Wildfire in 2020 left damage all throughout the Santiam Canyon east of Salem. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter) Over the next few years, a Northern California-based nonprofit will work to get local officials and organizations connected with grant funds to aid survivors of the 2020 Santiam Canyon wildfires. Jennifer Gray Thompson, CEO of After the Fire, spent…

TWIN BRIDGES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 30: A chairlift at Sierra-at Tahoe ski resort sits idle as the Caldor Fire moves through the area on August 30, 2021 in Twin Bridges, California. The Caldor Fire has burned over 165,000 acres, destroyed over 650 structures and is currently 13 percent contained. (Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)) Packing…

Leaders in Sonoma Valley have joined together to launch a broad-based coalition to ensure all Sonoma Valley residents are food secure during the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place order. The goal of the new Sonoma Valley Food Security Task Force is to bring together Valley leaders to work collaboratively to mitigate the challenges faced by our…

Rincon Valley firefighters rest in the archway and against the fireplace of a home on Wikiup Drive in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs firestorm swept through Oct. 8 and 9. These firefighters were first on the scene and had been on the job for four days when these photos were taken Oct. 12. ON OCTOBER…

Two years ago, in the tumultuous aftermath of the devastating wildfires, the Rebuild NorthBay Foundation was formed, with Jennifer Gray Thompson as executive director. The Sonoma native had previously been an assistant to Supervisor Susan Gorin. Suddenly, with the backing of developer/lobbyist Darius Anderson and other influential figures, she was tasked with getting to work on short-term…

Sonoma and Napa are bracing themselves for a difficult fire season with an arsenal of techniques, from innovative building practices to new city ordinances. On the afternoon of Saturday, June 8, 2019, residents of Sonoma and Napa saw the first ominous sign of the wildfire season: Plumes from the Sand Fire in the county directly to…

When the Tubbs Fire — one of over a dozen Northern California blazes that burned for weeks in October 2017 — was finally fully contained on October 31, the damage was hard to quantify. In total, the Tubbs Fire burned more than 5,600 structures and nearly 37,000 acres of land. In Santa Rosa alone, over 2,800 homes…

October’s wildfire fires did not take Jennifer Gray Thompson’s home, nor did it cause her to “run for my life barefoot on fire-covered roads.” But it altered her life, she says. Working for Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin (who did lose her home) at the time, Thompson said, “I learned I could work for 18…