is how to protect the millions of homes that already exist in fire-prone areas, Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg\" alt=\"A before and after picture of a small, one-story, nicely kept home, and the remains of it after it was burned down.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-768x380.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1536x760.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/02/IMG_5331_duo-1920x950.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family home in Altadena, California, before and after the Eaton Fire ravaged the community in January. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Moreno family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What we need to do is change how flammable people’s gardens are in places where there’s high risk,” he said. “That’s important if we want to have affordable insurance, affordable electricity. It’s important if we don’t want to lose communities like we did in Altadena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While newer homes are built to relatively high fire safety standards, the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/california/housing-statistics\">majority\u003c/a> of California’s housing stock — built before the 1990s — was not designed with fire resilience in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new regulations mandate a Zone 0 space, or an ember-resistant zone extending five feet around a house, where there is non-burnable material like river rocks instead of plants or mulch. It’s controversial, in part because it would dramatically alter the appearance of many neighborhoods. Homeowners are understandably reluctant to tear out beloved, beautiful plants.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>However, fire prevention advocates see this as the simplest, most affordable way to quickly improve fire resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods. Tearing out a bush, for instance, costs far less — and is much quicker — than retrofits like replacing a roof. And the \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/bof-website/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-2/previous-public-workshops-and-materials/2025/sept-22/august-zone-0-rule-plead.pdf?rev=86f548de3486423c995bb2394aaaa4c1&hash=F8723E42A201545B808CBC0B68FF937B\">current draft regulations\u003c/a> do not call for removing permanent features like a wooden deck or fence within 5 feet of the home. Supporters argue that the absence of coordinated fire-resilience planning wastes state resources. While California develops long-term plans for resources like water, it lacks a comparable approach for wildfire prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill moves up the timeline for Zone 0 requirements in high-risk areas, implementing some of the requirements as early as Jan. 1, 2026. If enacted, the legislation would also require Cal Fire to create a strategic, regularly updated plan for better assessing fire danger in the state and planning how to prevent destruction before a disaster hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vetoed, Zone 0 requirements — the details of which are still being \u003ca href=\"https://bof.fire.ca.gov/projects-and-programs/defensible-space-zones-0-1-and-2\">hammered out\u003c/a> by the state Board of Forestry — would apply to new construction after Jan.1. Three years from now, at the end of 2028, it would apply to all homes in high-risk zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If SB 326 is signed, it would also apply to rental properties and houses for sale as of Jan.1. Wara said the rationale is to take a measured approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240909-BOYLESFIRE-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home destroyed by the Boyles Fire in Clearlake on Sept. 9, 2024, after the wildfire swept through the area on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t say everybody has to do this right away, because that would be too much,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the bill authors believe, people who have rentals and are making money from their house in a high-risk area should contribute to reducing risk in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Also, if you’re selling your house, you’ve got to do this,” Wara said, “because it’s a time when there’s cash available and where you might be more open to making changes in your backyard that will create safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has 1.3 million homes in high or very high severity areas, and retrofitting those homes would cost tens of billions of dollars, said Matt Weiner, CEO of Megafire Action, a nonprofit advancing policy to avoid catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For right now, Zone 0 is “the most important tool that we can move quickly on to guard against ember-driven fires like we saw in Palisades and Altadena,” Weiner said. The bill also provides funding to counties working to implement Zone 0.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up to 90% of homes destroyed in a wildfire burn down from embers finding their way inside the structure and burning it down from the inside. Relatively few homes burn down from coming into contact with a flaming front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/28/california-communities-can-reduce-wildfire-damage-by-half-heres-how/\">Researchers from UC Berkeley estimate\u003c/a> that 50% fewer homes would burn down in the extreme kind of conditions seen in the L.A. fires if neighborhoods hardened homes and had defensible space. Just complying with Zone 0 alone would reduce structure loss by an estimated 17%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With California spending billions on firefighting and homeowners bearing soaring insurance costs, advocates have argued that it’s time to move beyond the traditional “business as usual” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, we knew we needed to do this back in 2017 and 2018,” Wara said. Those years saw terrible losses in Wine Country fires and the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. “There was legislation [passed in 2020] that would have required it; it was supposed to take effect in 2023,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a podium in a cloud of wildfire smoke.