Cohousing-L Mailing List: Climate Change and fires

[Kathryn McCamant (kmccamant]

As a Californian, I disagree that our state government has failed us (see Ty 
Albrights previous post). We have made huge strides in both addressing the 
impacts of climate change and how we work with fire, which has always been a 
natural phenomenon in the west but which is having much higher impact as 
climate change creates more extreme weather events.

Yes, Santa Ana winds have existed here for centuries, if not millennium. But 
the January 2025 Santa Ana Winds were record breaking and on top of a nine 
month drought.

Almost all of the forestland in California is owned and managed by the federal 
government, NOT the state of California.

I have no doubt that California will continue to learn much from these tragic 
fires and incorporate that learning into how we deal with climate change in the 
future. I am very very concerned that the Trump administration is quickly 
destroying our country’s already behind-the-eight-ball efforts to work with 
climate change. If you don’t believe in it, you certainly are not going to help 
your society plan for the inevitable. I am very concerned about what the Trump 
Administration will do with regard to “managing” the federal lands across the 
West.

In my community, in my rural country, citizens have made huge efforts over the 
last 5 years to reduce fuels around homes, thin forest for better long term 
health, introduce proscribed burning, and continually research what works and 
how best to address our changing weather. We are not waiting for the 
government, but the scale that this work is needed can only happen with 
government support. I am so very glad I live in a state that recognizes climate 
change and is doing what it can to plan for that reality.

Katie
Kathryn McCamant , President
CoHousing Solutions
www.cohousing-solutions.com<http://www.cohousing-solutions.com>
916.798.4755