I am so glad you are here. This website, blog, and larger writing efforts have been many years in the waiting, dating back to 1991. I’m starting this blog now because it has become clear that there is a hole in the messaging around this subject. I waited, listened, pondered, took notes, and started writing…. I tackle this because I don’t see enough depth alongside approach-ability and vice-versa where our conversations about fire and the landscape occur. It is a conversation that wants …something… so here we go.
I am focused on the landscape professional. Landscape Architects & Designers, Landscape Contractors, Maintenance Professionals & Gardeners, Managers, Supervisors, Emerging Professionals & Students, etc. However, everyone is welcome here - that includes hobbyists, docents, garden club members, master gardeners, home and business owners — everybody. As a Landscape Architect I am focused on the workflows of landscape professionals. To prepare, I continue to be engaged with the subject in every way I can find: I’ve taken a fire science class, listened to hours of interviews and public hearings, read countless guidelines, recommendations, & articles, and I’ve studied discrete subjects that aren’t immediately obviously related except they SO ARE!
I’ve lectured to some wonderfully engaged people at events and in smaller groups. Through those occasions, it has been fascinating having the opportunity to listen - on a personal level - to what is on people’s minds in person, up close. I’ve been blessed by people sharing their own intimate heartbreaking stories and their challenges. I’m also grateful to the “silver lining” that came with the smokey skies of California because at many of those fire-related events, I presented alongside fire chiefs and other fire fighting professionals - able to ask my most burning questions and improve my own understanding from their perspective. I’ve also taught alongside some of the leading experts in soil science, irrigation, storm-water management, integrated pest management, and so many other landscape subjects - with care towards the differences between urban, suburban, transitional, and rural environments and the people who steward them.
I am so glad you are here. You, dear reader, are the reason I’m typing. You’re the reason I keep reading, keep taking notes, keep trying to figure out what “we” need to do and how that’s ever going to happen. I invite you to email, comment, and participate. Thank YOU.
