WUICAN Stories

April 22, 2025
Gabriella Lassos: Amplifying Native voices to preserve Indigenous land and culture

As the Research and Policy Program Director for WUICAN partner Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, Gabriella Lassos is passionate about amplifying Native voices in environmental and land policy conversations. Read more

Image: Gabriella Lassos presents on the symptoms of heat exhaustion versus the symptoms of heat stroke to Indigenous community members at Chief ya’anna Learning Village for the Prioritizing Local Action for Climate Equity (PLACE) Study. Photo credit: Gabriella Lassos

April 15, 2025
How the humanities are redefining climate communication

Working with WUICAN partners, UC Irvine humanities students are addressing climate change with creative thinking as part of the Climate Communications Internship. Read more from participant Jake Szabo in this piece for the School of Humanities.

Image: UC Irvine undergraduates participate in a zine-making workshop led by WUICAN postdoc Dr. Marianna Davison as part of a UCHRI led Climate Communications Internship class. Photo credit: Matthew Hartman, UCHRI

April 7, 2025
Janelle Bohey: Can you smell a changing climate?

From researching the effects of climate change on floral traits like color and scent to working with the Research Justice Shop on WUICAN initiatives, UC Irvine PhD student Janelle Bohey is passionate about engaging communities. Read more

Image: Janelle Bohey, PhD student in the Campbell Lab at the University of California, Irvine. Photo credit: Janelle Bohey, UC Irvine

April 1, 2025
Rabbi Marcia Tilchin: Building interfaith community to care for the earth

Rabbi-Cantor Marcia Tilchin, a member of WUICAN’s Interfaith Climate Action Working Group, leads her Jewish community to pursue climate action in their own lives and build solidarity with people of other faiths. Read more

Image: Rabbi-Cantor Marcia Tilchin next to a Torah scroll at Temple Beth El of South Orange County. Photo credit: Matthew Hartman, UCHRI

March 19, 2025
Leonel Flores: Community organizing for clean air

“Everybody deserves to have clean air,” says Leonel Flores, Program Manager for GREEN-MPNA. Learn about his environmental justice organizing work in the Madison Park neighborhood of Santa Ana. Read more

Image: Leonel Flores at the site of a mural project in Santa Ana. Photo credit: Still from video by Bryant Labajo Pahl, UC Irvine

March 10, 2025
Sacred flames: Interfaith reflections on fire and climate action

At “Fire: An Interfaith Exchange” organized by WUICAN’s Interfaith Climate Action Working Group, faith leaders, environmentalists and community members reflected on fire—not just as a physical force, but as a symbol of renewal and connection in both faith and science. Read more from Climate Communications Fellow Sara Tiersma

Image: Participants join in an Interfaith Candle Lighting ceremony to share what fire means in their religious traditions. Photo credit: Sara Černe, UCHRI

February 3, 2025
Karagan Smith: Elevating Tribal knowledge of fire management

For UC San Diego PhD student Karagan Smith, working with Tribal partners and community groups is critical for science. Her research at UCSD’s the Cleland Lab engages the Kumeyaay to restore sagebrush and understand the impacts of fire on native plant communities. Read more

Image: Karagan Smith, PhD Student in the Cleland Lab at the University of California, San Diego. Photo credit: Karagan Smith, School of Biological Sciences, UC San Diego

January 21, 2025
Janak Kaur: Practicing Seva for environmental and public health

“We are the air. We are the environment.” Learn how WUICAN Interfaith Climate Action Working Group member Janak Kaur practices her faith through her work in public health and volunteering with the United Sikh Mission. Read more

Image: Janak Kaur sharing about the role of air in Sikhism at the Jain Center of Southern California as part of the WUICAN event Air: An Interfaith Exchange. Photo credit: Munyao Kilolo, UCHRI

January 14, 2025
Jain Center hosts interfaith climate action event

Air connecting all beings. Breathing hope for justice. Advocating for better air quality in local communities. These were just some of the themes highlighted at the second Elemental Climate Conversations public event “Air: An Interfaith Exchange” organized by WUICAN’s Interfaith Climate Action Working Group. Read more from UCHRI Climate Communications Fellow Sara Tiersma

Image: Pragya Jain performs an interpretive dance based on the Iriyavahiyam Sutra at Air: An Interfaith Exchange hosted by the Jain Center for Southern California on Nov. 19. 2025. Photo credit: Munyao Kilolo, UCHRI

January 10, 2025
Nurturing connections at a WUICAN land-tending event

A land stewardship day of hand-weeding invasive plants and watering seedlings with the Laguna Canyon Foundation strengthens bonds between WUICAN partners. Read more from WUICAN Program Coordinator Ali Martin

Image: WUICAN network members participate in a land-tending day at Laguna Canyon Foundation. Photo credit: Emma van der Veen

January 7, 2025
Steve Allison: Pursuing new approaches to climate knowledge

“How can we flip the narrative so the university is playing a role of service and following the lead of the communities rather than the other way around?” UC Irvine Professor of Ecology Steve Allison is re-thinking research through WUICAN. Read more

Image: Steve Allison, Professor of Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Photo credit: UC Irvine

December 23, 2024
Lamont Hartman: Breathing hope for racial and environmental justice

Pastor Lamont Hartman guides his racially diverse Christian community of believers at Reconcile Church under the values of three R’s: repentance, responsibility, and repair. One of the ways they have taken on this call is by participating in WUICAN’s Interfaith Climate Action Working Group. Read more about Lamont’s climate journey

Image: Lamont Hartman, Co-Lead Pastor of Reconcile Church in Southern California. Photo credit: Reconcile Church

December 2, 2024
UC Irvine consortium redefining approach to climate change solutions

