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Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal support for wildfire prevention wanes as risk in Colorado grows
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, center, visits the Mizpah Campground on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests on April 16. (USDA Forest Service photo by Preston Keres/Public domain) Wildfire experts say the best way for Colorado to reduce the destructive power of wildfires is to prepare a proactive response supported by the federal government. But it's uncertain whether federal resources will continue to support fire mitigation and resilience projects, and organizations that work on those projects are no longer sure whom to talk to at federal agencies they've previously worked with. In a fire-prone state that's entering the warm months, this has reduced momentum on fire prevention efforts some experts say are essential to protecting Colorado communities. The Trump administration has upended federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management with staff reductions and reorganizations. And the federal hiring freeze Trump implemented on inauguration day has meant many open positions are left unfilled. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Rebecca Samulski, executive director of Fire Adapted Colorado, a nonprofit that supports wildfire resilience professionals around the state, said the energy around proactive mitigation has 'kind of stalled right now,' as organizations determine how to stay afloat without the guarantee of federal support. With all of the moving pieces, prevention experts have again become reactive while trying to 'stay sane.' 'I just think it's really important that the federal government continue to have a role in the proactive wildfire resilience work,' Samulski said. 'We know that it's a lot more cost effective to do the work up front with communities than to wait and to respond to disasters or recover from them.' Matt McCombs, Colorado State Forest Service director, said that in what is expected to be an average wildfire season — which 'is a really bad year in Colorado' — work to improve resiliency and protect communities and watersheds is essential to safeguarding Colorado's billion dollar recreation and outdoor economy. The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control's 2025 Wildfire Preparedness Plan warned that Colorado may have 'slightly above-average wildland fire activity' this year, as well as the potential for delayed response times and fewer firefighting resources because of concerns around federal funding. That can jeopardize communities, natural resources and infrastructure in Colorado. The wildfire season is longer and more intense in Colorado and the West due to the effects of climate change, as well as prolonged drought and a buildup of dry fuels. The three largest wildfires in state history all occurred in 2020, and the most state's most destructive fire — the 2021 Marshall Fire — leveled entire subdivisions during winter in an urban area once thought relatively safe from wildfires. Vail Fire Chief Mark Novak said there are three tenets to the nationally recognized 'cohesive wildfire management strategy': resilient landscapes, fire adaptive communities, and a safe and effective response. In Vail — where the town is 4.5 square miles surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of U.S. Forest Service land — collaboration with the federal government is essential to successfully reduce the threat forests can pose in the event of a fire. 'In a community like ours where we're surrounded by the forests, there's a lot we can do to protect our community by creating that fire-adapted community and by having a good response, but ultimately we have to have all three pieces of the cohesive strategy and we need to have resilient landscapes,' Novak said. 'If that pipeline of the work that needs to be done slows down, it makes us more vulnerable, so that's very concerning.' Fire Adapted Colorado and the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network wrote to Colorado's members of Congress in April asking them to intervene because of how funding freezes and executive orders are 'severely hampering' wildfire preparedness. That includes the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state's Fire Prevention and Control was in the process of applying for the resilient communities grant under FEMA to support education and training for local jurisdictions as it looks to roll out its newly developed wildfire resiliency code. Christopher Brunette, chief of the division's fire and life safety section, said the division is looking for other ways to provide that training without federal funding. At the end of April, Colorado's entire Democratic delegation in Congress, as well as Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction, wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and asked her to reinstate Forest Service staff who were trained to respond to wildfire incidents outside of their primary work duties. 'The Forest Service is now entering peak fire season in a compromised position, placing an even greater fire danger on communities across Colorado,' the lawmakers said in their letter. U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse of Lafayette and U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, also sponsored legislation that would reinstate all staff at the Forest Service and the National Park Service who were 'wrongfully terminated' by the Trump administration. Novak said he's heard estimates that 25% of the Forest Service's resource positions in Colorado, such as those who conduct environmental analysis on projects and verify field work is being done properly, are open and likely won't be filled. 