We have conducted a range of outreach activities to help improve protection for farmworkers during wildfires in Northern California.

Following our research with a local Community Engagement Team examining farmworkers’ experiences working in agriculture during wildfires in Sonoma County, we held townhalls with farmworkers to discuss our research findings and recommendations. These conversations directly informed recommendations we made to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and the California Department of Industrial Relations to improve health and safety for farmworkers during wildfires.

In summer 2025, we held sessions with farmworkers across Sonoma County to develop DIY air purifiers. These sessions were led with an environmental justice youth council of local high school and community college students students. Over the course of the summer, these students also designed and painted a mobile mural depicting environmental injustices and their vision for environmental justice for farmworkers in Sonoma.

Our team has also engaged in writing policy briefs and op-eds to advocate for disaster pay and the expansion of unemployment insurance for undocumented individuals, so that farmworkers do not have to choose between their health or their livelihood during climate disasters. We are also meeting with policymakers and their staff in Northern California to advocate for increased safety net benefits for farmworkers, regardless of documentation status.

You can hear more about this work in a webinar we led with the Berkeley Food Institute.

You can view a Storymap on farmworkers and wildfire evacuation zones developed by UC Berkeley student Noe Serrano here. Noe worked on the Ag Pass study as an undergraduate student and is now completing his MPH at UC Berkeley.