Categories: News

California farmers forced to fight wildfires on their own land

Many farmers in rural areas across Northern California are battling blazes on their properties as they wait for help from firefighting crews. The state of California has been ravaged over the past several weeks with an early and forceful fire season. And fire crews are stretched thin. California regularly uses prison labor for difficult fire fighting work, but the state released a number of its inmates early due to Covid-19. Faced with depleted resources, fire crews are prioritizing higher populated areas. That’s left many California farmers with little choice but to fight the wildfires on their own. Modern Farmer reports that some farmers cleared land to create fire breaks around their farms and put out spot fires.

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

2 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

2 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

2 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

2 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

2 years ago