Fire, Trees, and Water in LA
“So, what did we see when we were out in the Palisades fire? I was there in the weeks just after the fire happened, before much of the debris removal was occurring, and then we came back a year later. And what we saw again and again is that trees seemed very clearly to have been burned by the buildings rather than the other way around. ”
A conversation with Edith de Guzman (UCLA) about the 2025 LA Fires, the role of urban tree canopies, and the different capacities of water utility systems in LA and similar urban areas. Released October 30, 2026.
guests on the show
Edith de Guzman
Dr. Edith De Guzman (she/her) is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Water Equity and Adaptation Policy at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. She is an interdisciplinary researcher, practitioner and educator working with diverse audiences to understand and address the impacts of climate change in under-represented communities. Her work investigates best practices for the sustainable transformation of the Los Angeles region and beyond, and has included research, demonstration projects, public policy and planning in the areas of water management, climate adaptation, heat mitigation, and urban forestry. She tackles these topics through the lenses of urban planning, public health, behavioral sciences, biophysical sciences, and public policy. From 2014 to 2020, Edith served as Director of Research at Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization TreePeople, where her projects included: the City of Los Angeles Stormwater Capture Master Plan; facilitating the creation of a Greening Plan with the communities of Inglewood and Lennox; bringing to fruition multiple urban water management demonstration projects; and producing the first interactive, high-resolution public map and spatial analysis of Los Angeles County’s urban forest. She co-founded the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective, and ShadeLA – each a multisectoral partnership working to make LA livable in a warming climate. In 2023, Edith concluded her PhD studies at the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. For her dissertation, she conducted three applied, interdisciplinary studies on climate adaptation and climate health equity using community-based methods. Edith earned a master’s in urban planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in history and art history, also from UCLA. When not working or studying, she can be found hiking, playing guitar, or curating art & science exhibitions that explore the human connection to the environment.
TRANSCRIPT
Coming soon!