KarunaNews Story

As people in rebuild in Altadena, California, they are looking at incorporating native species like chaparral, california lilacs, manzanitas and chamise to build ecosystem resiliency and remediate contaminated soils, and mobilizing to save Altadena’s remaining trees. Nina Raj, who started the Altadena Seed Library in 2021, has packaged seeds of Cleveland sage, Palmer’s Indian mallow, California buckwheat, coyote bush, California sagebrush into care packages for people who lost their homes, so they can grow native plants as they rebuild. Half of Altadena’s 28,000 trees were destroyed in the fire, and another 4,000 were removed during clean-up. Amigos de los Rios, which provides supplemental watering services to trees that survived the fire, plans to initiate a tree-planting campaign once rebuilding is in full swing. As Altadena contends with widespread soil contamination, scientists think native plants could help clean the soil. Bioremediation uses plants, microbes or fungi to detoxify contaminated environments, offering a more ecologically and economically sustainable way to heal soils. Lynn Fang has planted squash, corn and sunflowers to test their potential for removing toxins. “We can kind of expand our public awareness around the different ecological tools that are available to do bioremediation,” she says. “People have options to do what works for them with the tools that are available and accessible.”