In this episode, learn more about the fire science academy at the Academy of Arts, Career and Technology (AACT) in Washoe County. Living With Fire’s Jenni Burr sits down with Spencer Eusden (Living With Fire Special Projects Coordinator), AACT students Lucy and Luca, and former lead instructor Jen Diamond (BLM Mitigation Education Specialist) to hear more about this high school program. 

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/18108363

Spencer gives an overview of the creation of the fire science workforce development program in partnership with Bureau of Land Management and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection. 

Lucy and Luca then talk about their experience as students in the fire science program. Lucy shares “I definitely think even if you're in this academy and you don't want to be a firefighter, it'll set you ahead for another career, because you learn so much about communication working as a team, because so much of the fire is working with someone like accomplishing a certain mission or communicating what you need to do.”

Finally, Jen Diamond joins and shares her perspective on the program and answers questions from Lucy and Luca about her career in wildland firefighting. Reflecting on the realities of the job, saying “I think the funnest part is having those away experiences. And the hardest part is also not being home and having those home experiences when you feel like you should be there.”

To learn more about the program’s partners visit:

·       Bureau of Land Management: blm.gov/Nevada 

·       Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District: https://tmfpd.us/

·       Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology: https://aact.washoeschools.net/programs/cte

·       Living With Fire: www.livingwithfire.org 

In this second installment of our series “The Insurance Dilemma”, Living With Fire‘s Megan Kay (Program Manager) and Spencer Eusden (Special Projects Manager) sit down with Frank Frievalt to explore different perspectives on wildfire risk. Frank is the Director of the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) Institute at Cal Poly who previously worked as a firefighter and fire chief. He explains what risk means to fire practitioners versus the insurance industry, and how wildfire conflagrations are impacting firefighting and insurance.

For full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/1819551/episodes/17835392-the-insurance-dilemma-part-2-defining-risk

When it comes to reducing wildfire risk, Frank talks about how fire scientists are looking at ways to slow down and disrupt fire spread in the three pathways seen in the WUI: vegetation to vegetation, vegetation to structure, and structure to structure. He then shares the factors that are leading to conflagration losses and how this has changed the realities for the insurance industry’s financial risk. He highlights the disconnect between insurance agencies and homeowners and shares that he and many others are working to figure out how to get the right data into the hands of the insurers to “reconcile actual risk on the ground [and] facts on the ground, with how we price risk transfer.”

Frank ends by sharing the top way homeowners can protect their homes: working together as a community to ensure that they and their neighbors have adequate defensible space and hardened homes.

Here are Frank’s tips for homeowners:

Follow the IBHS prepared home standards for home hardening and defensible space:

• https://wildfireprepared.org/wp-content/uploads/WFPH-Technical-Standard.pdf
• Reach out to your local fire agency if you have any questions.
• When looking at home insurance, work with your insurance agent and shop around if you feel stuck.

For more information about the WUI Institute and their current projects, visit

https://fire.calpoly.edu/

Watch Frank’s talk to the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_VyuwzJ5N0

Find Living With Fire’s Defensible Space and Wildfire Home Retrofit Guides at https://www.livingwithfire.org/resources/publications/

In this episode, Living with Fire’s Megan Kay digs into the intersection of wildfires and community water systems with Kara Steeland and Stephanie Morris of Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA). Kara is TMWA’s Senior Hydrologist and Watershed Coordinator, and at the time of the interview, Stephanie was Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs. 

For more full episode details including transcript visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/17503579

Stephanie and Kara share that 80% of the water for the Truckee Meadows is stored upstream in California lakes and reservoirs surrounded by federal land managed by the US Forest Service. They explain that wildfires that happen in the watershed increase ash and organic material in the short term, which increases the difficulty and cost of water treatment. In the longer term, debris flows from burn scar areas increase sediment and debris in waterways, impacting water quality treatment and reducing storage capacity.

TMWA talks about how they work with partners to help protect watersheds and mitigate water quality impacts. As Stefanie says, “[We] don’t own the land around the reservoirs. … We can’t just go out there and do work. But what TMWA can do is help bring funds and planning expertise to [the Middle Truckee River Watershed Forest Partnership] to help increase scale and pace of those projects.”

