Growing Together: Open Forum

Hello,

I'm looking for some guidance with how to safely proceed with our school garden program in light of the Los Angeles fires. Ash has fallen all over the city. I worry about its toxicity to the soil, students (& my) touching the soil and, of course, eating from the garden. 

I wish I had a very light power shop vac  to go over the whole garden with, something that could leave the leaves but suck up the dust. 

So, first steps, when the smoke clears? Soil testing? (Who do you use?)

Gloves? (I hate gloves.)

Scrape the top layer of soil? (Who could I hire, and this sounds expensive!)

Transitioning from a food and natives garden to a 100% habitat garden? (This would be unfortunate!) 

Thanks in advance for your insights. 

~Maya, Garden Teacher, Rosewood STEM Magnet, Los Angeles, C

Maya - 

I'm so sorry that you're in this position.  We dealt with this 3 years ago after the Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colorado. We had 3 active partner school gardens that were in the impacted area, and a couple of other schools nearby had less formal gardens in place. We did have the soil tested at 4 sites by the Colorado State University soil testing lab, and this is what we learned:

• Tests:
  • The tests available were only for heavy metals, which is certainly not inclusive of everything that burned
    • Our school district and county both also did soil testing which included asbestos, and their results mirrored ours (next point)
  • The results showed contamination levels that were in line with other soil samples in the greater Denver/Boulder area, and fell well below the levels deemed safe for growing food by the EPA
    • Meaning - there was no more or less contamination than other Front Range Colorado soil, which is already impacted by "normal" pollutants
    • Bonus - we also learned that our soil was generally really healthy and great for growing!
  • We considered replacing the top 6 inches of garden soil, but decided based on all of the evidence, that it wasn't necessary, partly because it had snowed right after the fire and any contamination would have been absorbed throughout the soil, but mostly because of the reassurance from the tests
  • None of our impacted gardens were immediately next to burning structures, and I wonder if contamination might have been worse had that been the case
  • As a point of comparison, the Marshall Fire "only" burned 1100 homes, which is of course on a different scale than what LA is dealing with
• Our plants:
  • Our fire happened in winter, with only cover crop and perennials growing in the school gardens. We removed the cover crop and did not integrate it into the soil, as we normally do.
  • We did still have students plant lettuce about 9 weeks after the fire, with plans to test leaves 8 weeks later before harvest for serving in cafeterias.
    
    • We were unable to complete that testing in time (busy season and the labs were all backed up), so out of an abundance of caution, we ended up feeding the lettuce to chickens at a local farm. I sent great photos of that to share with the students!
  • Schools resumed normal planting in May (4 months after the fire)
  • As was the case with many activities during this period, thorough hand washing was encouraged, and I think we gave schools disposable gloves to use for the initial lettuce planting and harvest
• Other response:
  • The school district did replace all of the wood chips on impacted school playgrounds
  • Many folks in our area decided not to grow food in their gardens until they were able to replace soil
  • None of our impacted gardens were immediately next to burning structures, and I wonder if contamination might have been worse had that been the case
  • We were very careful and intentional about the language we used and the way we communicated about all of this with our community
  • This was one of several factors that lead to one of our schools deciding to discontinue their garden partnership with us. Others found the return to the garden as a healing part of finding normalcy.
  • Here is a set of resources that Boulder County set up in response to the Marshall Fire (still rebuilding going on!): Chapter Six - Rebuilding Better
    • There's a webinar in there about rebuilding the home landscape, which addresses soil and gardens and such

This was a huge focus for us for many weeks, and it's been interesting to revisit the Slack channel... Please feel free to reach out directly if you want to chat more about it!

Sending lots of love to all of those affected. Thankfully, my home and neighborhood were safe in the Marshall Fire, but the devastation in our community was very hard to witness. You are all in my heart.

Lindsey

Hello,

I'm looking for some guidance with how to safely proceed with our school garden program in light of the Los Angeles fires. Ash has fallen all over the city. I worry about its toxicity to the soil, students (& my) touching the soil and, of course, eating from the garden. 

I wish I had a very light power shop vac  to go over the whole garden with, something that could leave the leaves but suck up the dust. 

So, first steps, when the smoke clears? Soil testing? (Who do you use?)

Gloves? (I hate gloves.)

Scrape the top layer of soil? (Who could I hire, and this sounds expensive!)

Transitioning from a food and natives garden to a 100% habitat garden? (This would be unfortunate!) 

Thanks in advance for your insights. 

~Maya, Garden Teacher, Rosewood STEM Magnet, Los Angeles, C

Hello,

I'm looking for some guidance with how to safely proceed with our school garden program in light of the Los Angeles fires. Ash has fallen all over the city. I worry about its toxicity to the soil, students (& my) touching the soil and, of course, eating from the garden. 

I wish I had a very light power shop vac  to go over the whole garden with, something that could leave the leaves but suck up the dust. 

So, first steps, when the smoke clears? Soil testing? (Who do you use?)

Gloves? (I hate gloves.)

Scrape the top layer of soil? (Who could I hire, and this sounds expensive!)

Transitioning from a food and natives garden to a 100% habitat garden? (This would be unfortunate!) 

Thanks in advance for your insights. 

~Maya, Garden Teacher, Rosewood STEM Magnet, Los Angeles, C

Hello,

I'm looking for some guidance with how to safely proceed with our school garden program in light of the Los Angeles fires. Ash has fallen all over the city. I worry about its toxicity to the soil, students (& my) touching the soil and, of course, eating from the garden. 

I wish I had a very light power shop vac  to go over the whole garden with, something that could leave the leaves but suck up the dust. 

So, first steps, when the smoke clears? Soil testing? (Who do you use?)

Gloves? (I hate gloves.)

Scrape the top layer of soil? (Who could I hire, and this sounds expensive!)

Transitioning from a food and natives garden to a 100% habitat garden? (This would be unfortunate!) 

Thanks in advance for your insights. 

~Maya, Garden Teacher, Rosewood STEM Magnet, Los Angeles, C