https://www.the-wild.org/about-1 daily 0.75 2025-08-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1632525264992-0WOKSEZTV7BAYWYVTO2M/Wildfire+Research+Spectulations.jpg About - Make it stand out Los Angeles, Wildfires and Adaptive Design: Greg Kochanowski on Creating New Futures Great design is rooted in responsive and adaptive approaches. For architect and landscape designer Greg Kochanowski, equitable design solutions should address critical issues, such as climate and housing. Greg is an active researcher focusing on resilient environments that create synergies between natural systems, culture, infrastructure, and development. In the following interview with ArchDaily, Greg explores his early inspirations and design ideas, as well as his thoughts on major issues shaping the future. With a background across urban design, landscape, and architecture, his work has been instrumental in a variety of projects reshaping the cultural and environmental fabric of Los Angeles. Article by Eric Baldwin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1611945544510-3YQOARFO4G78QMLRJNP9/landscape+architecture+magazine+image.JPG About - Interview with Landscape Architecture Magazine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1637090487403-7I0AM8R3Q2MO158USWVV/714.jfif About - Make it stand out CAL POLY POMONA / ASLA CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE LECTURE SERIES “WILDFIRE: A Conversation with Greg Kochanowski & Max Moritz” 05 November, 2021 WATCH THE VIDEO HERE The Department of Landscape Architecture is hosting “Landscape Architecture and the Science of Climate Change,” a series of talks pairing the research of scientists with the implementation of landscape architects on climate change topics. The second installment of the 2021-22 public event program “WILDFIRE” presents talks by Max Moritz, Adjunct Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and statewide wildfire specialist within UC Cooperative Extension; and Greg Kochanowski, AIA, Partner and Design Principal at Practice, and founder of The Wild, a nonprofit research lab focusing on the impacts of the climate crisis in urban environments. “Landscape Architecture and the Science of Climate Change” talks are scheduled on the first Friday of each month, 12-1 p.m. PT. (Except April 8, 2022). The 2021-22 program is organized with Ronnie Siegel, chair of the Climate Action Committee of the Southern California chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (SoCal ASLA) and Carlos Flores, SoCal ASLA Climate Action Committee Member and Lecturer at Cal Poly Pomona. Each talk is moderated by a faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1640125033529-MRTCMHJ4XTQXNZDQN1UC/Untitled-1.jpg About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1611944785822-FHS060FOHY5KAGDOZWPR/15c49503463b33.jpg About - ASLA National Conference Education Panel 2018 with Helen Kongsgaard and Jeremy Lancaster ASLA National Conference Education Panel 2018 (Link) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1611950048732-YFP0H9GMJEBJCZVI45ZK/What_Disasters_teach_us_dae9d742f19b6d4d8e59504c1a71c1db.jpg About - Podcast: What Can Emergencies Tell Us About Design? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1637346437941-Q97LL5BU8ORNQGXEY547/4F200AEE-19C4-4D16-8E15-4A2423E27AB1.JPG About - Make it stand out LECTURE: “WILDLANDS IN THE EXPANDED FIELD” You can watch the video HERE University of Santiago, Chile School of Architecture 18 November 2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1631656245742-UNGQQBJO6U5V5DLQCVQ1/cover-image-800x618.jpg About 03 June 2021 - Climate change-fueled disasters are destructive, scary, and rapidly increasing in both frequency and impact all over the world. At this point, half of the global population has been affected by at least one climate change-fueled disaster (and the other half isn’t far behind). And California has been a microcosm of the global climate emergency. For the past decade, communities across the state have faced severe challenges on multiple fronts — from extreme fires and flooding to earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic. But how have they responded and what community resilience strategies have proved most successful? In this episode of The Response, we explore some of the answers to these questions with two guest speakers Lisa Beyer is an Urban Water Infrastructure Manager at World Resources Institute. As part of that role, she is responsible for developing and scaling financially innovative, environmentally sustainable municipal water management solutions in cities across the country. Learn more about Lisa Beyer, World Resources Institute, and the Joint Benefits Authority (JBA) by visiting wri.org. Greg Kochanowski is a licensed architect, landscape designer, and educator in the State of California. His new book, The Wild, explores the urban periphery of Los Angeles, where the city meets the mountains, a landscape inherently vulnerable to wildfire, and its secondary and tertiary effects, including flash floods and debris flows. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1611945719248-MH9667D2A7BXJ6DBPD8L/unnamed.jpg About - Interview with the LA Forum for Architecture + Urban Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1611949581622-BS52HBX45R47P9WYOBDD/fire-resilience-climate-Greg-Kochanowski-banner-2048x1024.jpg About - Design for a Changing Climate Fire and Community Resilience (Link) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1630619525946-SX7RON0HP8PIK96EI9T6/83814304_106135257617987_3941139948760989696_n.jpg About 02 September 2021 - Los Angeles landscape designer Greg Kochanowski was studying the impact of wildfires on landscape management in the West even before his own house burned in 2018. His suggestions and conclusions, detailed in his book “The Wild,” offer a vision of a new kind of community response to living in fire-adapted landscapes. In this conversation, Greg discusses this with Growing Greener and the part that individual homeowners and gardeners can play. https://www.the-wild.org/about daily 0.75 2021-01-28 https://www.the-wild.org/contact daily 0.75 2021-07-25 https://www.the-wild.org/home daily 1.0 2021-07-03 https://www.the-wild.org/home/clouds-m4xjr monthly 0.5 2021-01-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625355099590-8JWQK7PQ651M7GGKC3MI/Urban+Humidifier.