They highlight the partnership’s Ladybug Project, above Stampede reservoir near Ladybug Peak, that aims to mitigate fire impacts by reducing fuels and altering future fire behavior and decreasing debris flows coming off of burned areas.

• Learn more about TMWA’s efforts at https://tmwa.com/article/middle-truckee-river-watershed-forest-partnership-awarded-8m-to-lower-wildfire-risk/ and https://tmwa.com/article/addressing-wildfire-risk-in-the-middle-truckee-river-watershed/. 
• Learn more about the Middle Truckee River Watershed Forest Partnership at https://www.truckeeforests.org/.
• Connect with Truckee Meadows Water Authority at:
  • Website: https://tmwa.com/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truckeemeadowswaterauthority/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truckeemeadowswaterauthority/ 
  • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tmwa/ 
• Learn more about Living With Fire https://www.livingwithfire.org and find the Living With Fire evacuation checklist and other publications at  https://www.livingwithfire.org/resources/publications/. 

For the first installment of our series The Insurance Dilemma, we’re exploring the intersection of insurance and wildfire risk. Living With Fire Director Christina Restaino and Outreach Coordinator Megan Kay sit down with the Deputy Commissioner of the Nevada Division of Insurance to discuss growing concerns about how wildfire risk is affecting insurance affordability and availability in Nevada.

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/15949770

Restaino highlights that rising costs go beyond affordability, saying, “It's becoming an environmental justice issue.” She explains that with the increasing cost of living, housing, and insurance, the question becomes, "How can we afford to live? Home prices are at an all-time high, interest rates are very high, homeowners' insurance is very high, and you start thinking—who can afford to live here?"

Todd Rich shares the Division of Insurance’s foundational mission: “to protect consumers in their dealings with insurance carriers.” He explains that wildfires became a significant challenge for insurance companies in 2017, and “science really hasn’t caught up to what the carriers are doing yet.” Companies are still adjusting models for where and how they write coverage and are not fully accounting for communities’ pre-fire mitigation efforts. Rich adds, “Carriers aren’t really giving credit yet, and they’re not giving credit for communities that have done a really good job.”

• For more information visit the consumer section of the Nevada Division of Insurance website at https://doi.nv.gov/Consumers/
  
  
• Here are consumer insurance tips from Todd Rich:
  • Know Your Agent Options: Understand the difference between independent agents and captive market agents. Independent agents can offer policies from multiple insurance carriers, while captive agents represent only one carrier. Exploring both options can help you find the best coverage for your needs.
    
    
  • Understand Your Policy: Carefully review the specifics of your insurance policy to ensure you’re aware of what is and isn’t covered. Pay special attention to whether smoke damage is included, as this may vary between policies and carriers.

Key topics: 

• The danger faced by a significant portion of Nevada's population during disasters due to challenges and limitations
• Disparities in outcomes between individuals with disabilities and those without during disasters
• Necessity to incorporate accessibility from the outset in designing emergency programs and systems
• Collaborative efforts in Nevada to address disparities for individuals with disabilities and access needs post-disasters

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/13506121

In the Episode:
In the latest episode of the Living With Fire Podcast titled "Wildfire & the Whole Community," host Megan Kay and Living With Fire Manager Jamie Roice-Gomes delve into the critical need for inclusivity and accessibility in disaster preparedness. Expert guests Heather Lafferty and Kimberly Palma-Ortega shed light on the challenges faced by individuals with Access and Functional Needs (AFN) during emergencies and the necessary steps to ensure their safety and well-being.

Drawing from real-world examples, Lafferty and Palma-Ortega describe the complex challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and those who have AFN during disasters. They also underscore the substantial disparity in outcomes between those with disabilities and those without. For example, Lafferty explains that 70% of deaf people who are evacuated during a disaster reported living in unsanitary conditions a month after the disaster as opposed to just 7% of individuals who are not deaf. 

