“And Still They Rise: Life in Post-Fire Forests” featuring Maya Khosla

Join Los Padres ForestWatch for a free educational event about wildlife and wildfire, featuring Sonoma-based wildlife biologist, writer, poet, and filmmaker Maya Khosla.

Maya’s talk will focus on the incredible biodiversity of life after wildfire—including the natural restoration of conifers and other native plants, and the comeback of raptors, songbirds, woodpeckers, and other wildlife. Sharing stills, footage, and experiences, she will draw from thousands of hours spent in the field, protocol surveys, camera-based explorations, and dozens of scientific studies based in intact forests that have recently experienced wildfire. Her talk will also draw from poetry informed by long hours in the forests.

Maya Khosla is a biologist and writer. Her books include “All the Fires of Wind and Light” (Sixteen Rivers Press; 2020 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award), “Keel Bone” (Bear Star Press; Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize). As Sonoma County Poet Laureate (2018-2020), she brought Sonoma’s communities together to heal through gatherings, field walks, and shared writing after the recent wildfires. Her recent awards include the 2023 Fund for Wild Nature Grassroots Activist Award, 2020 Environmentalist of the Year Award (Sonoma County Conservation Council, SCCC), and the 2020 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. Her work has been featured in For the Wild, and her writing has been featured in award-winning documentary films such as “Village of Dust, City of Water” about water crises in rural India. Maya has also made films about post-fire forests such as “Searching for the Gold Spot.” She was featured in the 2023 feature-length documentary “Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire.”