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out Urban Humidifiers To counteract the sudden drop in humidity as a result of the oncoming Santa Ana winds, a dense network of weather monitors is extended across the Los Angeles basin. Dispensed by industrial-scale misting cannons using recycled grey and black water from the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley, they create a dense wet environment to help combat wildfires and arid climate conditions by “humidifying” the environment. Acting as urban fog machines, they simulate the marine layer by cooling the atmosphere and providing additional moisture to soil and vegetation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625352488368-L3CKPFUFPQMDT9W04W4A/OCR-L-HOLYDAY6-0812-17.mr_1_bw.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out Since the early 20th century, the “militarization of fire” (by which we mean the prioritization of fire fighting over more holistic and sustainable land management solutions) has resulted in technologies and infrastructures on par with some smaller countries across the globe. Central to this armory are retrofitted Boeing 747 airplanes, carrying thousands of gallons of either water or fire retardant deployed during wildfire events. When dropped, bursts of clouds formulate over the landscape, falling to cover unignited vegetation. The retardant, comprised of a mix of water and borates (fertilizers) sticks to ground surfaces and plant material, providing a protective layer that delays ignition. In addition, these retardants can cool the material down while also releasing water vapor and carbon dioxide which assists in weakening, and potentially even extinguishing, flames. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625355710701-LTJS8CUUPCNYBP9NC422/1200px-NEXRAD_tower_US_Naional_Weather_Service_Negaunee_Township_Michigan_pink.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out The monitoring and conditioning of the weather is critical in helping to forecast, and mitigate against, wildfires. Precipitous drops in humidity usually foreshadow wildfire events. For example, prior to the start of the Woolsey Fire, the humidity level across the Western San Fernando Valley, from Simi Valley to Agoura Hills, dropped to 0% within an hour. Such a drastic change, coupled with hillsides dense with dried vegetal fuel, exacerbated by the lack of rainfall, and propelled by intense Santa Ana Winds, created a perfect storm for the devastating wildfire that followed. Monitoring humidity levels on a continual basis is one way to better anticipate the formation of optimum conditions for fire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625355599195-6N1TJ0X3WY9A3J7VYX62/Dust+Clouds+Pacoima_Valley+Relics+Museum.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out The San Gabriel Mountains are one of the most active mountain ranges in the world. Constantly moving, shedding, shifting, and spalling, they appear to be pushing back on the encroaching city. The movement transforms the ground to mist, stitching the earth with the sky. Dust thickens the atmosphere on a continual basis, the result of an arid climate with little to no precipitation on a yearly basis. These dust clouds, in combination with emissions, pollute the air, effecting the adjacent communities, exacerbating conditions for those with respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis and the like. While the climatic activity in Southern California propels forward in a consistently recurring pattern, these formations remind Angelenos of the continual geologic vibrations that characterize this region of the United Sates. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625352704372-8DDAY05ADDOK3CRRLYIV/Pyrocumulus_cloud%2C_Beaver_complex_fire_2014_pink.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out Fires create clouds. The Pyrocumulus Flammagenitus (or pyrocumulonimbus) cloud, or fire cloud, form naturally above fires, however because the presence of many smoke particles tends to inhibit the formation of rain, water droplets are prevented from forming into raindrops large enough to fall. The pyrocumulus cloud can either help or hinder a fire. Occasionally, the moisture from the air condenses in the cloud and then falls as rain, extinguishing the fire, and there are been numerous examples where a large firestorm has been extinguished by the pyrocumuluspyrocumulus clouds it created. However, if the fire is large enough, then the cloud may continue to grow, and become Cumulonimbus Flammagenitus, which are extremely unstable formations that, in turn, produce lightning storms that ironically increase the chance of creating other fires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625352459020-47ONTKDOH5HL1478C3O9/111218-pink-house_edited.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out With wind velocities ever increasing in Southern California due to excessive differentials between ground temperatures (due to climate change), retardants cannot effectively mitigate wind driven fires, due to the material being blown away and because the rigid winged aircraft used to disperse it cannot fly within extreme wind conditions. As a result, mountainous terrains, and its residents, are subject to increased danger due to inaccessibility. