Santa Cruz County Resilience Digest

The 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires leveled more than 900 residential homes and nearly 1,500 structures. Efforts to rebuild infrastructure, restore wildland and refine response efforts have been ongoing ever since.

For those living in wildfire-ravaged regions, help might be on the way. Covered California recently announced an application window for victims of wildfires, as well as those who live in fire-prone regions, to apply for assistance.

Nate Armstrong has gotten got a big increase in funding to prepare for what’s ahead. But with an unending fire season, the head of the Cal Fire unit covering Santa Cruz County has more questions than answers.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience in collaboration with the Santa Cruz Regional 9-1-1 are encouraging residents living in high fire danger areas to consider purchasing a NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio.

The city of Santa Cruz is set to start construction of the San Lorenzo River Lagoon Culvert Project, which will address three issues: flooding, public safety and habitat protection. Project completion is expected this fall.

In a presentation to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, Santa Cruz County and Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit Fire Chief Nate Armstrong reviewed the state of county fire services and the outlook for 2022. In short, “It looks grim as always.”

More than 6,000 PG&E customers in the city of Santa Cruz experienced a power outage on June 17. PG&E crews attributed the incident to a metallic balloon tangled in power equipment.

Cal Fire has awarded the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts a “Wildfire Resilience” block grant to support 10 resource conservation districts statewide in helping both public and private landowners with forest management.

Between the coronavirus pandemic to the destructive CZU Lightning Complex fire, Santa Cruz County emergency services providers have been on edge for the past two years.

California faces the prospect of a drought-fueled summer of power shortages, hydroelectric plant shutdowns and rising electricity costs, a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration warns.

Some Californians have spent thousands of dollars trying to fireproof their homes to reduce their risk of burning. But taking those steps doesn’t prevent their premiums from ballooning, or keep them from being dropped by their insurance company.

With fire season starting in Northern California, homeowners in the Santa Cruz area have new options for protecting their houses and property.

President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest forests sparks a question: When does a forest grow old? Underlining the urgency of the issue are wildfires in California that killed thousands of giant sequoias in recent years.

Across the U.S., more than 2,200 dams built upstream from homes or communities are in poor condition, according to an Associated Press analysis. The number in need of repairs is up substantially from a similar AP review conducted just three years ago.

The state of California has released an Extreme Heat Action Plan outlining a comprehensive set of state actions to adapt and strengthen resilience to extreme heat.

The Cal Fire Air Attack Base in Hollister now has an even greater defense going into this fire season: the S70i. Also known as the fire hawk, the chopper is the newest version of the Blackhawk and its capabilities are a turning point for fighting fires.

Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.

Due to concerns on project cost, ratepayer feedback, and environmental impacts and timeliness, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District delayed a decision on how to rebuild some 7 miles of water pipeline destroyed in the CZU Lightning Complex fire.

Winery owner and UC Santa Cruz chemistry professor Phil Crews teamed up with a group of researchers to conduct a study on how the taste of wine was affected by wildfire smoke.

Despite spending nearly $4.9 billion last year to prevent wildfires, PG&E Corp. still found itself responsible for the second-largest fire in California history. This year it promises to shell out almost $6 billion on its 2022 “wildfire mitigation plan.”

California’s wildfires have been burning hotter and longer. Cal Fire keeps records of acres burned, structures destroyed and human lives lost, but there are no records of how many animals die or are injured by wildfires.

Santa Cruz County launched a CZU recovery dashboard, providing data about the post-fire rebuilding process. While the county says progress is in line with other communities’ rebuilds, some survivors said the process is overly burdensome.

Some plants and patches of Earth withstand heat and dry spells better than others. A new Stanford University study shows those different coping mechanisms are closely linked to wildfire burn areas.

To address the growing need for a competitive insurance market for farm owners, wineries, ranchers and other outdoor agricultural businesses, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has approved the FAIR Plan starting Feb. 1.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a 10-year strategic plan, “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests,” that maps out actions it believes is needed to protect communities and improve forest health.

A new computer program can determine whether homes and buildings have been destroyed by wildfires as soon as the smoke clears. Developed by scientists at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Stanford University, DamageMap works by surveying aerial and satellite images.

If your cell phone is more than a few years old, it might be time for an upgrade, as providers are phasing out 3G service.

A change to Pacific Gas & Electric’s power lines has dramatically reduced the risk of sparking wildfires. But as a result, hundreds of rural residents often lose power for hours, sometimes days. “It’s like camping,” said Barbara Melchin, a Santa Cruz Mountains resident.

Even though not a single structure burned in the city of South Lake Tahoe, a preliminary estimate shows that the Caldor Fire cost tens of millions in lost economic activity to the region. But is that really the total? Experts believe it’s not clear how much fires cost the state each year.

Amid complaints about the slow pace of rebuilding permits in the CZU Lighting Complex Fire zone, Santa Cruz County supervisors loosened rules that affect landowners in the fire zone. “We eased the covenant,” Santa Cruz County Board Chairman Bruce McPherson said after the 5-0 vote in favor of the change.

Calling the outages that South Santa Cruz County’s rural residents have experienced “not acceptable,” Pacific, Gas and Electric Company representatives said they are currently adjusting equipment in hopes of lessening the length and frequency of the shutoffs.

Antonia Bradford, a Santa Cruz Mountains resident who lost her Boulder Creek home to fire, strongly criticizes actions taken by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors intended to streamline rebuilding.