Michel Thouati went through the five stages of grief before he ripped his beloved fig tree from the earth. There was a persimmon and an elderberry too, nestled close to his hillside home in Berkeley, California, and they all had to go.
The plants thriving on his small property had become overshadowed by the dangers growing with them: an emerging body of research had found landscaping can help fuel the disastrous fires sweeping out of the wildland and into neighborhoods like his. Tucked into the ridges overlooking California’s San Francisco Bay and against an expansive nature area, the house Thouati and his wife have owned for 30-some years sits in one of the highest wildfire-threat areas in the state.
