Climate Break

Wildfire Resilience in California with Chuck Bonham

Episode Summary

As climate change increases wildfire severity, adequate funding to maintain and restore natural and working lands as a buffer against climate impacts is key. This week, join our conversation with Chuck Bonham, the Director of California's Department of Fish and Wildlife about how California offers an example through the one million acres his department manages. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/wildfire-resilience-in-california-with-chuck-bonham/

Episode Notes

For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/wildfire-resilience-in-california-with-chuck-bonham/

Episode Transcription

Bonham: The cascading extreme events from climate change are playing out in wildfire. We're burning faster, more intense, and this snowball rolling downhill seems to be getting so big, so fast, we're overwhelmed 

Ethan: Chuck Bonham is the Director of California's Department of Fish and Wildlife. I'm Ethan Elkind, and you're listening to Climate Break. As climate change increases wildfire severity, Bonham says adequate funding to maintain and restore natural and working lands as a buffer against climate impacts is key. California offers an example through the one million acres his department manages.  

Bonham: About a year ago, Governor Newsome signed his wildfire forest and resilience early action package. We got an immediate $15 million, and a lot more since. We've  been able to turn that around and we're treating like 20 or 30,000 acres a year across all kinds of properties.

Bonham: We own an ecological reserve in Eldorado county. We've been working with Cal fire to thin dense stands of Manzanita and create a fire break around nearby roadway. If you go out to the Santa Rosa plain Vernal pool, we've been working with mowing firebreaks along the boundaries around ecological reserve, basically in the urban area  And if we manage our land better for fire resiliency, we're producing an extended benefit for those very at-risk communities – which can be climate laboratories, but also climate risks if they're not handled well. 

Ethan: To learn more about California's wildfire resilience efforts and hear our full interview with Chuck Bonham, visit climatebreak.org.