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Prescribed Fire Planned Near Mt. Tam Marin County Fire gears up for controlled burn on Marin Water land: This is a joint news release from the Marin County Fire Department and Marin Water

In the coming days, the Marin County Fire Department is planning a prescribed fire operation on Marin Water[External]’s Mount Tamalpais Watershed, wielding an important tool in a proactive approach to fire fuel management and a more resilient, ecologically healthy watershed.

Published

3 years ago

February 25, 2023

Oakland Post

The Marin County Fire Department, in coordination with Marin Water, may conduct more prescribed fire operations on the Mt. Tam Watershed in the years to come as both agencies work to bolster the resiliency of our wildland areas.

Corte Madera – In the coming days, the Marin County Fire Department is planning a prescribed fire operation on Marin Water[External]’s Mount Tamalpais Watershed, wielding an important tool in a proactive approach to fire fuel management and a more resilient, ecologically healthy watershed.

Public notification in advance of prescribed fires is critical, especially anywhere near an iconic and highly visible landmark such as Mt. Tam. The sight and smell of smoke may alarm residents and visitors who enjoy views of the mountain. Publicity of a scheduled burn helps quell fears and reduce calls to 911 dispatchers who are busy dealing with emergencies. Advanced public outreach – including Nixle alerts, social media, email, and signage on the watershed – will be activated in an effort to ensure the public is aware of the planned operation.

The plans call for a burn operation to treat up to 27 acres of overgrown vegetation between Stinson Beach and Mill Valley.

Prescribed fires are carefully planned and must meet strict criteria for ecological benefit, weather parameters, smoke management, and fire safety guidelines. When all conditions are met, trained wildland firefighters conduct the burn while monitoring the set criteria, fire behavior, and designated fire control lines. If implemented, the all-day operation in the Rock Spring area of the Mt. Tam Watershed will be performed by Marin County firefighters, and active patrols and mop-up of the area will continue for several days following the burn. The plans call for the burn operation to treat up to 27 acres of overgrown vegetation between Stinson Beach and Mill Valley on the southwestern edge of the Mt. Tam Watershed.

Marin County Fire and Marin Water will announce the specific date of the prescribed fire 24-48 hours before the ignition date – a date that is determined through close evaluation of daily and seasonal weather, fuel conditions and other important factors influencing fire behavior. If parameters are not met to conduct the operation, the burn will be delayed until all are met.

Although the operation will strictly adhere to the requirements of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the surrounding community may smell or see smoke. Community members should refrain from calling 911 to report this smoke to avoid overwhelming emergency dispatch lines. Once implemented, West Ridgecrest Boulevard will be closed to vehicle traffic, and trails in the immediate vicinity of the prescribed fire will be closed throughout the operation. Watershed visitors are required to heed closure signs.

Marin County Fire Department uses prescribed fire, among other vegetation management approaches, as an efficient and cost-effective way to reduce fuels across large landscape areas where physical and social conditions are conducive to its use. The result can aid firefighters with fire suppression efforts during a wildfire by creating a natural firebreak, which can limit fire spread helping to protect the surrounding community. Learn more about local prescribed fires on the fire department’s vegetation management page.

The Marin County Fire Department, in coordination with Marin Water, may conduct more prescribed fire operations on the Mt. Tam Watershed in the years to come as both agencies work to bolster the resiliency of our wildland areas. The agencies will work to inform the surrounding community before any prescribed fire operation is undertaken.

As detailed in Marin Water’s Biodiversity, Fire and Fuels Integrated plan, thinning overgrown vegetation using prescribed fire is an important tool for reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire on the District’s watershed lands, while also supporting the watershed’s ecological health. High-intensity wildfires have the potential to degrade forests and watershed functions, potentially harming water quality and water supply infrastructure that’s integral to the District’s ability to deliver clean, reliable water to more than 191,000 residents in central and southern Marin County. As with the District’s goat grazing and hand crew-led efforts, prescribed fire creates critical fuel breaks that can slow advancing wildfires, protect neighboring communities and leave less dense, more resilient woodlands behind. Find out more about these efforts at marinwater.org/WatershedResiliency.

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

4 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

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4 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

5 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.