Lafferty, the Coordinator for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as AFN at the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, points out that even though only 28% of Nevadans identify themselves as having a disability, a considerably broader demographic – roughly 67-70% of the state's population – have varying levels of AFN. Lafferty emphasizes that as a result, "a significant portion of Nevada's population is in danger of facing these challenges, limitations, and hurdles during a disaster."

Palma-Ortega serves as a Public Health Liaison at the Nevada Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. She emphasizes that in order to improve outcomes for people with disabilities and access and functional needs, emergency managers must incorporate accessibility from the outset when designing programs and systems, rather than treating accessibility as an afterthought. “Instead of making [accessibility] an add-on, put it as a build-on,” Palma-Ortega explains. 

In Nevada, collaborative efforts are addressing disparities in outcomes for those with disabilities and access needs after disasters. Among the initiatives recently launched is the Nevada Access and Functional Needs Disaster Coalition, a comprehensive workgroup encompassing government organizations, NGOs, private industry, and disability community partners. Their efforts focus on inclusive planning alongside the disability community, shifting from designing for them to designing with them.

Resources:

• Emergency Response for People Who Have Access and Functional Needs: A Guide for First Responders
• Health Information Binders
• Living With Fire Evacuation Checklist

With a winter characterized by substantial precipitation and robust vegetation growth in the Great Basin, many are curious about the implications for the upcoming fire year.

On Episode 13 of the Living With Fire Podcast, Christina Restaino, Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, engaged in a discussion with Joe Smith, a research scientist at the University of Montana, and Jeremy Maestas from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, about the connection between rain, snow, and fire risk in the Great Basin.

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/13052970

Smith and Maestas are part of a team of researchers who have developed a new tool to predict wildfire probability in the Great Basin. This tool incorporates historical data and current conditions to provide fire probability maps, offering valuable insights for Land Managers in the region.

Maestas highlighted the impact of the increased vegetation growth, explaining, “All this growing vegetation production is going to build up out there and there's no amount of livestock and insects in the world that are going to eat it all. So, it'll build up on the landscape and probably show up next year in the fire probability maps."

Discussing the natural wet and dry cycles that characterize the Great Basin, Maestas and Smith shared their findings. Smith's research, based on 32 years of data, shed light on the implications of these patterns for potential fires. "We should be particularly concerned when transitioning from a wet cycle to a dry one," Smith advised.

What does all this mean for Great Basin residents? Restaino suggested a proactive approach, emphasizing the importance of creating defensible spaces around homes and collaborating with the community. This preparation will help residents stay vigilant in the face of potential fire risks in the coming year.

Resources:

·       Great Basin rangeland fire probability tool

·       A Homeowner’s Guide to Cheatgrass

·       Be Careful! Cheatgrass is extremely flammable!

·       Fire Adapted Communities: The Next Step in Wildfire Preparedness

Wildfire is a vital ecological process, but it can be dangerous. It’s also a tangible reminder of how our climate is changing around us. Therefore, living in areas impacted by wildfire can be stressful on many levels, and individuals may experience eco-anxiety –  or even eco-grief –  in response.  

On the latest episode of the Living With Fire Podcast, guest Caitlyn Wallace, LCSW, unpacks these terms and talks about ways to address feelings about wildfire and climate change. According to Wallace, “Eco-anxiety is the anxiousness and the worry about the changing climate and what might happen. And eco-grief is the sadness and grief at the loss of life – human, animal and plant life – that you anticipate to come.”

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/11988502

Wallace, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in Northern Nevada, specializes in perinatal mental health and the emerging field of climate-informed therapy. She treats patients experiencing pregnancy, postpartum depression and anxiety, infertility, grief and loss. Wallace explained that some of her clients were also experiencing eco-anxiety and eco-grief. 

“I started noticing in some of my clients this grief and guilt around – I work so hard for this baby, I tried so hard for this baby. The baby is here. And now I am guilty and ashamed because there’s a pandemic, there’s smoke, there’s this warming climate and we’re in a huge drought. What did I do? Why did I bring a baby into this world?” said Wallace. 

On the podcast, Wallace explained that anxiety and grief show up differently for everyone. Therefore, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for dealing with eco-anxiety and grief. However, she emphasized the importance of acknowledging feelings and experiences. 

