SMW Supports the Karuk Tribe in State’s First Cultural Burning Agreement
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger Partner Sara Clark has for several years supported Tribal efforts to put more “good fire” on the ground in California. For millennia, Indigenous North Americans have used fire for ceremonial purposes, to manage and produce food, fiber, and medicine, and to manage the landscape for protection against larger, uncontrolled wildfires.
New Report Calls for Transformational Change in Our Relationship to and Stewardship of Fire
Photo: Analisa burning with a pitch stick. Photo credit: Alex Watts-Tobin Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger partner Sara A. Clark is lead author on a new report, Good Fire II, that addresses barriers to the expansion of cultural burning and prescribed fire in the United States and provides recommended solutions. Good Fire II builds on the original Good […]
Tribes, Agencies, Other Experts Collaborate on Wildfire Mitigation Strategies
From the deadly conflagration in Hawaii to the toxic smoke blanketing the East Coast, this year’s wildland fires have driven home the reality that wildfires are a huge and growing threat. In response to this national crisis, in 2021 President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created the federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, which has just released its final report.
City of Half Moon Bay Launches Civilian-Response Model for Mental Health Emergencies
Public agencies across the nation have spent the last few years re-examining policing and public safety models. SMW client City of Half Moon Bay is prioritizing improving mental health services as a key feature of its policing reform efforts. The city’s mobile mental health response program, Crisis Assistance Response and Evaluation Services (CARES), provides an alternative response to mental health-related 911 calls traditionally answered by law enforcement. The CARES team also played a supportive role following a January 23 mass shooting event.
Constitutional Limits to Abating Homeless Encampments, and Best Practices for a Cooperative Approach
California is home to nearly one-fourth of the nation’s unhoused population, and homelessness in California continues to rise. For example, according to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, from 2019 to 2022, California’s unhoused population increased from approximately 151,000 to 171,000. Of the 171,000 unhoused individuals counted in 2022, 67%, or 115,000 persons, […]
Sara Clark Leads Panel Discussion at Yosemite Environmental Law Conference About Beneficial Fire
At the fall 2022 Environmental Law Conference, SMW partner Sara Clark moderated a panel titled “Restoring Beneficial Fire in California.” The conference, sponsored by the California Lawyers Association, is held every year at Yosemite National Park. Panel participants Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Craig Thomas, and Don Hankins discussed the history of fire exclusion in California and the […]
SMW Attorney Contributes to Journal of California Supreme Court Historical Society
SMW attorney Pearl Kan was recognized by Rob Mullaney, clinical director of the Aoki Water Justice Clinic at @UCDavisLaw, for her help in an article published in the Journal of the CA Supreme Court Historical Society related to the Clinic’s foundation.
Vacant House Taxes: One Tool to Ease Housing Pressures
Housing affordability – whether buying or renting – remains a critical challenge for California cities and their residents. An April 2022 report from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation found that a record number of Californians are housing cost burdened. State housing cost burdens have surged over the last two decades, with home value […]
LA Times Op-Ed: Why Forest Managers Need to Team Up with Indigenous Fire Practitioners
SMW attorney Sara A. Clark co-authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times calling for increased support for beneficial fires, especially in partnership with Indigenous fire practitioners, and for an update to our national approach to wildfire management. The partnership between cultural fire practitioners and western scientists, which Clark is facilitating, calls for change […]
SMW Attorney Teaches Land Use Law at UC Berkeley School of Law
SMW Partner Andrew Schwartz taught Land Use Law at UC Berkeley School of Law for the Spring Semester 2021-2022 and will repeat the class Spring Semester 2022-2023. Mr. Schwartz also teaches Land Use Law at Stanford Law School.