Read the full article by Russell Nichols at Sacramento News & Review
In wildfire country, every home needs a buffer zone: a landscaped perimeter created to keep blazes from encroaching on neighborhoods.
“It’s called defensible space,” says 28-year-old Louie Laporte.
He would know. For the past few months, he’s been making defensible space with the CAL FIRE Academy. Waking up at 5:30 a.m., he joins the fire team to clear brush around residences from Wheatland to Grass Valley and beyond. The team has the tools: McLeod rakes, Rhinos, leaf blowers, weed eaters. And Laporte has the drive: After being incarcerated in 2021, he was released last June in search of a steady job to support his family.
Support is a key word here. Without it, Laporte might be struggling a lot more. Soon after his release, he received a phone call from Michelle Sotelo, a case manager at the Clover Agency, who connected him with the CAL FIRE Academy chief. Her firm manages Pathway to Careers, a program that in March collaborated with the nonprofit organization Reintegration Academy to develop curricula that helps formerly incarcerated individuals gain life skills, education and access to employment.