A Plumas County Sheriff’s Office deputy drives past devastation at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 89 in Greenville, California, late Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, after it was destroyed by the Dixie Fire. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group file)
PARADISE — For nearly half a decade, Northern California wildfires have ravaged communities, sometimes destroying entire towns.
Governments, both on higher and lower levels, along with outside organizations have worked to rebuild in areas like Paradise and Greenville where residents were forced out by wildfires. In the past two years or so, the North Valley Community Foundation has been partnering with the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society to take a deeper dive into the destruction and how science-backed aid could help in the process.
The center’s namesake, Dr. Lucy Jones, along with other members and scientists from her organization came to Chico to discuss fact findings that have been conducted during vast outreach projects. The goal of these projects is to come up with science-backed ways to affect public policy to more easily help people who have been impacted by climate disasters.
Throughout the outreach efforts, the team made its way to Paradise, as well as surrounding areas affected by the Camp Fire, Berry Creek, and Plumas and Ventura counties.
“We came here as a partnership with the North Valley Community Foundation and we had been working here for quite a while with all these people,” Jones said. “And we were going through a process really of sharing our research results that might be useful here but also hearing about their experiences. The biggest takeaway for me would be how much the relationships between people matter, which is not surprising, it’s actually a big research result.”
Jones said the connections people make with one another after a major disaster ultimately affect how long it takes for communities to recover in the long run.
“It can take time, and the amount of time it takes to really form those connections can also affect the time it takes to recover,” Jones said. “But it was clear in both Paradise and up in Greenville how much it’s affecting them. Their ability to work together.”
Some concerns were aired early on in the recovery process that developers and out-of-town people would be moving in and high rates and therefore changing the feel of Paradise, but in the team’s findings, many residents have seen that as a sign of rebirth.
“I think both communities (Paradise and Greenville) we saw, they were talking about new people coming in and it was a relief,” Jones said. “It means the community is not going to fall apart.”
Research Ecologist Alexandra Syphard said concerns were less about the community changing from what it was before the fire and more about fire safety going forward.
“One thing I heard was somebody talking about how when people come in, if they’re from areas that have not experienced fire before, they were a bit concerned that they may not be fire aware,” Syphard said. “And in terms of preparing for wildfires, it really helps when the whole community is prepared together. So I think that speaks to a need for community education and higher education that goes along with the recovery process.”
One of the most common concerns the team heard from those interviewed was how marred down many of the recovery efforts have been with bureaucracy and other complications. Jones said residents often asked, “Does it have to be this complicated?”
“I think it’s inevitable when you have government agencies involved when you have a lot of money being given away and there needs to be safeguards,” Jones said. “But it’s a painful time for the survivors. I think that was one of the things that came out, nobody wants to do government paperwork. It adds to the trauma at a time when they’re already traumatized. It makes it more difficult. And I’m not sure if I can make a difference about this but the recommendation (would be) how do we simplify the process?”
The project came about as a way to ultimately help the community and be a resource for those affected, said Deputy Director John Bwarie. Research is just one of the first steps in the process.
“I think it’s important to note that we’re not here to do research on the community, but rather be a resource for the community in a way that we can connect to data, connect to other experts,” Bwarie said. “I mean, we’re a small group here, but there are dozens, hundreds of people across the country who have expertise that we can connect to if the question can’t be answered by the people who are here today or that we’re directly affiliated with. That’s the work of the center that brings the science into communities so that they can feel like they have the choice or have the ability to make better choices. We’re also not here to tell them what to do but rather provide the best information for them to make the best-informed decision that they can make.”
Jovanni Tricerri, North Valley Community Foundation’s Vice President of Programs, said building the connection between the science, the findings and the people directly experiencing disaster is an important reason why the foundation and the center have been working together in an effort to directly link experts with residents.
“I think that’s why we started and wanted to continue this partnership is that in our community, there have been a lot of Ph.D. students and a lot of people who have come to study what is happening in the recovery process,” Tricerri said. “But sometimes that information doesn’t get translated to our local population or to our local policymakers. And so being able to have this face-to-face interaction where there is actually a relationship.”
Tricerri said that in interacting with the residents of Paradise, Berry Creek and Greenville, many of those the team spoke with expressed excitement to have that direct contact with scientists.
“That’s what’s different about this group and this project is we’re trying to bridge science and recovery,” Tricerri said.
Jones noted that it takes small, sincere efforts and processes to stay hopeful for the future.
“I really liked a phrase that one of the people said this morning which is that we need short-term certainty to deal with long-term uncertainty,” Jones said. “Uncertainty is such a disruptive emotion, so anything that will give you structure around it is going to help.”
