Topline:
As people rebuild their properties after the Eaton and Palisades fires, it's not just their new homes that need to be fire resistant, it's their landscaping as well.
Think about moisture: If you can select a plant palette that will remain moist and resist catching on fire when embers come along, you could benefit greatly.
Read on ... to learn how California native plants fare against fire and to see pictures.
Six months after the Eaton and Palisades fires, more than 10,000 parcels have been cleared of debris and rebuilding efforts are moving forward.
While home hardening — installing fire resistant vents and enclosing eaves, for instance — is going to give a structure its best chances of surviving the next firestorm, how homeowners design their yards matters as well.
If they’re doing it right, the plants will not only resist bursting into flames, but could also act as a defensive wall, keeping embers away from structures.
A home often ignites either through direct contact with flames or ember intrusion — when burning pieces of plant matter squeeze into crevices.
What does that mean for landscaping?
First — clear anything easily burnable within 5 feet of the house, an area known as Zone 0. This includes wood arbors, wood fences, sheds and plants that can catch on fire and send flames into eaves and melt windows. And consider installing non-combustible concrete or gravel around the first 5 feet of a home.
Farther away from the house — Zones 1 and 2 — you’ll want to consider plants that hold onto a lot of water and resist burning.
That could mean planting succulents and surrounding them with gravel or decomposed granite, which isn’t going to smolder like mulch.
However, you can opt for a much more verdant palette, which could include your favorite fruit trees or even native plants, which are also going to improve the biodiversity of your yard, offering food to native animals and insects, while providing some fire resistance.
Here in Southern California, that’s often going to mean choosing plants found in the chaparral or coastal sage scrub plant communities.
“Generally, we use evergreen native plants,” said Greg Rubin, founder and president of California's Own Native Landscape Design Inc.
Toyon, lemonade berry, coffee berry and oaks are just a few of the native plants Rubin considers when working with residential clients, as evergreen species tend to hold onto moisture.
But for those looking for the perfect fire-resistant plant list, Rubin says there are other considerations to make.
“What surprises people is when I tell them that it's not about plant lists. It's not about species. It's about hydration,” he said.
Besides the biodiversity benefits, he’s partial to native plants because he’s found that they don’t require much water to reach a level of moisture that offers some fire resistance.
Throughout the year, the amount of moisture plants hold onto changes — and the drier the plant, the easier it catches on fire.
One reason we see such bad wildfires in the fall is because many of our landscapes have dried to critical levels.
Rubin has been involved in research that investigated the fire resilience of California native plants, comparing moisture levels of irrigated natives versus untreated plants on nearby landscapes heading into our driest months.
Understandably, the irrigated plants had a higher level of moisture. For instance, while untreated laurel sumac had around 70% moisture retention (critical dryness is between 60% and 80%), irrigated sumac was around 130%, indicating it was more likely to resist fire.
The disparities weren’t as extreme for big berry manzanitas, scrub oak or California buckwheat in the study, but they were still there.
Another benefit of irrigation is that it can forestall summer dormancy, which is when plants stop putting out green growth in an effort to save moisture. Those brown, desiccated dormant bits can be quick to catch fire.
So whether you choose natives or not, the message is the same: irrigate, irrigate, irrigate.
Rubin recommends using overhead rotators to simulate summer rainfall, turning them on for 30 to 40 minutes once a week in inland areas, and once every two weeks along the coast. Not only are you keeping the plants irrigated, but you’re keeping any mulch moist as well.
For the water-conscientious landscaper, consider using greywater.
Regular landscape maintenance is also important, particularly thinning and dead wood removal, which can reduce flammability.
There are no guarantees your plants won’t catch fire. But if you have a well irrigated and maintained landscape, larger shrubs and trees at the edges of properties can protect a structure from embers.
Douglas Kent, professor and author of Firescaping: Protecting Your Home With a Fire-Resistant Landscape, surveyed the Eaton Fire area and saw multiple instances where trees seemed to have protected homes.