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625352633640-9PWAEY0NUN9XK66RWHPN/Woolsey_Fire_satellite_image_November_9%2C_2018p.png Home - Clouds - Make it stand out The smoke plume from the Woolsey Fire (right) canceled out the legislated automobile emissions within the City of Los Angeles. In fact, smoke from the 2018 wildfires equated to 68M tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the carbon emissions created in a year to supply electricity to the entire state of California. These are the unseen effects of wildfires in relation to climate change, setting back gains through sustainable technology and legislation with a single event. In addition, these plumes enter the jet stream, reducing air quality and impacting those with respiratory illness across the United States, and the globe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625355302972-6QJ9K027I4O6AGBWAKMT/Pink+Rain.jpg Home - Clouds - Make it stand out Pink Rain As electrical infrastructure expands across wildland–urban interface, susceptible to high winds, it exponentially increases the risk of transformer or transmission line failure. These incidents occur in remote areas, typically too far from developed areas to allow for quick notification and response by fire departments. To combat this, fire retardant cannisters, equipped with heat sensors, or sensors triggered by a failure in the electrical line, propel pink clouds to cover adjacent vegetation and mitigate the potential for ignition. In turn, they trigger alarms to the fire department who then tracks them using a GIS marker. Airborne patrols can spot the pink spray on the ground to locate the point of failure and origin of any wildfire event. https://www.the-wild.org/home/blankets-zkzll monthly 0.5 2021-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196627872-3WYSW5QKB82Q2RXZD7A7/topographic+shading_colorized.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Central to understanding the potential for hazards within the wildland-urban interface is topography, orientation, and soil makeup. Steep, south facing slopes absorb more solar radiation and, hence, result in drier soils and vegetation making them more prone to wildfire and subsequent debris flows. North facing slopes, on the other hand retain more water content in the soil, promoting vegetation, and cooler microclimates through evapotranspiration18. These areas, then, create opportunity for climate or wildfire ‘refugia’19. Climate Refugia are areas that typically escape adverse conditions of heat and wildfire due to their remaining relatively cool and/or wet. These areas pool colder air, thus creating cooler microsites / microclimates within the mountains. By gaining a better understanding of these microclimates, we can better understand their potential for providing a level of protection and resiliency towards the threat of wildfire. Key to this is establishing proper land management practices that treat not only the direct refugia zone, but also the areas around including potential networks and connective corridors across the terrain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196875704-PEM52ZXJH76DEWGBBF5T/Slope+Sponge.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Slope Sponges Water collection “blankets” along the base of the San Gabriel, Santa Monica, and Santa Ynez Mountains operate as “bladders” following winter rains to provide resources for irrigation and firefighting. Similar to spring and seep containers20 a box with an open back is placed against the hillside and the runoff water channeled into the collection bladders. The tops of the bladders are then planted with native vegetation to promote an integration of habitat, fusing infrastructure with the ecosystem. By locating these systems shaded by topographic formations, the water additionally supports the formation of cooler, wetter microclimates that promote additional wildfire prevention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196509572-CXPHTMQLWOD1PUVNW7SX/chaparral.png Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Chaparral is a coastal biome (a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat) that exists within climates receiving 15–36 inches of precipitation per year; making the chaparral most vulnerable to fire in the late summer and fall. As a result of climatic shifts due to climate change, this vulnerability has extended into early summer and late spring. Chaparral ecosystems have adapted to recover from wildfires that historically occured every 30-50 years, and the plant species developed ‘cues’ (heat, smoke, or charred wood, and chemical changes in the soil following fires) to initiate seed germination. Certain species, such as annuals and herbaceous, are known as ‘fire followers’ which depend on fires to burn out other vegetation, which allows sunlight to reach them. Although these ecosystems have adapted to infrequent fires, an increased frequency of fire (as we have seen over the past 10-15 years) can modify the community to become less fire resilient. For example, a frequency of fire less than ten years results in the loss of seeder plants (such as Manzanita). This prohibits these seeder plants to reach their reproductive size before the next fire, resulting in a shift in the community to ‘sprouter’ plants. Additionally, an extreme fire frequency (less than five years) additionally results in the loss of even sprouter plants by destroying their root structure, which serves as a protective ‘reserve’ from which the plant sprouts. These changes in fire frequency result in a phenomenon known as ‘disclimax’, which is the interruption of a natural succession of plants, by arresting their growth at an early or intermediate stage due to human influence - in this case, fire. Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from a native shrub-land to non-native annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, especially under drought brought about by climate change. Additionally, there is considerable debate concerning chaparral fire regimes that fall into two categories: 1)stands of chaparral become old or stressed which necessitates fires to keep them healthy, and 2) wildfire suppression policies have resulted in dead chaparral to accumulate, creating increased fuel that result in larger and larger fires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196782597-QEZY5UZO0558VCTSHRCT/200523_thewild_layout_gk+2.