Category: climate change

Seven years after Camp Fire, McKay’s work continues

Changemaker: Former school bus driver portrayed in Hollywood film is still rescuing kids
by Yucheng Tang | Posted November 7, 2025
Former school bus driver Kevin McKay keeps the list of children who were on his bus in the Camp Fire in a drawer at home. Photo by Yucheng Tang.

This story is part of ChicoSol’s Changemaker profile series.

Kevin McKay was driving school bus #963 to his Paradise home when he was radioed — just as the film “The Lost Bus” shows — that an empty bus was needed for stranded students at Ponderosa Elementary.

That was the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, when the flames of the Camp Fire that ultimately would claim 85 lives and destroy 11,000 homes were raging through Feather River Canyon toward Paradise. McKay was about to make a decision that would make him one of the most famous school bus drivers in the country.  

Part of him wanted to rush home, to alert his mother and son, Shaun, to leave for Chico to escape the fire. But another part of him knew the kids at school were waiting — and they needed him, too. read more

Redistricting will matter to District 1 residents

Climate, farming practices, rural health would be debatable
by Yucheng Tang | Posted September 16, 2025
Audrey Denney argues for passage of Prop 50 at a recent Sweet September meeting. Photo courtesy of Bruce McLean.

If California’s congressional districts are redrawn, District 1 residents could see lively debate about climate change and how farmers can adopt environmentally friendly practices.

Audrey Denney, chair of the Democratic Action Club of Chico, has announced she will run in the District 1 election if the proposed map is approved. Denney views agriculture as “a tremendous asset in the fight against climate change,” and would push for more incentives for farmers to adopt regenerative practices.

District 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa, by contrast, rejects climate-focused regulations as burdensome for small farmers and the food industry. LaMalfa, a rice farmer from Richvale who was first elected to the House 13 years ago, was one of four congress members to introduce legislation to provide disaster relief for farmers in the form of a permanent program. read more

Ingersoll named to Climate Action Commission

Goldstein wants the Commission to encourage climate action
by Yucheng Tang | Posted September 3, 2025
Bryce Ingersoll. Photo by Yucheng Tang.

The Chico City Council appointed recent Chico State graduate Bryce Ingersoll to the Climate Action Commission at its Sept. 2 meeting.

Ingersoll, who was nominated by Councilmember Bryce Goldstein, won unaninmous Council approval, and said he wants to work toward making the city more bike-friendly and increasing the supply of housing that doesn’t worsen urban sprawl.

“Chico has been ripe for climate solutions,” Ingersoll told ChicoSol later.

“With this position, I hope to spark new conversations with community organizations, university students and staff, and the City,” he said in a presentation to the Council.

Ingersoll recounted his experience in environment-related fields, such as his geography degree, volunteer work for Butte Environmental Council, and participation in prescribed burns with Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve.  read more

Seven years after fatal bike crash, a Chico doctor is still missed

It was the driver's second collision with a bike; was county, too, at fault?
by Yucheng Tang | Posted July 28, 2025
Doherty was participating in Cycle Oregon. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Whipple.

On the morning of a windless Saturday in late July 2018, Chico surgeon William Doherty parked his car at the Chico airport, unloaded his Trek Domane road bike, and rode northeast along Cohasset Road.

Cycle Oregon—a weeklong ride Doherty had participated in for many years—was around the corner. Doherty was training on Cohasset, where the road climbs up to the town on the ridge, to get ready for the Oregon trip.

He rode on the narrow bike lane at the beginning of the route. After about 7 miles, the road narrows and the lane on the shoulder disappears. Cyclists consider this part of the road dangerous, and Doherty had even created a term for it—“Paranoia Alley.”

Not long after he started climbing “Paranoia Alley,” Doherty noticed a ragged crumbling at the edge of a patch of roadway and steered around it. Meanwhile, Jim Voyles, who was driving to Cohasset to work, attempted to pass Doherty on the left, according to filings by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, which would later charge him with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. read more

McKibben: Our “spiral of trouble” will deepen

Environmentalist issues a call to action
by Lindajoy Fenley | Posted July 16, 2025
Bill McKibben at Zoom news briefing. Photo by Lindajoy Fenley.

Environmental activist Bill McKibben, speaking at a recent news briefing, warned that new domestic policy legislation will likely increase problems faced by cities like Chico that are already struggling with the effects of wildfire.

The Trump Administration’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill “will help deepen the spiral of trouble that you’re already in,” McKibben said in responding to a ChicoSol reporter at the briefing. Semi-rural cities like Chico are dealing with larger and hotter wildfires, rising temperatures and poor air quality during increasingly long fire seasons.

“Among other things, the Trump Administration has instructed the National Forest [Service] to greatly increase the timber cut at the expense of all the other kind of planning and work that we should be doing, especially in an era of wildfires,” McKibben said. read more

Why did Big Chico Creek turn chocolate?

Runoff brings up the sediment "problem"
by Leslie Layton | Posted May 15, 2025

photo by Karen Laslo

Sycamore Pool in the One Mile Recreation Area, which was built around Big Chico Creek, turned brown early this week.

Big Chico Creek turned chocolate brown earlier this week after a light May 12 rain washed vegetation and eroding bank sediment from the Park Fire burn scar into the water. Today the water look somewhat clearer.

Environmental studies professor Mark Stemen said the wash-off has environmental benefits, but also poses potential danger.

“We should be seeing this happen for a while,” Stemen said. The dry weather that followed rain “freed up much more sedimentation.”

Some of the sedimentation “will end up in the creek and provide good sediment for spawning.” But if there’s too much, he warned, “it could suffocate [salmon] eggs. One of the things that’s really striking is how much of our watershed has burned and destabilized the sediment.” read more