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/RS51646_GettyImages-1235453439-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses California’s wildfires, before signing a $15 billion climate package, during a ceremony at Sequoia National Park near Three Rivers, on Sept. 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Board of Forestry missed the deadline, struggling to balance the concerns of homeowners with the desires of the insurance industry. In February, following the Los Angeles firestorm, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/02/06/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-further-prepare-for-future-urban-firestorms-stepping-up-already-nation-leading-strategies/\">ordered the rules\u003c/a> to be completed by the end of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will also require Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal to develop and use models to assess where risk is highest and how risk changes as safety projects are completed. The key, Weiner said, is to have cohesion between wildfire prevention work being done on the landscape level, the neighborhood level and the parcel level, by communities, utilities and homeowners. Currently, there is little to no coordination, which advocates have said risks wasting money and effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposals to require comprehensive fire planning have been introduced before, but have never made it to the governor’s desk. The heart- and record-breaking devastation from January’s fires in Los Angeles helped give it added urgency this year, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You want “somebody looking at the entire picture and helping inform the highest impact work to be done,” Weiner said. The state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for fires. “You want somebody to assess that holistically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s technical nature may have hidden it from public attention — despite its potential to save homes and lives, Weiner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/AP24253126507105-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Nolan Graham sprays water around a scorched garage as the Boyles fire burns in Clearlake on Sept. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Noah Berger/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons [this proposal] doesn’t get enough attention is because whenever you start talking ‘tech,’ people think about it as a sideshow, nice to have but not a fundamental need,” Weiner said. “And nobody gets excited about creating the enabling conditions for future work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If signed, the bill would increase the responsibility and work demands placed on Cal Fire and the State Fire Marshal. It would also impose some accountability in the form of requiring annual reports that would give a comprehensive overview of how they could strategically lessen wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reports would aid lawmakers in overseeing their work. When it passed its \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB326\">final vote\u003c/a> in September, no representatives voted against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Cal Fire to discuss SB 326. An agency spokesperson said they do not comment on pending legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics have claimed that the state’s fire agency has been more motivated by responding to and fighting fires than working to prevent them, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">and has fumbled key \u003c/a>responsibilities for management and mitigation, despite a historic budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler has, however, spoken extensively about the need for the agency to be able to both prevent and fight fires, and is making progress in their preparedness goals. Becker aided Cal Fire in getting their budget doubled to 4 billion dollars this year as chair of the state’s budget subcommittee for natural resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better, more targeted prevention action to reduce the risk of losing entire communities like what happened in January,” the lawmaker said. “This is about getting every dollar we spend on wildfire prevention exactly where it needs to be as fast as possible … and making sure every dollar truly reduces wildfire risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For homeowners, wildfires costs have exploded. Recent analysis by Wara and colleagues indicates that the average state homeowner is paying $266 more per month in insurance and electricity costs than they were in 2020, largely because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ibhs.org/ibhs-news-releases/ibhs-releases-updated-wildfire-prepared-home-standard/\">insurance industry\u003c/a> has also openly supported the bill. Industry scientists said in a report this summer that Zone 0 was critical in preventing home ignitions. In a September letter to Newsom urging his signature on SB 326, the state’s top insurance regulator, Ricardo Lara, said: “With millions of homes in the Wildland Urban Interface, the early adoption of mitigation is critical to wildfire safety and insurability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Above average heat. A baby \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11682057/how-the-bay-areas-fog-came-to-be-named-karl\">Karl the fog\u003c/a>. Dry lightning. That’s the story meteorologists are forecasting through Friday for the entire Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high-pressure system moving into the region is causing the three-day warmup on Monday through Wednesday, with offshore winds keeping the marine layer at bay and allowing incoming tropical moisture to gradually enter the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, the fire risk increases after days of heat due to the chance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054466/lightning-sparked-fires-tear-through-historic-california-gold-rush-town\">thunderstorms and dry lightning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures about 5 degrees above average along the coast and 15 degrees above average inland. The National Weather Service issued a moderate heat risk warning through Wednesday, which means the general public should be able to handle the warmth. Still, sensitive groups, such as older adults and children, should exercise caution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had hotter temperatures so far this summer, so we’re really not considering a heat advisory at this time unless it were to be significantly warmer,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strength of offshore winds will help determine how hot coastal areas will become through Wednesday. Forecasters said San Francisco could reach into the low 80s, while places like Santa Rosa, Livermore, Concord and San José could all get into the 90s.[aside postID=science_1998472 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/BayAreaHeatWaveGetty.jpg']Higher elevations may not cool below 70 degrees overnight inland, and forecasters expect relative humidity to be low, which would aid in drying out grasses that could easily burn if ignited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not expecting really strong offshore winds at this time, which should keep the conditions cooler near the coast, but it’ll still be warm,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the weather service anticipates conditions to shift on Thursday as tropical moisture moves into the region, increasing instability and potentially bringing thunderstorms. The primary concern is that the storms could bring dry lightning and erratic, gusty winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These conditions could lead to new fire starts, especially given the increasingly dry fuels across the region,” meteorologists wrote in the weather service’s daily forecast email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Gass said the dry lightning is not a certainty, and he expects Thursday and Friday to “generally trend wetter” due to the amount of moisture entering the region later in the week. Gass also expects the weather to cool down this weekend and early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the Bay Area’s hottest day of the week, with a chance of thunderstorms and dry lightning stirring trouble by Thursday.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Above average heat. A baby \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11682057/how-the-bay-areas-fog-came-to-be-named-karl\">Karl the fog\u003c/a>. Dry lightning. That’s the story meteorologists are forecasting through Friday for the entire Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A high-pressure system moving into the region is causing the three-day warmup on Monday through Wednesday, with offshore winds keeping the marine layer at bay and allowing incoming tropical moisture to gradually enter the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, the fire risk increases after days of heat due to the chance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054466/lightning-sparked-fires-tear-through-historic-california-gold-rush-town\">thunderstorms and dry lightning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect Tuesday to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures about 5 degrees above average along the coast and 15 degrees above average inland. The National Weather Service issued a moderate heat risk warning through Wednesday, which means the general public should be able to handle the warmth. Still, sensitive groups, such as older adults and children, should exercise caution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had hotter temperatures so far this summer, so we’re really not considering a heat advisory at this time unless it were to be significantly warmer,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strength of offshore winds will help determine how hot coastal areas will become through Wednesday. Forecasters said San Francisco could reach into the low 80s, while places like Santa Rosa, Livermore, Concord and San José could all get into the 90s.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Higher elevations may not cool below 70 degrees overnight inland, and forecasters expect relative humidity to be low, which would aid in drying out grasses that could easily burn if ignited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not expecting really strong offshore winds at this time, which should keep the conditions cooler near the coast, but it’ll still be warm,” Gass said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the weather service anticipates conditions to shift on Thursday as tropical moisture moves into the region, increasing instability and potentially bringing thunderstorms. The primary concern is that the storms could bring dry lightning and erratic, gusty winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These conditions could lead to new fire starts, especially given the increasingly dry fuels across the region,” meteorologists wrote in the weather service’s daily forecast email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Gass said the dry lightning is not a certainty, and he expects Thursday and Friday to “generally trend wetter” due to the amount of moisture entering the region later in the week. Gass also expects the weather to cool down this weekend and early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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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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"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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},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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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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},
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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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"order": 9
},
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"meta": {
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},
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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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. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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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",
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"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>",
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