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Parametric Policies An estimated 120 million people nationally live in wildland-urban interface or intermix zones, and the health of these economies is directly related to the health of these ecosystems. Parametric Insurance policies promote stewardship of wildlands by residents of the wildland-urban interface by linking rates and liability to management of landscape and local ecosystems. This creates a partnership with the insurance industry to allow the measurement of how much risk proper stewardship and land management practices can reduce in wildland-urban interface areas. The controversy of rebuilding versus ceding land to the government is central to a re-envisioning of the wildland-urban interface zones. Central to this revisioning is the notion of individual and collective responsibility. There is an argument that people residing in these areas should not be “bailed out”. Nor should the general public be paying for the enormous fire suppression infrastructure and manpower needed to fight these ever-increasing fires. These issues gets to the heart of the matter, highlighting the need to form an argument around personal responsibility that is not punitive, but rather catalytic. How can “personal responsibility” foster, and translate into, a new understanding of land stewardship? Through new public-private partnerships between the State, conservancies, fire-safe councils, and local businesses/municipalities, land management practices can be funded and incentivized to help maintain at risk landscapes so vital to the protection of life and property. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196829665-TSIP8NX1J9QYUUMCFRRH/Woodland+Umbrella-01.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Woodland Umbrellas Southern California wildfires are primarily wind driven. To mitigate this, we must initiate a massive reforestation project of the Santa Monica Mountains, which would consist of planting acres of CaliforniaCalifornia live oaks, also referred to as coast live oak, across the mountainous terrain and banded as linear groves across the San Fernando Valley. Doing this would serves to resuscitate mountain woodland ecosystems and oak woodland habitat, which would greatly aid to deflect and dissipate embers driven by the Santa Ana winds. Additionally, these groves would cool the environment, improve air quality, and, perhaps most importantly, serve to sequester carbon, assisting in reducing the effects of climate change. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196310447-PTO4VOA0S0XKOCGQYWHM/2003-0583_pink.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Oak woodland ecosystems15 used to blanket the Southern California region. Through processes of development and agriculture, these territories have drastically dwindled over time, to the point that they are now legislatively protected. These oaks, particularly the Coastal Live Oak are endemic to California’s fire adapted landscapes16 and, as such, provide a significant level of protection to these areas. Their canopies, sometimes measuring over 50 feet in diameter, coupled with a tough waxy leaf structure, provide fire resistance to a more fire prone undergrowth from embers traveling in wind driven wildfires17. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196346965-PDHR0MH6PP342XJPWOQI/ALL_pink.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Overlaying zoning designations, such as jurisdictional boundaries and property lines, habitat overlays of complex ecosystems, constitute a pattern of wildfire dating back centuries. This invisible field of latent ecological forces speaks toward the fact that fires are not unusual occurrences to these regions and that their seasonal repetition illuminates the adaptive nature of these environments, assisting in the replenishment of ecosystems and habitat. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196450507-WG7ULNJFDIKCTOJ7KZOZ/200523_thewild_layout_gk+1.jpg Home - Blankets - Make it stand out Humans have always lived with fire. But as technologies such as the automobile and rail advanced, urban centers began to spread into wildland ecosystems. With the rapid expansion of ex-urban and suburban developments away from city centers, peri-urban environments (landscapes bordering urban and rural territories) also expanded, bringing with it extensions of resource infrastructure (electricity, water, sewer) and modifications to the terrain through roads, parallelization, terracing (and flattening) of steep hillsides. These encroachments, in turn, removed areas of habitat, and altered valuable ecosystems (such as oak woodlands) which had established a level of resiliency to the landscape. In the case of Los Angeles, these developments moved into the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains exponentially diminishing the zone between development and wildlands. Over time, the natural frequency of wildfires increased, placing life and property in danger. . As such, more and more people are intermixed with vegetation, most of which has now been replaced with invasive or foreign species (such as eucalyptus and mustard weed) which eliminates the adaptive nature of these landscapes. These, and other, changes to the landscape exacerbates the frequency of wildfire to the point that 100% of all wildfires in California are caused by humans. https://www.the-wild.org/home/fields-aw6cn monthly 0.5 2021-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627194097268-RLSFHBJNJ4WD0J171KMN/DIAGRAMS_DEBRIS_BASIN_SIZES-2.