Learn how collaborators at WUICAN partner Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples and UC Irvine’s CLIMATE Justice Initiative are working to expand access to the San Joaquin Marsh natural reserve and reimagine how scientific research is conducted. Read more from UC Irvine Physical Sciences Communications

Image: UC Irvine and community researchers at the San Joaquin Marsh natural reserve. From left to right: Stephanie Martinez, Gabriella Lassos, Christina Marsh and Thi Truong. Photo credit: UC Irvine

November 30, 2024
Community is another word for ecosystem

Dishwashing as a spiritual sustainability practice. Hope as a tool for combatting climate change. Discussions about love and responsibility for Creation are vital components of WUICAN partner Harbor Christian Church’s Blue Theology program, according to UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and 2024 WUICAN Climate Action Summer Fellow Elane Westfaul. Read more

Image: Youth in Southern California participate in a Blue Theology field trip. Photo credit: Sadie Cullumber

October 15, 2024
Piecing together the meaning of wildfire with WUICAN

An art exercise featuring puzzle pieces symbolizes collaborating for climate action at the September 2024 WUICAN All-Partners Convening, according to UC Irvine English major and Climate Communications Intern Matthew Bees. Read more

Image: Members of WUICAN participate in an art exercise as part of the September 2024 All-Partners Convening at UC Irvine. Photo credit: Munyao Kilolo, UCHRI

July 26, 2024
Reactivating “keystone hands” at the UC Irvine Ecological Preserve

It’s rare to get your hands dirty at an artist talk—to be encouraged to rub, smell, and taste the plants we walk by every day. Yet Samantha Morales Johnson Yang, a Tongva biologist, ethnobotanist, and scientific illustrator, led a group through the UC Irvine Ecological Preserve to do exactly that. Read more from WUICAN postdoc Marianna Davison and graduate student researcher Aaron Katzeman

Image: Samantha Morales Johnson Yang (center) discusses native and non-native grasses near the top of the UC Irvine Ecological Preserve. Photo credit: Aaron Katzeman

July 23, 2024
Bridging the gap: reconnecting fragmented landscapes

WUICAN Program Coordinator Ali Martin attended the workshop “Connecting Fragmented Landscapes,” which was organized by UC Irvine’s Environmental Collaboratory and co-hosted by UCI’s Climate Justice Initiative and WUICAN. The workshop featured presentations and keynotes highlighting the historical and contemporary challenges that have led to landscape fragmentation. Read more

Image: Overlooking a Southern California neighborhood from a Loma Ridge project site at the wildland-urban interface. Photo credit: Steve Allison / UC Irvine

July 3, 2024
What happens when you keep a plot of land in permanent drought?

Jacob Margolis of LAist visited the site of the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment in the Santa Ana foothills to interview project leader and WUICAN PI Steven Allison about the relationship of drought, invasive species, and the impacts of climate change in the area. Read more

Image: Steven Allison, a microbial ecologist at UC Irvine stands next to a hoop structure that’s part of the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment. Photo credit: Jacob Margolis, from LAist article

June 28, 2024
Another step toward environmental justice: ¡Plo-NO! Santa Ana moves forward with I-CLEAN study

Building on community-driven research to address unsafe soil lead levels in Santa Ana, a coalition of UC Irvine researchers and community groups–including WUICAN partners OC Environmental Justice and the UCI CLIMATE Justice Initiative–are part of the I-CLEAN project to explore the connection between lead exposure and children’s school performance and behavior. Read more in the UC Irvine Magazine feature

Image: Keila Villegas, water justice director of Orange County Environmental Justice, uses an auger to take a soil sample from a residence in the Delhi neighborhood of Santa Ana. Photo credit: UC Irvine Magazine article

June 3, 2024
Interfaith Water Communion brings together congregants, scientists, and community leaders

UCHRI Director Julia Lupton recaps the first public event of the Interfaith Climate Action Working Group, a collaborative WUICAN project. Read more

Image: Osman Yildirim (Pacifica Institute) pours water from Mecca into a baptismal basin as part of a water communion led by Rev. Sadie Cullumber (Harbor Christian Church, center) at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach on May 9, 2024. Photo credit: Sara Černe

May 24, 2024
O.C. students collaborate on project with Irvine Ranch Conservancy

A student internship program hosted by UC Irvine’s Center for Environmental Biology in collaboration with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy (both WUICAN partners), the Delhi Center, and the Orange County Department of Education was recently featured in the Daily Pilot.

Image: Kids from the Delhi Center listen as a staff member from the Irvine Ranch Conservancy instructs them on how to collect data. Saplings and acorns were planted in January, and students recently returned in April to take follow-up measurements. Photo credit: Irvine Ranch Conservancy, from Daily Pilot article

April 10, 2024
UC Irvine scientists publish article in journal Ecology on the relationship between drought, wildfires and invasive species

A recent study led by UC Irvine ecologist Sarah Kimball shows how drought combines with fire to promote invasive grasses in the southern California wildland-urban interface. The paper is available open access in the journal Ecology. UCI News also interviewed Dr. Kimball about the research, which was conducted by a team of UCI scientists.

Image: UC Irvine ecologist Sarah Kimball studies plant responses to wildfire and climate change. Photo credit: Steven Allison

September 6, 2023
UC Irvine leads regional project to reduce climate change risks in California

A $5.5 million grant from the UC Office of the President supports the formation of the Wildland-Urban Interface Climate Action Network (WUICAN), with the goal of creating knowledge and climate solutions that ensure a resilient relationship between society and wild landscapes. By leveraging innovative climate research, land stewardship and educational projects, WUICAN will produce science-based and community-driven best practices for dealing with climate risks. Read more

Image: Researchers work on a Southern California project site. Photo credit: Salvador Zárate / UC Irvine