California wildfires.

This past fall the nation watched as wildfires tore across California. In Santa Barbara hundreds of homes were destroyed and more than 10,000 people evacuated from homes and schools. Westmont College, a local Christian school, was evacuated before the blaze eventually claimed several campus buildings. The fires, driven by winds that reached 70 mph, scorched over 2,500 acres. The cause has been tentatively pinned on a bonfire in the area.

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In Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, more than 50,000 people were forced to flee their homes before the flames. So intense were the infernos - three complexes in all - that Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. In terms of loss of homes and threat to human life, the fires are the worst that California has seen in decades.

In 2009 AMERICAN FORESTS will plant trees in San Bernardino County to help restore the area after a similar experience with fire. Projects like this are becoming more necessary as fires continue to decimate the state's forests.