'People have left them or there're seasonal positions that won't be filled, so we're very concerned about being able to actually implement projects, even projects that already have approval,' Novak said. We know that it's a lot more cost effective to do the work up front with communities than to wait and to respond to disasters or recover from them. – Rebecca Samulski, executive director of Fire Adapted Colorado A statement from the U.S. Forest Service said that wildland firefighting positions are considered public safety positions, which are therefore exempt from the federal hiring freeze under an April order from Rollins. The forest service 'remains operationally ready to support wildfire response efforts' with state and local partners, the statement said. About 5,000 'non-fire' Forest Service staff have left their positions or are in the process of doing so across the country, the statement said, but it did not provide more information on those positions or what they did. While many of the 'primary fire' positions have been exempt from reduction in force efforts, Novak said many 'secondary fire' positions, like biologists who could help as a resource adviser in the event of a fire, have left their roles. 'So if we look at fire suppression as a system, we know that system has less capability than it did just last year,' Novak said. Vail Fire hires seasonal foresters to help with projects during the warmer months, and Novak said it just hired someone who left a full-time forest service position for a six-month seasonal position. 'I don't want to speak to their motivations, but I think it's pretty telling when people are leaving full-time positions to take seasonal positions,' Novak said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Interior, which oversees the BLM, cited a 'joint fire memo' signed by Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to ensure wildland firefighting in the U.S. is 'highly coordinated and focused on fighting wildfires quickly and effectively.' That order allows an exemption from the federal hiring freeze for certain positions. 'The Department is working to hire key positions that will continue to protect public and tribal lands, infrastructure, and communities from the impacts of wildfires through hazardous fuels management, wildfire preparedness, and close collaboration with interagency partners,' the spokesperson said in a statement. McCombs said Trump's budget proposes a wholesale elimination of an arm of the U.S. Forest Service that provides support on non-federal lands and is a core component of the state forest service's funding. He said Colorado State Forest Service is proud of how it uses the resources it receives from the federal government, which it and other state forestry services have done for decades. In the 2024 fiscal year, running through the end of June 2024, the CSFS spent about $11.1 million from federal grants, which is just under 36% of the state forest service's budget. Samulski said many wildfire prevention organizations do their work with the support of federal funding, with several becoming reliant on those federal funds to continue operating. Some groups have reduced their work or shut down entirely because of the fear that they will lose funding, or because there aren't projects being funded right now, she said. Many long-standing grant programs shifted to receive funding from the Inflation Reduction Act under the Biden administration, even though they were previously funded from other sources, and were frozen by the Trump administration, Samulski said. While some grant programs have been unfrozen, others haven't, and the uncertainty has led some groups to search for other revenue sources. 'Many of the organizations are trying to figure out how to pivot and be less reliant on federal funding, and I've already had to pause … projects on the ground or cancel projects because they don't know if they'll get the reimbursement,' Samulski said. Those projects include removal of hazardous fuels on the ground or vegetation surrounding state, federal or private lands near communities, homes or watersheds, Samulski said. She said organizations focused on wildfire prevention have been growing in recent years as they realized they need to be more proactive. 'No amount of firefighting is actually going to change the outcomes that are happening on the ground that much,' Samulski said. 'We need to do more in advance of the fires, and so there's kind of been this recognition and a shift in terms of trying to build up that capacity.' On top of its primary responsibilities of overseeing state and private forestry projects in Colorado, the CSFS has agreements with the federal Forest Service and the BLM under the Good Neighbor Authority, a concept McCombs said started in Colorado. The Good Neighbor Authority allows federal agencies to establish agreements with state agencies to conduct forest management activities such as fuels reduction, forest health improvement and habitat improvement on federal lands. The CSFS has about 25 active projects under the Good Neighbor Authority, with 15 full-time employees staffed through funding from the GNA. The state forest service has completed over 15,000 acres of forest treatment through the GNA on federal, state and private land. 'I don't think there's a national forest in the state where we are not under agreement to do some work to support and build capacity for the (U.S. Forest Service) so they can accelerate the critical forest health wildfire mitigation work that needs to be done,' McCombs said. 'Our people know each other, they trust each other. Sometimes it's not easy for federal and state entities to work well together. We do this really well in Colorado.' As agencies potentially affected by financial cuts at the federal level wait to see the final outcomes, McCombs said CSFS leaders remain in consistent communication with their USFS counterparts to determine how state foresters can best help and continue working together. 'That's a really positive thing that even amidst all of this rapid and in some instances, unwanted or unwelcome change, we're still striving to try to stay in communication and keep moving things forward, because the wildfire is not going to wait,' McCombs said. 