The Brief

Seeds are special for Nina Raj, a docent at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and the founder of the Altadena Seed Library in Southern California. So when Raj and her partner fled from the Eaton Fire on Jan. 7, her first thought wasn’t to pack clothes or important paperwork. Instead, she grabbed Matilija poppy, California buckeye, sage and buckwheat seeds from her greenhouse — part of a seed bank she’d started to gather alongside a team of volunteers.

Raj’s home escaped the fire unscathed. But much of Altadena, known as a thriving hub for multigenerational Black and Latino families, wasn’t as lucky. The Eaton Fire burned at least 9,400 structures and killed 17 people there. To the west, the Palisades Fire destroyed more than 6,800 structures and killed 12. Both blazes were fueled by bone-dry conditions and hurricane-force winds. Climate change helped set the stage for the extra-dry fuels and nonexistent rainfall: A study published last month found that hot and dry conditions are about 35% more likely due to climate change.

Recovery is still nascent; people began reentering burned neighborhoods in late January. But Altadena residents say that when the time comes, they’re ready to thoughtfully regrow their community, once full of lush trees, native plant landscaping and backyard vegetable gardens.

The Altadena Seed Library, a network of seed exchange boxes, is leading the charge. Raj’s project began in 2021, with several little seed libraries stationed around the community. Seed libraries mimic regular libraries, but instead of books, people check out (and use) envelopes of seeds for free. Now, Raj and other volunteers are working on a game plan for regrowing the lawns, gardens and urban green spaces that combat shade inequity and increase food sovereignty in their neighborhood — and looking to learn from other communities that have also seen their landscapes drastically altered by destructive wildfires.

Donated seeds and tools are pouring in from locals and places around the country, as well as compost, pots, trees and personal protective equipment for people cleaning up the hazardous waste left over from burned homes and melted cars.

“We’ve had a pretty overwhelming response,” Raj said. “People have been so, so generous.”

Individual volunteers and organizations like Club Gay Gardens, a nonprofit in nearby Glendale, are helping sort the donated seeds.

Wildfires that spill over into neighborhoods, known as wildland-urban interface fires, burn cars and homes full of dangerous chemicals, including paint thinner, lithium-ion car batteries and fertilizer. Breathing in asbestos, lead and other heavy metals is one of the most pressing concerns as residents return to ash-choked neighborhoods. Landscaping tends to happen at the very end of the rebuilding process, when homes are reconstructed and heavy machinery work is complete.

When the time comes, Raj and other community leaders will need the proper permits to plant in the public spaces beyond private yards and gardens. But before residents can replant anything, they must consider testing the soil for toxins and remediating it accordingly. This can be expensive — about $100 to test one soil sample for heavy metals.

In the meantime, Altadena Seed Library is specifically requesting seed donations for native plants that are known to help remediate the soil by soaking up toxins, including California buckwheat, telegraph weed, saltbush, mule fat and Bush sunflower. “It’s good to figure out which contaminants you’re dealing with, and then look into what plants will help you,” said Maggie Smart-McCabe, the co-leader of Club Gay Gardens. “If you can, native plants are great, because then it helps with rebuilding the habitat that’s been lost, too.”

Nina Raj, top left, founder of the Altadena Seed Library, started the seed library in 2021 to expand access to shade and green spaces.

(

Nina Raj

/

Altadena Seed Library

)

Eventually regrowing Altadena’s urban greenspaces and canopy could mean confronting how previously introduced plants — like ornamental grasses, eucalyptus and palm trees — helped spread flames.

“These palms that are so common in Southern California have these dead fronds at the bottom of them,” said Alexandra Syphard, a senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute. “That’s the opposite of what you would want to do to have a fire-resilient landscape.”

The Los Angeles County Fire Department calls palms a “known hazard” and discourages planting them in wildfire-prone areas.

Plants that hold more moisture, like oak trees, are likely more resilient to wildfire embers than other plants. Many conifers, including cedars and pines, survived the Los Angeles fires, as did some native oaks. “People have a chance now to create their landscapes, their gardens, their properties from scratch, and they have an opportunity to create something that is beautiful and also safe,” Syphard said.

