Southern California
Wildfire Institute
March 2-8, 2025
Southern California
As the world grapples with the continued escalation of wildfires, southern California presents an especially wicked problem. More than 13 million people live in the southern third of the state, where fires burn with greater ferocity and frequency due to factors like extended drought and an overabundance of fuel. A huge influx of residential development in the wildland-urban interface over the past 30 years has also made the fires more destructive and left millions of Californians directly in harm’s way.
The scale of the problem is almost unimaginable. State, federal and local officials are trying out new ways to work together and protect residents from a relentless fire cycle that continues to consume property and threaten human life. Meanwhile, firefighting agencies contend with a crisis in firefighter mental health, a dwindling workforce and complicated resource-sharing arrangements. The end result is a complex beat, rich with stories for journalists covering fire.
From March 2-8, 2025, IJNR conducted a five-day, six-night training program for 15 professional journalists designed to advance their reporting on a range of wildfire-resilience topics.
The program began and ended in San Diego, and traveled to locations across southern California as participating journalists met with fire chiefs, scientists, homeowners, Tribal officials, policymakers and more as we explored efforts to mitigate the worst impacts of fire and create a more sustainable future for southern California.