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out In Los Angeles, all the debris basins, combined, has the equivalent area of Central Park. This vast field of infrastructure, developed in the mid-20th century as a reaction to the devastating debris flows and mudslides in the San Gabriel Valley, is now approaching its 50-year lifespan. Debris basins capture sediment shedding from the mountain terrain throughout the year, but particularly following rain events which become exasperated when unrestrained by vegetation due to wildfire. The basins, sometimes measuring hundreds of feet deep, capture this material which is then trucked off to “spreading grounds” where the saturated soil is allowed to percolate water back into aquifers. With the aging of this infrastructure, and the reduction in maintenance budgets, these systems are failing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195229753-W7ZEJ8GW949Y4ZN0H1P7/Micro+Basins-01.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Microbasins The Los Angeles County Flood Control District (LACFCD) debris management infrastructure has entered its 50-year lifespan, leaving a void in the city’s management of these systems. By hacking into this network of debris basins and spreading fields, we can begin to not only provide an updated, ecologically resilient, line of defense against debris flows following a wildfire, but provide the much-needed publicly accessible open space in the process. Imagine the existing debris basin infrastructure being transformed into a more sustainable model that protects residents living at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, while simultaneously allowing greater access by the public. Singular basins are replaced with fields of micro-basins, distributed across the hillsides after a fire. These chevron-shaped, or wedge-shaped, micro-infrastructures capture debris before it can gather more material and increase to dangerous velocities. In addition, debris is captured and redistributed along historic lines of mudflow, creating larger urban connections in the form of greenbelts, and establishing open space networks for adjacent residential neighborhoods, which serve as a catalyst for increased public space, habitat corridors, and property values. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195278868-QIOA7IIQBPGHV3UCZBUB/Fuel+Flocks-01.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Fuel Flocks More extreme, climate induced weather cycles necessitate fuel management13 as an important part of wildfire mitigation. An increase in intense rainy seasons lead to an increase in grasslands, which in turn dry out in the hotter, drier summer sun. There are many factors at play in the prevention of wildfires, with human occupation being primary. However, given that it is impractical to expect the removal of residents from the wildland-urban interface territories, we must turn to addressing the second most important factor: fuel management. Mountainous and steep hillside terrain is difficult, if not impossible, to access and the amount of acreage needed to be cleared is cost prohibitive to maintain on a yearly basis. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire)14 officials estimate that a human crew costs roughly $28,000 to clear an acre, while a goat crew costs an average of $500. Deploying flocks of goats across the Santa Monica Mountains allow for fuel management to occur year-round, establishing a 5-year cycle whereby they are moved between different areas on a rotating basis. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627193691907-134FOJFNUB1C3WRVYSFI/security-USgrid-667160092_GEORGE+ROSE_GETTY+IMAGES.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out The conveyance of electricity into Los Angeles from outside the city boundary creates a continuous threat of wildfire along the hundreds of miles of transformers and transmission wires that crisscross the arid landscape. This interface between technological ingenuity and environmental forces, particularly wind, is one of the most prevalent sources of wildfire in Southern California. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627193756965-2DU39Z5JQLBMV6MLQLOK/April2019_Agenda_Item_9_Attach_3_PowerPoint_Lilley_Page_08_pink.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627193819789-8YSZ59969MEMCOW7CEHD/SpreadingGround_pink.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Visible from space, the spreading fields of Pacoima, CA and other areas of Los Angeles speak towards the power of the Flood Control District and the millions upon millions of dollars spent each year to manage the processing of debris transported from the San Gabriel Mountains. These mono-territories take up vast areas of the city, creating infrastructural water fields adjacent to neighborhoods and communities. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195034063-0BSH30VE90V3AWAJCSD6/Tree-Mortality-1234xa-1.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out From 2000 to 2014, bark beetles destroyed large swaths of forests in the American West. In response, the United States Forest Service, which oversees 80 percent of the country’s woodlands, initiated a program to prevent future infestations. The USFS believes this strategy reduces trees’ competition for resources, allowing the few that remain to better resist invading bugs. This theory also benefits loggers, who are more than willing to help thin the forests, as well as politicians, often on behalf of the timber industry: More than 50 bills introduced since 2001 in Congress proposed increasing timber harvests in part to help deal with beetle outbreaks. However, the wood destroyed by bark beetles is usually not useful or marketable, removing any incentives for logging companies to remove them. To compound the problem, the state of California has not allocated the necessary funds to remove the dead trees, hence not eliminating the fire hazard and exacerbating the potential for future fires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195157214-MST7XET8MYB8Q9KGNNWP/Micro-grid.