As wildfires spread across 3,800 square miles of California this year, the deaths of untold numbers of animals have gone uncounted. Saving them falls to people like Axel Hunnicutt, a state wildlife biologist who slogs through charred landscapes with a dart gun at his side in search of injured animals. In July, he found an emaciated and burned bobcat near Lake Shastina in Siskiyou County. Weeks later, “Lava Bob” is almost well enough for release. “Now he yowls and growls and drools, and comes stalking toward us. We must look delicious,” a veterinarian joked. “He’s gorgeous.” Record-Searchlight

Kunisha Fernandez and her husband Steven Fitch met in San Diego, where she worked for a medical records company and he was a mover. They bounced around in search of affordable rent before inspiration struck. Gathering their four kids together, they asked: “How would you like to live outside full-time?” They sold their things, traded their car for a used minivan, and on June 5 set off for a new life on public land, joining a growing contingent of Americans who describe themselves as “homeless by design.” Bay Nature

In 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a groundbreaking photo project designed as a “visual baseline” against which to measure progress on cleaning up our air, land, and water. About 100 photographers roamed all 50 states for the Documerica series, capturing the ecological toll of rapid development but also everyday American life. I combed through the digital archive’s roughly 900 California images to bring you these 26 favorites. 👉 California Sun

The last fluent speaker of Wukchumni is gone.

For many years, Marie Wilcox was a guardian of the Indigenous language once commonly spoken in Central California. In the 1990s, she began writing down words as she remembered them and didn’t stop for two decades, ultimately producing a complete compendium of Wukchumni. On Sept. 25, Wilcox died at a hospital in Visalia. She was 87. N.Y. Times

“It’ll just be gone one of these days.” Wilcox was featured in an acclaimed short documentary in 2014. 👉 YouTube (~9 mins)

Deep within the Sonoran Desert, beyond Palm Springs and the Salton Sea, is one of the poorest places in America. The squatter community known as Slab City scratches out a hand-to-mouth existence on an abandoned military base. The photographer Daniel Skwarna declared it both “America the Great and the toxic end-product of American capitalism.” A photography magazine selected Skwarna’s brilliant Slab City series as a 2021 Critics Choice winner. LensCulture | Dodho

In the late 1970s, Los Angeles’ Chinatown was struggling. Asian Americans were flocking to the suburbs and the recession had non-Chinese customers avoiding downtown altogether. So when promoters asked Chinatown restaurant owners if they could rent their upstairs banquet spaces to music acts, many agreed. An unexpected alliance was born. Here’s a great look back at how the 1970s and 80s West Coast punk scene was incubated at Chinese restaurants. 👉 Topic

There’s a California beach where you are almost as likely to see elk as people. Gold Bluffs Beach is located where Humboldt County’s exquisite Fern Canyon opens up to the Pacific. Surrounded by dunes, wetlands, forest, and sea, it attracts abundant wildlife, including herds of Roosevelt elk, a majestic species that stands up to 5 feet at the shoulder. There’s human habitat too: a campground of 26 sites with fire rings and tap water. The Guardian once named Gold Bluffs Beach one of the 10 best beaches along the entire West coast.

Below, a few views.