Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 160 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

In the Scar of New Mexico's Largest Wildfire, a Legal Battle Is Brewing: What Is Victims' Suffering Worth?

Patrick Lohmann Byard Duncan

January 04, 2024 |

ProPublica |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Mexico

New Mexico law would allow wildfire victims to seek compensation for noneconomic damages. But the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency said the federal law that established a compensation fund for a wildfire accidentally started by the U.S. Forest Service limits payments to tangible losses. Now, victims are suing the agency, claiming it improperly denied them compensation that they need to rebuild.

Read More
Go to Original Story
A US pine species thrives when burnt. Southerners are rekindling a 'fire culture' to boost its range

James Pollard

December 15, 2023 |

Associated Press |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, West End, North Carolina

Community-led volunteer groups in the American Southeast are clearing undergrowth by lighting prescribed burns to prevent future forest fires and make space for longleaf pine trees to grow. Much of their work is done on private property, where state governments are cautious to send the burners they employ because of liability concerns.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Colorado's latest tool to fight forest fires: Mushrooms

Michael Booth

October 26, 2023 |

The Colorado Sun |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Gold Hill, Colorado

The Colorado-based mycology center Boulder Mushroom is spreading fungi mycelium — the underground, root-looking part of a mushroom — across forest floors that were thinned to mitigate wildfires. The mushrooms quicken the pace at which sawdust and other potential fire fuel decays and improve soil health.

Read More
Go to Original Story
The goats fighting fires in Los Angeles

Lucy Sherriff

September 26, 2023 |

BBC |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

Cities in California are turning to goat herders to manage the dead trees and shrubs that become fuel for wildfires. Goats will eat almost anything and are adept at getting to places humans find difficult to reach.

Read More
Go to Original Story
How artificial intelligence plus local expertise can promote ‘good fire' in Montana

Bowman Leigh

September 21, 2023 |

Montana Free Press |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Montana

The Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) framework combines analytics and local expertise to assess fire risk by marking out locations on a map where fire can best be stopped. The risk is then used to identify where best to suppress the fire and where it can continue to burn to benefit the environment and prevent future fires. From there, experts decide how to respond to a fire in each section of the map in advance, which can also include prevention tactics.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Episcopal mobile ministry distributes necessities to people displaced by Maui wildfires

Shireen Korkzan

August 15, 2023 |

Episcopal News Service |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Maui, Hawaii

A Cup of Cold Water is a volunteer collaboration between four local Episcopal churches that has been providing assistance to residents who lost their homes in the recent wildfires through the group’s community outreach program. Since a day after the wildfires started on August 8, volunteers have driven a van around the island to distribute supplies like toiletries, food, clothing, bottled water and other necessities.

Read More
Go to Original Story
US Forest Service and historically Black colleges unite to boost diversity in wildland firefighting

Terry Tang George Walker IV

July 07, 2023 |

Associated Press |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Hazel Green, Alabama

In an effort to increase diversity in the forestry and fire industry, the U.S. Forest Service partners with several historically Black colleges and universities to run an on-site fire academy that gives students the credentials to start a career. Participating students learn fire fighting and forestry practices in class, then put them to use during instructor-supervised prescribed burn demonstrations.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Nigerians experiment with wildfire prevention methods

Ekpali Saint

July 06, 2023 |

FairPlanet |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Olum, Cross River

The Small Mammal Conservation Organization is preventing wildfires by educating farmers in Cross River, Nigeria, about the dangers of burning the remaining crop waste in their fields after the harvest. The organization runs weather stations that inform communities about daily fire risks and employs “forest guardians” in every community to patrol farmlands and mitigate wildfire risk.

Read More
Go to Original Story
From Farmworkers to Land Healers

Brooke Anderson

April 25, 2023 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Sonoma County, California

North Bay Jobs With Justice teaches immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers how to restore the land’s ecological health and mitigate impacts of climate change and disasters like wildfires through training efforts and ancestral knowledge. The group has also helped workers organize for respect, safer conditions and fair pay.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Counterintuitive conservation: Fire boosts aquatic crustaceans in U.S. savannas

Ashli Blow

April 21, 2023 |

Mongabay |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Prescribed burns remove shrubs and invasive plants from habitats that vernal pool fairy shrimp and different species of crayfish live in — making it easier for them to thrive and populations to increase.

Read More
Go to Original Story