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Microgrids The infrastructure and enormous amount of energy required for transporting water and power over vast distances is unsustainable. Not only does it reinforce the city’s dependency on resources outside of its border, but it also creates dangerous overlays within the wildland-urban interface which, through the failure of power infrastructure (transformers, downed powerlines) have created some of the largest wildfires in the history of California. Utility companies have answered with widespread imposed blackouts, impacting tens of thousands of people at a given time, with vulnerable communities, such as the poor and elderly, disproportionately feeling the effects. What is needed is a radical restructuring of our centralized utility systems, breaking them up, instead, into self-sustaining localized communities that can operate independently before, during, and after a disaster. The establishment of micro grids to support self-sustaining communities, based on alternative ‘closed loop’ electricity and water resources, provides increased security and equity in the event of wildfires or other natural disasters. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627194646514-NHQM142JYSKSEIP4OIJE/200523_thewild_layout_BEETLES.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Bark beetles have long been culling sickly trees in North American forests. But prolonged droughts and shorter winters have spurred bark beetles to kill billions of trees in what has been the largest forest insect outbreak ever recorded, about 10 times the size of past eruptions. Mountain pine, spruce, piñon ips, and other kinds of bark beetles have consumed 46 million of the country’s 850 million acres of forested land, from the Yukon down the spine of the Rocky Mountains all the way to Mexico. At the height of the outbreak, trees were falling sometimes at a rate of 100,000 trunks per day. As climate change warms the North American woods, it is expected that bark beetles will continue to proliferate and thrive in higher elevations—resulting in more beetles in the coming century, preying on larger areas of the country. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627193795436-GBX3H4HI3JK8S73JWIBG/Spreading%2BGrounds%2BHansen%2BSpreading%2BGrounds%2B3_pink.jpg Home - Fields - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.the-wild.org/home/transects-5gmef monthly 0.5 2021-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195600259-0XMZMP9EL8MQH2WI3LZG/Screen_Shot_2018-01-14_at_4.33.03_PM.png Home - Transects - Make it stand out The debris flows of the Thomas Fire of 2018 devastated the city of Montecito, CA. Although brought on by an unprecedented rainstorm, debris flows in this area were not only unprecedented, but historically repetitive. Much like the fire adapted landscapes of Malibu and other areas, these landscapes have seen debris flows for millennia. As fires move through the mountains above, they burn off slope stabilizing vegetation while chemically changing the composition of the soil. During a rain event, this soil is then washed off, catapulting it down the steep terrain where it builds up velocity and collects more and more debris (including boulders, cars, trees, etc.). The landscape is scarred by the trajectory of this debris over the years, which is also evidenced by the lack of indigenous oak trees through wide swaths of the landscape. These paths of debris flow alter development patterns over time, or sometimes go ignored altogether. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195959346-DSMDPF9N0GMJ11OSPYOL/santa+ana+winds.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Named after Southern California’s Santa Ana Canyon, the Santa Ana Winds are a blustery, dry, and warm (often hot) wind that blows out of the desert. A popular misconception is that the winds are hot owing to their desert origin. However, the Santa Anas develop when the desert is cold, hence being most common during the cooler seasons of October through March. High pressure builds over the Great Basin (e.g., Nevada) and the cold air there begins to sink. This air is forced downslope where it compresses and warms at a rate of approximately 29 degrees per mile of descent. The air picks up speed as it is channeled through passes and canyons, raising its temperature, and lowering its humidity levels, sometimes approaching zero. Santa Anas can cause a great deal of damage. The fast, hot winds cause vegetation to dry out, increasing the danger of wildfire. Once the fires start, the winds fan the flames and hasten their spread by ‘jumping’ embers across the landscape. Therefore, wind driven ember fires are the primary form of wildfire in Southern California. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195989180-5JJZV2T3E1Q12GH5NDUH/Hillside-Fire-04_altered.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out An ember is a small, glowing piece of superheated wood, coal or other material that remains after (or sometimes precedes) a fire. Embers can glow as hot as the fire from which they arise and are light enough to be carried by the wind for long distances without being extinguished. They are the primary reason properties go up in flames whenever a wildfire is nearby. An event known as an “ember attack” commonly occurs during wildfires. It causes burning parts of branches or leaves to become airborne and fly off as a large cluster of glowing embers, sometimes traveling as far as a half mile. Not only can these embers be carried to the outside of your property, but they can contact the inside by floating through vents, windows, or crawl spaces. As a result, they can ignite any flammable objects inside the home, including the house itself. But aside from an ember attack, even just one ember is enough to initiate a structure fire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195522012-WXPGZ7IB8UJ963N0X4FX/200523_thewild_layout_gk.