Updates on The Washington Fire
The Fire in Our Backyard: A Stark Reminder
Yesterday, mid-meetings, our staff in the Sonora office heard a loud bang, lost power, then looked outside to see smoke billowing from the trees a little too close for comfort. As the smoke got thicker and blacker, our team grabbed their computers, emptied important file cabinets, and evacuated.
The Washington Fire blazed between the communities of Sonora and Jamestown in Tuolumne County. This is an area referred to as a wildland-urban interface, where neighborhoods are adjacent to forests and undeveloped land. These parched landscapes are highly flammable and are the type of region we have been focusing on bringing back to health, as we reduce fuels and restore balance in the forests.
This fire in our own backyard is a stark reminder of how critical forest restoration work is. There is no time to lose. We have secured $25 million in grants, and are taking on large-scale projects to build environmental resilience against drought, flood, and wildfires to come as our climate warms. We are actively working on projects that help ensure their long-term ecological health.
According to the Modesto Bee, firefighters made progress on the Washington Fire overnight, achieving 10 percent containment keeping it at 81 acres.
Our heartfelt thoughts are with those affected by this fire (and all of the fires currently burning in the West) and the firefighters, volunteers, and laborers who are risking their lives to contain them.