“There was a southern magnolia that lost its life in the fire, but the structure survived and everything below it did. So it took all the energy out of the atmosphere, screened the firebrands, and really took the brunt,” Kent said.
Oaks did particularly well throughout the Eaton Fire burn area, he said. As did well-irrigated and maintained fruit trees.
Years ago, I wrote about banana trees being used as green fire breaks: well-irrigated plants that resist catching on fire, while feeding the community.
Something to consider as we’re tasked with rebuilding landscapes in an increasingly fire-prone world.
Topline:
The Dodgers Foundation says it's expanding Dodgers Dreamteam, its program for underserved youth. The foundation says the program will be able to serve 17,000 kids this year, 2,000 more than last year.
Why it matters: Now in its 13th season, the program connects underserved youth with opportunities to play baseball and softball and provides participants with free uniforms and access to baseball equipment. It also offers training for coaches in positive youth development practices, as well as wraparound services for participant families like college workshops, career panels, literacy resources and scholarship opportunities.
How to sign up: For more information and to sign up, click here.
Topline:
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season. It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
What happened? Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
Why it matters: Experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains. State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs. “I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.
It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.
On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.
“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”
State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.
Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.
“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”
In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.
“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”
Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.
“That means we can get more work done,” he said.
It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.
Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.
“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”
Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.
Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”
“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.
Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.
But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.
How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.
“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
The Santa Monica Airport will close in 2028 and become a sprawling public park that city officials say will improve quality of life and boost green space.
What we know: The city is in the very early stages of planning how to transform the 192 acres into a park. The preliminary report shows some potential amenities of the park, such as gardens, biking trails, art galleries, a community center and much more.
Background: After a long legal battle between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration, a settlement was reached that ruled that the city could close the more than 100-year-old airport. The park was controversial among residents because of air quality and noise concerns, and was the subject of many legal battles in recent decades.
What’s next? The city wants to hear from residents. You’re encouraged to review the framework and fill out this survey. Feedback will be accepted until April 26.
Topline:
Thousands of immigrants who are lawfully in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.
What’s new: The changes apply to certain immigrants who are here lawfully, including refugees and asylees. It also applies to people from Iraq and Afghanistan who have special visas for helping the U.S. military overseas.
Why now: The new restrictions stem from H.R. 1 — also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — which Congress passed last year.
What’s next: Officials estimate 23,000 people in Los Angeles County will be affected. State officials say noncitizens who are currently receiving benefits will continue to get them until it’s time to renew their benefits — adding that people might be able to receive benefits again if their legal status changes to lawful permanent residents.
Thousands of immigrants who are lawfully in California are set to lose their food assistance benefits, known as CalFresh, starting this month.
The new restrictions stem from H.R. 1 — also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — which Congress passed last year.
The changes remove eligibility for certain noncitizens, including people with refugee status and victims of trafficking. It also applies to immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan who have special immigrant visas for helping the U.S. government overseas.
”These are folks … many of whom have large families that we have a commitment to as a country because we welcomed them and invited them here to find a place of refuge,” said Cambria Tortorelli, president of the International Institute of Los Angeles, a refugee resettlement agency. “They’re authorized to work and they’ve been brought here by the U.S. government.”
The federal spending bill, H.R. 1, made sweeping cuts to social safety net programs, including food assistance and Medicaid. In signing the bill, President Donald Trump said the changes were delivering on his campaign promises of “America first.”
Officials estimate 23,000 people in Los Angeles County will be affected. The state estimates about 72,000 immigrants with lawful presence will be affected across California.
CalFresh is the state’s version of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Undocumented immigrants have not been eligible to receive CalFresh benefits.
State officials say noncitizens who are currently receiving benefits will continue to get them until it’s time to renew their benefits — adding that people might be able to receive benefits again if their legal status changes to lawful permanent residents.
