19/05/2026
A mom, her two teenagers, and an army of volunteers have hand-rolled 10,000 seed bombs and turned LA's burn zones into a wild meadow of poppies, sunflowers, and yarrow.
The Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 homes and buildings, killed 28 people, and forced more than 200,000 to evacuate last January.
Climate scientists found the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the fires were about 35% more likely due to 1.3 degrees Celsius of global warming caused primarily by the burning of oil, gas and coal.
Then came the second disaster.
Soil testing across the burn zones revealed shocking lead contamination. LA County's Eaton Fire Soil Lead testing found that 571 properties had lead levels between 81 and 200 parts per million, levels that can cause premature birth, developmental damage in fetuses, and behavioral and learning problems in children.
Researchers also detected elevated levels of arsenic, cobalt and chromium, all known carcinogens.
The Army Corps of Engineers refused to test the soil, breaking with longstanding federal practice. Families had to scramble for answers on their own.
In an incredible piece for National Geographic, writer Dana Goodyear describes returning with her husband and two children to the scraped concrete pad where their home used to be. They hurled handfuls of seed bombs into the void.
Seed bombs are doughnut-hole sized clumps of native seeds, compost, and clay. You toss them onto bare ground. The clay shields the seed. The rain wakes it up. The plant does the rest.
What began as one grieving family became the Seed Bomb Project.
Goodyear and her teenage son Rummy hosted workshops at schools and community centers. Neighbors, kids, and other fire survivors rolled thousands by hand. Companies donated compost. Seed banks sent seeds.
Then something remarkable happened. Some of the native plants they scattered, including bush sunflowers, actually draw arsenic and lead out of contaminated soil.
The flowers are not just beautiful. They are cleaning up the mess polluters made!
This spring, the burn zones are exploding with poppies, sunflowers, and yarrow. A community wrecked by climate disaster and stiffed by federal cleanup is healing itself, one tossed seed at a time.
This is what working people have always done while billionaires tally their winnings. We show up for each other. We refuse to let our neighborhoods die.
Read Dana Goodyear's stunning story in National Geographic.
