A year after the devastating fires ripped through L.A. County, AccuWeather estimates that total cost of the fires - between damage and economic loss - is as high as $275 billion. This update would make it the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history even after accounting for inflation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Governments and industries across the board have spent the last year digging into why and how these fires got so out of control, using their research to enact policy and practice change that is intended to at least mitigate the chances of a similar event.

 
At the state level, the California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force (CWFRTF) has been working on a new Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Action Plan that is set to be released soon, likely at the upcoming regional meeting in March. It will include a "10-Year Roadmap to Resilience" as well as a framework for mobilizing regional action.

In December, the group announced this action plan and highlighted Governor Newsom's October executive order to expand "Beneficial Fire Use," more commonly known as "prescribed burns." This includes increased funding and decreased red tape for beneficial burn projects, like working with tribes and making it easier for local agencies to participate.

CWFRTF also announced the public release of California's first-ever statewide LIDAR maps that provide "a single, wall-to-wall picture of forest and vegetation conditions that is the highest resolution available and consistent across the entire state." This data is available for use in planning and models at all levels. Other data released from 2024 revealed that the state is steadily increasing the number of acres treated for wildfire prevention. In 2024, 733,000 footprint acres were treated, signaling the total number of acres treated no matter if it was once or multiple times. Additional reports highlighted increased engagement from federal and local partners.

In January, CWFRTF shared that three new laws went into effect to promote wildfire resilience. The California Safe Homes Act (AB 888) establishes a grant program to assist low-income, insured residents in high or very high fire hazard zones in affording home-hardening measures and updating "Zone Zero" of their property. The California Wildfire Public Model Act (SB 429) will provide funding for a university research center to develop a public wildfire catastrophe model to assist in local and statewide wildfire risk reduction. The Insurance and Wildfire Safety Act (AB 1) will regularly update the rules for discount insurance regulations for homeowners and communities who engage in wildfire risk reduction or home hardening measures.

In the private sector, Landscape Architects are advocating for plant life as state and federal groups threaten to ignorantly destroy viable specimens. Stephanie Landregan, PLA - well-known in the Southern California region for her work as the director of the UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and Gardening Programs - has worked tirelessly the last year as part of grassroots organization Altadena Green to preserve the tree canopy of affected areas. In an article by Glendale News-Press highlighting her recent nomination to the city's Environmental Stewardship Award, Landregan shares how perfectly healthy trees and even those protected by county ordinances were marked for removal early in the clean-up process. At the risk of losing hundreds of trees beyond those already destroyed by the fires, Landregan and a collection of her peers took to the streets of Altadena to provide free, thorough tree assessments by certified arborists. Between various efforts - including educating city officials, collaborating with L.A. County to provide a hazardous tree removal waiver, and providing local training for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arborists - Altadena Green has saved over 600 trees. A year on, the group continues to educate the public with webinars and in-person trainings on restoring the urban canopy, soil testing and remediation, and fire-resilient landscape design.

Others, like Elisa Read Pappaterra, PLA of Studio Pappaterra, are digging into fire-wise design. Pappaterra, herself, is working with many municipal entities and associations in the Los Angeles region on DefensibleSpace.org - a website that provides resources for homeowners and communities to design and maintain their home against fires.