Replanting efforts in Paradise, California, where the Camp Fire killed 85 people in 2018, and Lahaina, Hawai‘i, where a wildfire killed 102 people in 2023, offer inspiration as to what responsible reseeding can look like post-fire. Wildfire survivors from up and down the West Coast have already reached out to Raj, offering to help Altadena. “It’s so unfortunate to be bonded in that way,” Raj said. “It also feels really beautiful that those connections can grow out of something so tragic.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency helped test for soil toxicity in Paradise, eventually scraping the contaminated top layers away. But replanting efforts were left to residents. “None of this would have happened if it weren’t for these community groups that all came together,” said Jennifer Peterson, a Paradise local who saw her house, plus a seed library and two community gardens she worked on, destroyed.

Volunteers take a break during the rebuilding and replanting of Norton Buffalo Hall gardens in Paradise, California, in 2020.

(

Courtesy of Jennifer Peterson

)

Peterson and other community members worked hard to safely reestablish old food sources. In 2020, several groups and 300 volunteers joined forces to rebuild — in one day — a nonprofit arts and culture center whose public gardens provide compost, seeds and produce for free. Grant money allowed organizations like the Butte County Local Food Network to prepare 150 garden boxes and deliver them to people’s homes, complete with new soil and plants.

Being part of efforts to regrow people’s food has helped Peterson heal. And her front yard now teems with native wildflowers whose seeds survived the fire.

“It was kind of like therapy for everybody,” she said.

In Lahaina, on Maui, where an estimated 150,000 trees burned, replanting efforts so far have focused on fruit trees that will eventually provide food and shade again, said Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee and cofounder of Treecovery Hawaii, a nonprofit focused on replanting Lahaina.

So far, Treecovery Hawaii has raised half a million dollars to purchase trees at full price from local nurseries and give them to families who are rebuilding. The organization has established several hubs to grow more trees, and Sparkman said he’d like to buy a larger nursery space. A detailed planting plan created by Maui County lays out what types of trees should get planted on the island, as well as the care they need.

More than 200 trees are ready to be put in the ground. That includes a mouthwatering array of fruit trees — mango, jackfruit, starfruit, avocado, citrus and banana — fragrant plumeria and orchid trees, and native species like wiliwili, milo, koa and lauhala trees. “Knowing that we’re going to be part of what’s eventually going to be the canopy for our grandchildren is immense for us,” Sparkman said.

Volunteers pot trees for distribution in Lahaina this month.

(

Duane Sparkman

/

Treecovery Hawaii

)

Like in Paradise, FEMA removed contaminated topsoil from Lahaina. But other than that, Sparkman said, federal agencies provided no guidance for how communities should replant their neighborhoods. Sparkman suggests new fruit tree owners wait a few years for crops to cycle through any residual toxins that may still be in the soil.

Ulu, or breadfruit, trees were especially important to preserve post-wildfire. Breadfruit is a starchy staple food in the South Pacific and throughout Hawai‘i. “It’s been planted beside houses, and it’s been giving people food security, especially in urban areas,” said Kaitu Erasito, the breadfruit collection manager at the Kahanu Garden in Hana, Maui.

Some breadfruit trees survived the flames, growing new shoots nine months post-fire. But more will need to be replanted in the years to come. Roots from three varieties that grew in Lahaina’s burn scar were dug up for safekeeping, eventual propagation and replanting, at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai.

Lahaina’s approach to replanting neighborhood trees has been so successful that people impacted by the Dixie Fire in Northern California in 2021 reached out to Sparkman for advice and ideas. Now, there’s a Dixie Tree Canopy Restoration Project that plants trees for wildfire survivors for free.

“Each community,” Sparkman said, “has the ability to create their own recovery.”

That recovery is already underway in Altadena. Recently, a woman whose home and community garden space burned in the fire came to Raj looking to begin again. Thanks to donations, Raj was able to provide her neighbor with all the same seeds she had lost.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/wildfires/what-it-takes-to-regrow-a-community-after-wildfire/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

(

Laura Hertzfeld

/

LAist

)

William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

(

Laura Hertzfeld

/

LAist

)

The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

(

Laura Hertfeldz

/

LAist

)

New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

(

Laura Hertzfeld

/

LAist

)

New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

(

Laura Hertzfeld

/

LAist

)

“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

(

Courtesy Steve Campos

)

It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.