Last week, our BCFSC Executive Director Taylor Nilsson was featured on the nationally recognized “Life with Fire” podcast, sharing insights on community wildfire resilience and recovery as the third and final episode of their Community Wildfire Resilience Series.
Hosted by Amanda Monthei, the Life with Fire podcast explores how humans can better coexist with fire in our changing world. The show brings nuance to wildfire conversations, highlighting diverse perspectives and important research while providing a platform for those doing the critical work of implementing good fire practices and educating fire-prone communities.
Amanda brings a unique perspective as both a science communicator and former wildland firefighter, having spent four years fighting fires across the Western US, including two seasons on a hotshot crew. Her writing has appeared in major outlets including The Atlantic, NBC News, and The Washington Post, combining storytelling with deep expertise in wildfire and environmental issues. She also works as a public information officer on wildfires and consults with organizations to help communicate about fire resilience.
The conversation focused on Butte County’s extraordinary experience with catastrophic wildfire—having seen 50% of its Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) impacted in just the last seven years. Taylor shared insights on:
- Preparing while recovering: How communities navigate the complex challenge of preparing for future fires while still healing from devastating losses like the Camp Fire (2018), North Complex (2020), and Park Fire (2024)
- Landscape restoration challenges: The realities of vegetation type conversion in fire scars, reforestation complexities, and the role of salvage logging in sound restoration planning
- Community trauma and healing: How Fire Safe Councils provide consistent, guiding presence through wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery phases—reducing recovery timelines and helping communities heal
- Biomass management: The urgent need for technology and solutions to handle significant biomass removal in recently unburned landscapes to build resilience
We know that increasingly intense wildfires are a lived reality for many Californians—and will continue to be. So, the question isn’t if we prepare, but how we prepare. The BCFSC is helping guide a shift toward proactive, landscape-scale solutions that integrate fire back into our land management toolset. Our work connecting private, state, Tribal, and federal lands demonstrates how strategic collaboration can build true community resilience—not just reducing fire risk, but repairing relationships between people, forests, and watersheds. This conversation strongly echoed that vision.
We’re proud to be part of a national dialogue on climate adaptation and grateful for the continued support that makes this work possible.
🔗 Listen to the full episode here and Follow the Life with Fire podcast for more powerful conversations about building resilience in a fire-adapted world.