Following an outpouring of community outrage, the abandoned Diamond Match Company site in Chico is OUT as a debris handling site. 

Elections have consequences, and with new members on the dais, it appears a long-planned village for some of Chico’s homeless may finally win approval this evening. 

Tonight on “After Paradise” – it’s been 36 days since the Camp Fire started. Tonight an important update on emergency shelters housing the pets of fire victims. If you haven’t claimed yours, you need to do so soon. Plus… Airbnb’s Open Homes Program. And we hear about and from three people whose names are intertwined with this disaster… Paradise Mayor Jody Jones, Reverend Ron Zimmer of East Avenue Church, and Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea… who is now, apparently, everyone’s homie.

Dave learns about fighting fire with fire in this episode as he talks to CSU Chico Professor of Geography Don Hankins. Dr. Hankins teaches a course called "Pyrogeography" examining the role of fire on both landscapes and the communities that inhabit them. Hankins is a firm believer in the importance of using prescribed burning techniques to control fuel loads and enhance the native ecology of areas throughout California that evolved with fire as a natural element of their ecosystems.

Tonight on “After Paradise” – it’s been 35 days since the Camp Fire started. With the city of Paradise wiped off the map… at least for the time being… Chico now finds itself contending with a sudden surge in population, using infrastructure that isn’t prepared for the influx. There isn’t enough housing. Roads are clogged with new traffic. Anger spilled over at a city council meeting last night. We’ll hear the latest and talk with Chico’s new mayor, who’s been in office for just over a week. Plus… a Paradise tradition moves to a new home. Despite the loss of their town, the Parrott Family Christmas show WILL go on.

FEMA’s plans to house 250 families in manufactured homes near Chico Municipal Airport and use a long abandoned industrial site to transfer fire debris onto railcars ran into a welter of criticism last night, as local residents complained of traffic, noise, dust and disruption. 

In constant conversation with her home garden, our guest this week on Cultivating Place is committed to both the listening and the speaking roles. In this newest episode in our occasional series, Dispatches from the Home Garden, Ilene Flax of Boulder, Colorado shares how she visits with her plants while watering them, and how she is grieving the impending loss of her beloved Ash trees to the Emerald Ash borer. Join us!

We head up the road this week in search of a suitable place to look up and appreciate the dark night sky. Winter, when the air is crisp and clear, is perfect for such spectacular communion.