Nine of the 20 largest wildfires in California in the last 110 years were started by lightning strikes, including the devastating Lightning Complex fires in August 2020 that burned more than 750,000 acres in and around the Bay Area. Between … Read more
The Unequal Social Consequences of Wildfire Smoke in California
Around the American West, wildfires are increasing in size and frequency. In California, the list of Top-20 records are telling: 15 of the most destructive, nine of the largest, and seven of the deadliest wildfires have occurred since 2015. At … Read more
Bay Nature in 2020
Bay Nature’s top stories from an unusual year.
Reflections from Inverness Ridge on a Strange 2020
It started as a low rumble and proceeded to get louder and louder. Curious, I stepped out onto the deck just as a large white and red twin-engine propeller plane thundered directly overhead, descending to the northeast. Ten seconds later … Read more
Why We Need to Treat Wildfire as a Public Health Issue in California
Fires are spreading into communities and increasingly affecting large numbers of Californians, sometimes repeatedly.
Can Better Forestry Jobs Prevent Fires and Restore Rural America?
On an unseasonably warm November day in a rural neighborhood in the western Sierra Nevada, men with chainsaws patrol a tree thicket that burned three years ago. One man, whose chaps have torn on his right thigh and whose shirt … Read more
Racial and Ethnic Minorities are More Vulnerable to Wildfires
Some people are more affected by wildfires than others