“I think that a big thing is being able to name it and being able to talk about it. Yeah, we know enough to know that for a lot of these things. Specifically, depression, anxiety, that being able to talk about your feelings around them gets you out of a fight-or-flight reactive place and into a place where you can be more responsive.”

Wallace speaks about the benefits of finding a space to talk about the feelings of eco-anxiety, such as a Climate Café modeled after Death Cafés. According to the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, a Climate Café is “an informal, open, respectful, confidential space to safely share emotional responses and reactions related to the climate and environmental emergency.”

Wallace is one of the only climate-informed therapists in Northern Nevada and has started hosting free Climate Cafés in Reno, which you can read about in Our Town Reno. And, to learn more about eco-anxiety, check out Wallace’s suggested reading list below:

• A Guide to Eco-Anxiety: How to Protect the Planet and Your Mental Health, by Anouchka Grose 
• Generation Dread, by Britt Wray
• Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety: Sustainable Action for Your Mental Health and the Planet, by Megan Kennedy-Woodard and Dr. Patrick Kennedy-Williams
• Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World, by Glenn A. Albrecht

As a program coordinator for Oregon State University Extension's Natural Resources Education Program, Yasmeen Hossain, Ph.D. supports educators by providing educational resources in environmental education. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and destructive wildfires have been impacting the lives of many in the west, including students. Consequently, Hossain noticed that the educators she worked with were asking for tools and resources to help support students who may have personal experiences with these potentially traumatic events. To fill this need, in 2021 Hossain published the Trauma-Informed Toolkit. A Resource for Educators.

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/11532402

“I kept wanting to have some kind of written document, like a resource document that I could give them before the workshop, or that they could come back to after a workshop. And I couldn't find one that encompassed everything I wanted them to have at their fingertips. And so at some point, I was like, Well, I guess I just got to write it myself,” said Hossain. 

Wildfire can be very stressful, and it’s possible for children and adults to experience a trauma response related to wildfire, for a variety of reasons as Hossian explains. “So the topic of fire wildfire it is has a lot of potential to activate our nervous system to again create that overwhelming out of control feeling that we might have. And the reason for that is because of the magnitude and the impact that it can have on our lives.”  

Hossain emphasizes that when someone is experiencing a trauma response, especially a child, it is more important to help them manage their stress than to try and explain why it is happening. “So really knowing about and utilizing tools and strategies and information to help them balance their nervous system again, and boost their resilience.”

To learn more, check out the resources below: 

·         Trauma-Informed Toolkit

·         Wildfire Evacuation Checklist

·         Living With Fire

Wildfire smoke can seriously impact humans' health, but scientists have discovered that it can also affect the health of ecosystems. On the Living With Fire Podcast, Professor Sudeep Chandra, director of the Global Water Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, talks about how scientists have been working to understand these impacts on Lake Tahoe's aquatic ecosystem. 

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/11306705

Stakeholders in the Tahoe Basin have been working for decades to “Keep Tahoe Blue,” and have been trying to control algae growth in the lake. Chandra explains that one direct effect wildfire smoke can potentially have on the lake is stimulating algae growth.  

"So just like Miracle-Gro has a nice combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow our garden plants, it turns out smoke has a ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus. Sometimes it's optimal, and sometimes it's not," explains Chandra. 

In addition to providing nutrients for fertilizing algae, Chandra explains that smoke can also affect the amount of light hitting the lake, potentially reducing the amount of ultraviolet light, which kills algae cells. 

With wildfires occurring more frequently and becoming more intense, Assistant Professor Christina Restaino, director of the Living With Fire program, explained what it's like for scientists working in fire right now. 

"We're entering this new era of no analog experiences, where these ecosystems are experiencing this smoke every single year or fire every single year. We don't have an analog from the past to understand that. So yeah, it's exciting, and it's really unknown."

To learn more, check out the resources below: 

•  Caldor Fire impact on Lake Tahoe’s clarity, ecology studied amidst ongoing wildfire season
• Global Water Center
• Living With Fire

We're excited to bring you Season 2 of the Living With Fire Podcast. Here's a little preview of what to expect. 

For more details including the transcript, visit  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/11238847