From Burn to Bloom: Redesigning Resilience at the Edge

La Cañada Flintridge, and the surrounding foothill communities, sit at the very edge of the San Gabriel Mountains, squarely in the Wildland-Urban Interface (AKA the Ecotone). Here we live with fire risk, drought, and extreme conditions. This also means we live, work and play at an edge where collaboration with Nature is of the utmost importance.

This half-day symposium brings together homeowners, architects, designers, policymakers, and community members for an urgent and inspiring exploration of resilience. Through personal stories, lived experience, and grounded ecological strategies, we will reimagine our homes and neighborhoods not as fragile places to defend, but as whole ecosystems that can heal, protect, and thrive.

🌿 Learn from fire survivors and regenerative designers who turned preparation into resilience.

🌿 Challenge outdated narratives of “defensible space” and “fuel modification” that separate us from Nature.

🌿 Explore whole-system practices: water harvesting, soil-building, plant guilds, microclimate creation, and more.

🌿 Hear from experts on proposed Zone 0 policies, trees, soil remediation, and ecosystems as allies in fire and drought resilience.

🌿 Connect with neighbors, land stewards, and leaders who want to design a regenerative future together.

• From Burn to Bloom: Redesigning Resilience Through Whole-System Thinking – Shawn Maestretti & Leigh Adams
  
• Zone 0 and the Importance of Tree Canopy: Rethinking Risk & Resilience – Stephanie Landregan
  
• Living on the Edge: Ready-to-Burn Communities & Ecotone Design – Shawn Maestretti
  
• Soil Preparation & Remediation as Fire Strategy – Leigh Adams & Lynn Fang
  
• Panel Discussion: Designing the Next Chapter Together – Led by Pamela Dreyfuss
  
• Lunch & Networking – with an optional tour of the native putting green garden
  
  

This is not about fireproofing. It’s about relational preparation…with land, with each other, and with the living systems that sustain us.

You’ll leave with:
✅ Practical strategies to protect your home and community
✅ New ways of thinking about risk, resilience, and renewal
✅ A deeper sense of connection to the land we live on
✅ Inspiration to act, collaborate, and reimagine what thriving looks like here, together

GA (General Admission) - Early Bird: Guests Impacted by Recent Fire $ 5.00

GA (General Admission) - Early Bird: General Public $15.00

GA (General Admission) - After 10/25: Guests Impacted by Recent Fires $10.00

GA (General Admission) - After 10/25: General Public After 10/25: $25.00

Shawn Maestretti, Founder/Landscape Architect of Studio Petrichor & Co-founder of Poly/Ana

Leigh Adams, Artist & Designer at Studio Petrichor & Co-founder Poly/Ana

Photography by: Stella Kalinina

Leigh Adams and Shawn Maestretti are regenerative designers, teachers, and co-founders of Studio Petrichor and Poly/Ana, two intertwined platforms that invite communities into relationship with land through ecological literacy, fire resilience, and poetic restoration.

Together, they offer talks and workshops that are as soulful as they are practical—braiding systems thinking, ancestral memory, and design justice into every conversation. Both have lived through wildfire loss. Both chose to stay, listen, and begin again—through soil.

Their partnership blends feminine and masculine approaches, professional design and community healing, technical fluency and story-driven insight. Whether they’re walking through a garden, leading a public workshop, or holding space for policy conversations, Leigh and Shawn offer more than knowledge—they guide people into deeper connection with land, memory, and belonging. Their offerings restore not only soil, but our sense of relationship—to place, to each other, and to what endures.

Lynn Fang, MS is a soil scientist working at the intersection of community composting, regenerative farming, and habitat restoration.

Lynn Fang, MS is a community soil scientist with over a decade of experience in ecological design, composting, soil health testing and research, and community education. Since the fire, she has focused on supporting families with soil contaminant testing and bioremediation. She brings an integrated, ecological, and community-oriented approach to soil health. Through the use of nature's toolbox of minerals, microbes, and plants, healing the land is possible.

Stephanie Landregan, MsPM, FASLA Landscape Architect or Wild By Design and Director of Altadena Green

Stephanie Landregan, MsPM, FASLA Landscape Architect or Wild By Design and Director of Altadena Green For 17 years Stephanie Landregan, FASLA, was the Director of the Landscape Architecture Program and the Horticulture & Gardening Program at UCLA Extension. Her areas of teaching include natural systems design, green infrastructure storm water design, community facilitation, water conservation design and installation, and pollinator design. Previously as the Chief Landscape Architect for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Stephanie worked for nine years in the Wildlife Urban Interface (WUI) in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. In February 2025 she supported the Blue-Ribbon Commission on Fire-Safety Recovery initiated by Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk. In June of this year, Stephanie became the Director of Altadena Green, a grassroots organization of volunteer landscape professionals who have deep connections to the community and have coordinated efforts to preserve trees and share resources for residents as they embark on the process of bringing Altadena back to life. Stephanie is one of two So California Directors with the California Council of ASLA. Ms. Landregan is a registered licensed landscape architect in the State of California, 4093 and a LEED Accredited Professional BD+C. She holds a Bachelor of Art from the University of Kentucky in 3-Dimensional Design, and a Master of Science in Project Management from UW Platteville.

Also check out other Arts events in La Canada Flintridge, Workshops in La Canada Flintridge, Health & Wellness events in La Canada Flintridge.