When the Eaton Fire in Altadena forced Stephanie Landregan to evacuate, she left worrying not only about her home, but also the surrounding natural environment. She knew she wanted to help in the restoration process. This spring, she received an opportunity to intervene more directly when she was appointed to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery.

Landregan, who serves as the director of UCLA Extension’s Landscape Architecture and Horticulture & Gardening programs, has worked on tree ordinances, fire codes, low-impact development and water conservation measures. The blue-ribbon commission, announced by Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and UCLA Chancellor Julio Frank, is composed of civic leaders and university experts with the goal to help lead recovery efforts.

“It feels incredible to have been chosen for this position,” Landregan said. “In times like these where the community must come together to rebuild, I feel honored to be able to put my skills to use in an official capacity.”

Shortly after the fires cleared, Landregan had been asked by a friend if she wanted to go out and examine the aftermath of the flames on the landscape. She was startled to see how much foliage had actually survived.

“We were just regular people surveying the damage when nobody was out there,” she said.

Landregan believes it was her early work with recovery efforts that led to her being appointed to the blue-ribbon commission. In this role, she is observing the wildfire aftermath and conducting research on the topography and the surviving tree canopy. The work includes gathering information on how to best rebuild the community and its environment to be more fire resilient, while also making sure it fits within the code of regulations recently proposed by California.

“There's a state guideline being proposed called the Zone Zero regulation. It's a code of regulations, and part of the role of the blue-ribbon commission is to provide guidance for implementation of the public resource code to improve safety,” Landregan said. “Specifically, we are looking at the landscape and how it should be designed to provide safety for firefighters when they are defending a home and also to protect the structure.”

To do this, Landregan said she would be using parcel maps and studying the plants that were able to survive the fire. What trees were resilient enough to remain unharmed during the fire? Which plants warrant protection from further damage? How do recovery efforts avoid disrupting nature’s own healing process? Based upon her work, along with UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s Edith de Guzman and a team of fire researchers, Landregan is preparing a report for the blue-ribbon commission on potential policy changes.

“We don't know what vegetation is going to come back yet, so we should not go out there with seed bombs assuming that we as humans are going to know best,” Landregan said. “We need to be patient and wait and see what is going to come back and what doesn't come back.”

As to how the community can help with recovery efforts, Landregan said she hopes people keep the wildlife ecosystem in mind when rebuilding. She explained how trees are important to providing shade for humans and a home for the birds that can limit mosquito populations. She also said community members, when they can, should water the remaining trees to ensure their survival.

“If we learn how to live well with nature, and if we learn how to integrate what we need to do and live within this wonderful urban wildland interface there, then both people and the environment are going to be better off,” Landregan said.