Tag: wildfire
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Durable Solutions in California Disaster Resilience
By Nicholas Pinter . . . Earlier this month, California released its Natural Catastrophe Resiliency Study. The study addresses thorny issues in managing California’s disaster risk, and particularly the crises in wildfire insurance and utility liability. We Californians and our leaders should applaud the study and efforts to address these sweeping challenges. The Resiliency Study…
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Ash in the Rivers: The Unexplored Consequences of Post-Wildfire Runoff on Freshwater Fish
By Garfield Kwan & Christine Parisek Wildfires have become a hot topic. Although wildfires are a natural part of some ecosystems (e.g. the chaparral biome), megafires (fires that burn >100,000 acres of land) are becoming increasingly common as the climate continues to warm and droughts intensify. As of late, California’s fourth largest wildfire, the 2024 Park fire, charred…
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Will more wildfire and precipitation extremes mussel-out California’s freshwater streams?
By Andrew J. Lawrence and Andrew L. Rypel Apocalyptic scenes of wildfires and floods are now familiar to Californians. However, the ecological impacts from these events remain understudied in California and across the world. Gaps in awareness and understanding on the issue are especially intense for freshwater mussels, whose cryptic and sedentary life-histories belie their…
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A Tale of Two Fires: How Wildfires Can Both Help and Harm Our Water Supply
by Gabrielle Boisramé Now that summer is over and rain has returned to California, it appears that the dramatic 2017 fire season is finally behind us. The effects of fire season can linger, however, with the possibilities of erosion and polluted runoff from burned areas. Napa County has even issued suggestions for how to protect…