Altadena Community Nature Recovery Collaborative

Wildfire relief

San Gabriel Valley

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Altadena is a distinctive community in the northern Los Angeles metro area which has long been characterized by diverse ethnic and cultural identities, multi-generational black families in home ownership, creative variety of homes, presence of nature, and rich biodiversity. Nature was integrated into Altadena’s fabric, located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains/Angeles National Forest. Tree canopy cover ranged from 5% to 49%. The 2025 Eaton Fire transformed this place. Thousands of community members lost everything including homes, businesses, schools, places of worship, and Altadena’s natural setting. Buildings, hardscape, utilities, and natural infrastructure were severely impacted. Tree canopy was cut in half during the fire, and continues to be destroyed, with reports of contractors paid by-the-pound to remove debris now pressuring homeowners to remove healthy, viable trees. Tree and biodiversity losses will impact resilience and quality of life for generations.

Our project adapts a “mutual aid” approach to address devastating Eaton Fire impacts on the historic nature within Altadena. Amigos and collaborators Altadena Green and Angel City Lumber will assemble and support a coalition of local partners to assess, protect, and restore Altadena’s tree canopy, biodiversity, and connection to nature while providing residents with support to rebuild their homes with sustainably produced local materials and affordable building methods. We are mobilizing urban greening, conservation, and social justice groups of concerned students, residents, local experts, and supporters to protect the nature of Altadena, supporting biodiversity with the equitable integration of natural infrastructure into a “Resilient Recovery Process.” Part of our work will be to produce recycled lumber and other locally sourced and produced building materials. We will workshop and prototype community-led, affordable, fire-hardened buildings with the goal of community climate resilience. Our mutual aid team will partner with experts to conduct outreach and training to develop a group of local urban forest champions who will assess tree health, care for fire impacted trees, and replant the urban forest. This Eaton Fire recovery program will result in brigades of volunteers and paid leaders watering trees, designers adapting new state fire defensible landscape rules for Altadena parcels during permit process, and the creation of locally produced materials for rebuilding.

Eaton Fire survivors will regain agency in caring for nature and each other as we rebuild our homes and communities by proactively embracing a “mutual aid” model to address the pressing challenge of protecting Altadena as an historically biodiverse green community. Altadena is excessively hot, with average max temperature during heat events of 101 degrees Fahrenheit per California Heat Assessment Tool; trees will provide critical urban heat cooling benefits. We cannot live sustainably without canopy: our urban forest is essential to promoting air, water quality and soil health. The fires exposed Altadena to excessive pollution; e.g., an L.A. Times study of Eaton and Palisades Fire found lead in soil. With bioremediation, plants can pull pollutants into their woody biomass. Our vision is to be a model for complex ecological post-disaster community recovery including workforce training, sustainable local building material production, and prototypes of affordable fire-resilient buildings.