Our special guests today were Nick Russell, WatchDuty’s Vice-President of Operations, and WatchDuty reporter extraordinaire, Coke Euken.
WatchDuty is the brain child of John Mills, whose home in northern Sonoma County was threatened by the 2020 Walbridge Fire, in the western-most community impacted by the LNU Complex (August 17 to October 2, 2020).
Cole’s family evacuated during the 2015 Valley Fire, and his role in reporting up-to-the-minute emergency incidents on Watchduty now encompasses eleven western states.
WatchDuty's website [https://app.watchduty.org] provides user-selected notifications to smart-phones and multi-featured mapping tools for all device types, with advanced integrated programs delivered in five languages. Map “layers” provide quick access to satellite and street views with both fire and weather history and news. The new user information portal — “Help Center” — explains incident report features, including a rapid-response info request option.
To explore WatchDuty's coverage of far-ranging and deeply local emergency incidents, visit their You-Tube channel:
With deepest appreciation for KPFZ’s listeners, members, supporters, and friends, from Betsy Cawn and Susan “Q” Novak, EPI-Center’s Sunday co-hosts on KPFZ (88.1FM) — www.kpfz.org.
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Watershed ecosystem stewards will enjoy the October 29, 2020 UC San Diego study, “Walbridge Fire and salmon habitat” and the consideration of evolving forest management practices examined in the January 12, 2024 Vox.com report, “Why saving old trees is weirdly controversial.”
For an in-depth look at “what it means to live in relationship with the environment after experiencing evacuations during the 2020 fires,” read “Trial by Fire” (Manjula Martin, Point Reyes Books) reviewed in the January 14, 2024, Santa Rosa Press Democrat: