Look for the Helpers
Alta Heritage Foundation archaeologists Alex DeGeorgey and Mike Newland working on recovery at a homesite in Santa Rosa, CA in 2018 (source: https://www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage, accessed January 21, 2025).
By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative
To start- if you’ve lost your home in a wildfire and it held cremains that you weren’t able to take with you- contact the Alta Heritage Foundation (Alta). They’re archaeologists who have developed methods of recovering cremains from the ashes of homes. They are a non-profit, and recovery is done at no cost to the people or households affected.
Alta began their work with cremains recovery in 2017 after the Tubbs Fire swept through neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, CA. Wildfires have always had power to destroy; under current climate conditions, they are moving faster and burning hotter, leaving less time for people to gather what matters and more fully incinerating what is left behind, including urns holding ashes of loved ones. In years since, Alta has worked with more than 300 households following other fires in California and Oregon, and they are now mobilizing for the recovery from the January 2025 fires around Los Angeles.
Post shared by Alta Heritage Foundation on social media as the January 2025 LA fires developed.
Archaeology and heritage fit awkwardly in most descriptions of disaster. Life and safety come first, but where and how do we talk about other forms of meaning and gaps made by their loss? Lists of architectural heritage burned in the Palisades and Eaton fires note this discrepancy and that value for heritage is often most recognized once it’s gone.
Work Alta is doing is a different connection of heritage and climate Their focus is not objects or data from the past, but rather using the people and skills of archaeology to meet new challenges climate-accelerated disasters are bringing. US television personality Mr. Fred Rodgers is often quoted as saying that when he was young and saw scary things, his mother would tell him “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” In the devastation climate fires are creating, Alta is helping.
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This blog post re-launches Micro-Climate, a project of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s Climate Heritage Initiative which brings an archaeological and heritage perspective to a current piece of climate news in 300 words or less, for 2025. Due to budget constraints, the Micro-Climate schedule has been reduced to one post per week. An introduction to the Climate Heritage Initiative is here and an archive of all Micro-Climate posts from 2024 can be found here.
For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.