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Following the Great Salem Fire of 1914 in Massachusetts, the United Stated government enforced a policy of fire suppression. The “Smokey the Bear” campaign, which began in the 1950s, promoted firefighting, placing the focus on prevention of fires rather than the proper management of the landscape. Ironically, when Theodore Roosevelt launched his campaign for the National Park System, between 1901 and 1909, celebrating the wildlands of the west through the photographs of Ansel Adams, it was managed landscapes that were photographed11. Forests effected by logging were presented as unbounded and uninhabited by man whereas it was just the opposite. These forests had been thinned over the years, preventing devastating wildfires from occurring. Once the policy of suppression supplanted these practices, these same forests became tinderboxes for future devastation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196149891-G40E2TFAJS49LL6PQJPE/Debris+Sheds.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Debris-sheds We typically understand mountainous terrain in terms of watersheds. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stormwater models abound, forecasting 100-year and 200-year flood risk. However, these models do not (and cannot) account for the risk of mud or debris. Not unlike the idea of a watershed, the term “debris-shed” is coined to conceptualize the path and establish patterns of development around alluvial fans and hazard areas caused by debris flow. Formulating the idea of “debris-sheds” accounts for these conditions and creates new criteria for development in the wildland-urban interface by establishing zones of risk tied to development patterns. Currently, development creeps onto alluvial fans without regard to the fact that they are located at the mouth of ravines and channels that funnel debris during an event. This new form of zoning acknowledges these hidden forces through an understanding of the relationship between the mountains and the sea. Mountains, in the shedding of its material, replenish sediment at beaches and riverbanks. By reopening these corridors to allow for the flow of material, we can create a multiple linear debris “parks,” which can serve to mitigate the effect of debris flows in neighborhoods at risk of mudslides during the seasonal fire-then-flood event cycles, while providing large open park space in ordinary times. The city, then, becomes a vast networks of linear parks and habitat corridors, connecting the “flats” of the city with the terrain of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains, realizing the 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew plan for Los Angeles, replete with recreational open spaces, that serve as overflow spaces during floods, connected to vital ravines and watersheds throughout the region. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195453494-RNW52PDG13EDL316S3OQ/Forest+Firebreak_Mikel+Martinez+de+Osaba_bw.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Fire breaks, a gap cut through dense vegetation or forested regions that are susceptible to wildfires, interrupt the continuity of fuel. Forested areas usually contain vast networks of firebreaks both natural (rivers, lakes, canyons) or constructed (roads, highways, cleared zones) which assist firefighters during an event. Prescribed, or controlled, burning also helps to clear understory growth thus reducing the ability of flames to climb (ladder) to upper tree canopies. Native Americans utilized prescribed burns to manage the landscape and agricultural production, coexisting with the dynamics of the Western prairie landscapes. While helpful when trying to prevent fuel based wildfires, firebreaks are ineffective when combating wind driven fires. During extreme wind events, embers the size of soccer balls can travel upward of half a mile. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196100299-LECNCX28CVM64XDNSZLJ/Right+of+Way+Washes-01.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Right-of-Way Washes As Los Angeles continues its (belated) renaissance of public transportation, we imagine a city in which the infrastructure of roads and freeways are softened, allowing for the re-emergence of the wild back into the city fabric. Transformed into naturalized bioswales that enhance infiltration and replenish the aquifers, streets could begin to serve as channelized waterways carrying stormwater to the ocean. New ecological corridors traverse and connect communities that have historically been park-starved, providing much needed open space and a tempering of the environment by reducing heat island effect. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627196046418-8RP9LQNOQHRH3SKP300R/Protection+Producers-01.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Protection Producers Urban organic waste is used to create compost which helps to mend arid soil for agriculture. This process also increases its capacity to absorb and retain water, which greatly aids the effectiveness of the fire breaks. Strips of agriculture, falling along east/west transit corridors as well as vacant and publicly owned lands, create vegetated fuel breaks. The scrub matrix in these areas is transferred into a sustainable agriculture that provides habitat connectivity and organic soil matter while reducing wildfire fuel load. This nuanced approach would promote restorative practices within fire adapted ecosystems to prevent the impact of habitat fragmentation. Additionally, the agriculture would be diversified and ecologically integrated as much as possible, utilizing grazing as agriculture, fruit trees, orchards, and the like. These areas would also reduce heat island effects and aid in stormwater capture, promote soil health and rehabilitation, maintain moisture – and establish new ecological corridors Simultaneously, these spaces provide opportunities for a network of community gardens in support of wellness and healthy living in neighborhoods that have typically had limited access to healthy food options. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627195645624-W0R93ZJ39AMPXIOQ4UYT/topographic+shading_colorized.jpg Home - Transects - Make it stand out Within mountainous terrain, the issue of access and egress is critical. Most developments within mountainous terrain are served by substandard roads, too narrow for fire truck access or for two cars to pass each other. In addition, many of these roads are dead ends, without proper turnarounds. During emergency evacuations, these roads become clogged with traffic preventing residents from fleeing and putting them at risk in the path of fast-moving wind driven fires. Malibu, for example, is served primarily by the Pacific Coast Highway giving residents two directions, north and south, for evacuation. During the Woolsey Fire of 2018, the northbound Pacific Coast Highway was shut down, trapping people in gridlock while fires rolled through the city. Consequently, open spaces such as the beach became evacuation zones and areas of refuge. These public zones operate in a multivalent manner, supporting communities with spaces for recreation and gathering during ordinary times while capable of serving as evacuation centers in times of crisis. Critical to rethinking these interface zones is the ability to reimagine these types of infrastructure and the manner in which it can accommodate various unexpected programs and perform at multiple levels. Although able to function, obviously the beach was not designed in anticipation of such an event. When envisioning new open spaces in the wildland-urban interface, it is critical to consider their programmatic potentials as part of a set of large-scale operations that include disaster and emergency response. https://www.the-wild.org/home/running-thoughts monthly 0.5 2021-01-29 https://www.the-wild.org/home/welcome monthly 0.5 2021-07-03 https://www.the-wild.org/home/the-wild-a-theory monthly 0.5 2021-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625348223885-8GO5IJJ1DKJU0QB7QH0K/1180497245.jpg.0.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Powerlines and Wildfire, Sylmar, CA (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197689401-SMY6G6WRB9WPIRKOFURV/200523_thewild_layout_gk10.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197597351-V35G0BQHT2MEZ2CHHFVL/200523_thewild_layout_gk5.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197541181-8BQEX51Z5N8IZ5CWBPHI/200523_thewild_layout_gk2.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197823787-3GALV883VXVQZLCGUARE/200523_thewild_layout_gk16.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197708111-C5QLPWJ39871PXL1PTXC/200523_thewild_layout_gk11.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197562787-65G3UPLHOQQVMEHKBETW/200523_thewild_layout_gk3.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625347806032-798WA9I0VV6E4S4GF3NH/DADF4424-3FF5-4B92-8318-660222E0B190-55253-00000BD98687A3D8.png Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range, Charles Marion Russell, 1905 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197579614-GS0DBPE93EQYGA55VAQV/200523_thewild_layout_gk4.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625346952280-GATB0NJLECTYL3EYLXZ4/zuma+woolsey.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Zuma Beach, Woolsey Fire 2018. (Photo: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197633609-R49CS6NQU8USWO8VXX2D/200523_thewild_layout_gk7.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197845284-3UCDXD4PQDSGF4RDW2T6/200523_thewild_layout_gk17.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197616609-3ZWMNNJ7NA6GOJARYW1T/200523_thewild_layout_gk6.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197875296-0AINUBYV4WKQ78GLHZHX/200523_thewild_layout_gk18.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197672555-STMV6RH15F1EKXR2OXVR/200523_thewild_layout_gk9.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197944000-5PU6OEEU85QVND80V03X/200523_thewild_layout_gk21.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197921591-LOA41K6F3L2X9NI6KVS1/200523_thewild_layout_gk20.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625347274902-98EU3APRT66YNFCJU5XK/montecito+debris+flow.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out In this photo provided by Santa Barbara County fire department, Kerry Mann navigates the large boulders and mudflow that destroyed the home of her friend in Montecito, California. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197746952-0EFP1ON81745MW1KVHVQ/200523_thewild_layout_gk13.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625347959453-NGL06D4Z98XPQMXHSL2D/ZyhYVd4.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Woolsey Fire, November 2018, Malibu, CA https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1625350655575-76AZXGNT3XBIE2ZJPW67/expanded+field.png Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Climate Crisis in the Expanded Field (Greg Kochanowski) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197770793-AXR1IY7UNCHV9B8JPNJZ/200523_thewild_layout_gk14.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197898969-HVB1B4VLJUI4LK6EM3IW/200523_thewild_layout_gk19.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197518290-QNK056X3FX8SCG671YHI/200523_thewild_layout_gk.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197654449-U0RGYB7ZIS1IM2AKZ1TZ/200523_thewild_layout_gk8.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197726444-C6KHN5GB2SBKUWDEBO3L/200523_thewild_layout_gk12.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/600f51fec3233d5f7f0b3ea0/1627197798496-DY8JF8SVT2PA0G5ZJGGL/200523_thewild_layout_gk15.jpg Home - The Wild: A Theory - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.