A move to protect a federally endangered plant by halting the state construction of new utility lines is being highlighted in a newspaper report as a potential factor in California’s Palisades fire.
Downed utility lines in the area are being investigated for fuelling, and potentially even causing, the immense Palisades fire, says The New York Times.
However, the California Coastal Commission, who intervened in the utility line construction, have said that they did give out new permits for the utility pole project and “are very supportive of wildfire resiliency work.”
Why It Matters
The cause of the Pacific Palisades fire is under investigation by the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and if government negligence was found to play a part, it would further fuel existing frustration with Mayor Bass, and Governor Newsom expressed by some California residents.
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LA is also facing a climate-change-shaped future of increased droughts which will further impact the scope of wildfires, and needs to figure out how to balance everyday conservation with fire protection for the entire region.
Left: Braunton’s milkvetch, Astragalus brauntonii. Right: Utility pole in Altadena. Protection over the milkvetch plant suspended the building of new utility poles in the Palisades. Left: Braunton’s milkvetch, Astragalus brauntonii. Right: Utility pole in Altadena. Protection over the milkvetch plant suspended the building of new utility poles in the Palisades. Left: Michael Charters, Right: Carolyn Kaster/Left: US Forest Service, Right: Associated Press
What To Know
In 2020, the California Coastal Commission fined the Los Angeles Department of Public Works (LADWP) $1.9 million over their utility pole project in the Pacific Palisades, as the project had bulldozed almost 200 federally protected Braunton’s milkvetch (Astragalus brauntonii) plants.
According to the Sierra Club, there are only 3,000 of these “purple-petalled perennial wildflower” plants left in the mountains, and they are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The utility pole project policed by the Coastal Commission in 2020 was a public works project designed to install stronger, metal, utility poles in the Palisades, as some of the utility poles in the area were built almost 100 years ago. Downed utility lines have caused blazes in the past, and reporters from The New York Times have now found bits of power line debris in the Palisade hills.
The Coastal Commission told the LADWP in 2020 that they needed to seek a permit from the Coastal Commission to restart the development, as well as undo their roadwork and revegetate the area. While the LADWP paid the fine, it does not appear they ever restarted the utility poles project.
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The LADWP has been contacted via phone call and voicemail for comment.
Sarah Christie, a spokesperson for the Coastal Commission, spoke to Newsweek about this incident saying: “In 2019, a hiker reported unpermitted bulldozing through an area of endangered plants and hiking trails in Topanga State Park.
“In addition to damaging native plants and public trails, this type of grading also can also encourage highly flammable, non-native grasses to flourish. But the damage was repaired the following year, and the Commission approved a permit for the Utility to move forward with their work to replace the poles.
“We are very supportive of wildfire resiliency work and will continue to promote efforts to harden homes and public infrastructure and create defensible space.”
What People Are Saying
Eric Edmunds, Chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force in a 2020 letter: “Our task force has been involved with far too many cases of utility companies not using good judgment and failing to comply with the laws, policies, and ordinances that are in place to protect and preserve our finite natural resources.”
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The LADWP in 2020: “[This project is] essential in regards to our wildfire mitigation plan.”
What Happens Next
The cause of the Palisades fire is still under investigation by the ATF, who have said it will take time to figure out the root cause of the blaze.
In the meantime, Angelenos are still combating active blazes, with the Eaton fire now at 55 percent containment, and the Palisades fire at 22 percent containment.
California air quality officials have sued four truck manufacturers for breaching a voluntary agreement to follow the state’s nation-leading emissions rules, the state announced Tuesday.
What happened: Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office filed a complaint Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, arguing that the country’s four largest truck-makers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — violated an enforceable contract that they signed with the California Air Resources Board in 2023.
The lawsuit comes two months after the manufacturers filed their own complaint in federal court, arguing the agreement — known as the Clean Truck Partnership — is no longer valid after Republicans overturned California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule in June through the Congressional Review Act.
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Why it matters: The move sets up a fight to determine whether the federal system or state courts — where CARB would have a higher likelihood of prevailing — will review the case.
California, along with other states, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins for halting SNAP benefits, cutting off food aid for over 41 million Americans, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta.
About 85% of elementary schools studied in California experienced some loss of trees between 2018 and 2022, according to a paper from the University of California, Davis, published this month in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
Members of the UC Davis Urban Science Lab found that while the average decline was less than 2%, some districts in the Central Valley — including schools with few trees to lose — lost up to a quarter of their tree cover. The most severe losses were concentrated in Tulare County, while the most notable gains were found in Imperial County.
This map, figure 2B from the study, illustrates the net change in tree canopy cover at urban school districts between 2018 and 2022. Canopy losses tended to cluster in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California. (UC Davis)
The findings are troubling as climate change will likely intensify extreme heat and drought conditions. The study underscores an urgent need to improve tree canopy in low-shade, high-need schools and to protect existing tree cover in areas facing loss.
“We are trying to measure to what extent we are exposing kids to temperatures that might be stressing their body to a level that becomes uncomfortable or dangerous,” said Alessandro Ossola, an associate professor of plant sciences who directs the Urban Science Lab at UC Davis.
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The team continued the research this past summer at elementary schools across the state, measuring tree canopies and maximum temperatures at playgrounds, basketball courts, soccer fields and other outdoor spaces.
UC Davis researchers discovered California school playgrounds are hitting a scorching 120°F heat index. Watch as they use high-tech sensors and a roving cart named MaRTyna to measure extreme heat across elementary schools. (Jael Mackendorf/UC Davis)
Tree canopies cover only about 4% to 6% of the average California school campus. That means the roughly 5.8 million K-12 public school students in California often take breaks and participate in outdoor activities under the glaring sun.
As part of the work, researchers mapped tree cover and heat over the course of a hot day at schools in inland and coastal areas of Northern and Southern California.
UC Davis student Tyler Reece Wakabayashi works with MaRTyna, a roving cart that measures information related to mean radiant temperature and other data points. (Jael Mackendorf /UC Davis)
The research is a joint effort with UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UCLA and is funded by the U.S. Forest Service and supported by the nonprofit Green Schoolyards America through its California Schoolyard Tree Canopy study.
“Most schools are actually a nature desert, which is antithetical because we know that early life exposure of humans to nature is critical for them to develop skills, improve their microbiome, become more environmentally active and so on,” Ossola said. “Trees are a hidden asset and an underutilized asset.”
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This news release is adapted from a longer article from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Read their full feature story, “Researchers Measure Schoolyard Heat One Step at a Time.”
