In the last few years, after massive blazes in Northern California destroyed forests and towns, the state changed the way it managed wildfires. It shifted its policy from a fire suppression strategy to one that oversaw small burns and other efforts to help thin overgrown forests and reduce the amount of fuel that could prolong a fire.

Now, the state’s fire officials realize it has to change course again for Southern California because the approach to forest fire management up north doesn’t really apply to the chaparral and shrubland that cover the southern coasts.

And part of the solution could involve good old-fashioned volunteer work.

Guests: Noah Haggerty, environment and science reporter for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in wildfire coverage.

Karen Leigh Hopkins, Pacific Palisades resident, filmmaker

Read Noah’s Stories:

The state’s wildfire policy long overlooked SoCal. Now it’s course correcting:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-10-16/fire-strategy-socal

Man, machine and mutton: Inside the plan to prevent the next SoCal fire disaster:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-14/the-plan-to-prevent-the-next-socal-fire-disaster

To solve the wildfire crisis, we have to let the myth of ‘the wild’ die:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-08-28/boiling-point-the-myth-keeping-wildfires-alive

In high-tech race to detect fires early, O.C. bets on volunteers with binoculars: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-08-15/o-c-bets-on-volunteers-to-detect-fires-early