'We've got to keep driving forward under whatever context we're operating in.' Coalitions and Collaboratives, a Colorado-based nonprofit that advocates for resilient ecosystems, also works under a cooperative agreement with the Forest Service to help with wildfire resilience and mitigation. Jonathan Bruno, CEO of COCO, said the group helps local programs working on resilience and mitigation efforts ensure they have long-term sustainability. The nonprofit also distributes grants funded by the Forest Service. After the Trump administration took over, Bruno said all of his organization's grant agreements with the Forest Service were put under review and frozen. He said about 90% of the funding his organization works with comes from the federal government. 'That delay thankfully was short-lived, thanks to the courts, but I'm scared because it feels as though maybe those court rulings may not hold up,' Bruno said. 'How do you budget if you don't know that you're going to even have a dollar?' The challenge is that the internal people that I've worked with for years and the people that I've trusted, they don't know either. There's a lot of uncertainty in the system, which makes everyone really nervous and uncomfortable. – Jonathan Bruno, CEO of Coalitions and Collaboratives Bruno said his organization is 'being really cautious' about entering into any new agreements since he's unsure they will get all the funding they have been promised. While COCO already selected recipients for their spring grant cycle this year, they haven't executed any contracts yet. Under the five-year agreements COCO historically enters with the Forest Service, Bruno said it makes adjustments every year depending on actual funding needs and developments in its projects. As he is planning adjustments to those agreements with his federal partners this year, both parties are unsure what to expect. 'The challenge is that the internal people that I've worked with for years and the people that I've trusted, they don't know either,' Bruno said. 'There's a lot of uncertainty in the system, which makes everyone really nervous and uncomfortable.' Bruno said the mitigation work of many people in the Forest Service is already thankless, and they do it simply because they care about protecting their communities. He's had to pivot from working with those local, on-the-ground Forest Service staff to working with the higher-ups now making the decisions. 'It's never what we wanted, because those that have the most to lose and gain are those people in a community, not the politicians,' Bruno said. 'We need to make sure that those that are in these powerful, decision-making positions have the information they need to make well-defined, well-reasoned sort of judgments on who's going to live and who's going to die.' Historically, Vail Fire has collaborated with the Forest Service to get federal approval for fuels reduction projects, and the two entities split the costs for the review process as well as the actual fuels management once projects are approved. Recently, it's become unclear whether funding previously guaranteed to projects with Vail will come through. 'Pretty much every kind of landscape-level project we've done has been on Forest Service land,' Novak said. The process can take years and can cost millions. One project Vail Fire is currently working on with the Forest Service took about three and a half years to plan and get approval, Novak said, and Vail paid about $300,000 throughout that process with the understanding that the Forest Service would pay for the actual treatment. They've received 'some direct funding,' but not nearly all of the funding needed to fully implement the $3 to $5 million project, he said. While apprehension around federal fire mitigation, prevention and suppression capabilities continues, local government firefighters will still be there to protect their communities, Novak said. For about 80% of all fires, the initial response comes solely or partially from local firefighters and responders — though prevention should be prioritized, he said. McCombs said he views the success of the Forest Service and the BLM's work in Colorado as Colorado's success, and less funding and staff for those agencies is 'an explicit translation to less work.' 'The alternative is uncharacteristic wildfires that have damaging, just wildly disruptive impacts and long-term impacts to things that are really important to Coloradans,' McCombs said. 'We're communicating through our partners and engaging with those that have a vested interest to make sure that folks are aware of some of the trade-offs that exist when funding is reduced and when staffing in particular is reduced.' 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Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aurora business owner launches drone-based wildfire mitigation service
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — An Aurora business owner has a new approach to wildfire mitigation: Preventing wildfires with the help of drones. He's hoping to help communities and homeowners get ahead of annual fires. The drone is used to perform aerial surveys, monitor vegetation growth and identify potential fuel hazards. Window-washing drone takes to the Denver skyline The goal is to help homeowners better understand their land and all of the wildfire risk factors from above. 'Just knowing living here for the past 40 years, what our wildfire situation has become and wildfire seasons year-round,' said Mike Curta, owner of Rocky Mountain UAV Industries. He decided to turn to the skies to get ahead of future devastation. 'I sure think people would benefit of having an overview of their property,' he said. Curta says drones are a good source for identifying hazards. 'We look at the trees: are they overgrowing on the property too much? Do you have defensible spaces? We provide them at the end of the flight with a USB with all their photos on it. The basic flight is about 18 photos or so. Every angle of their house, spreading out from their homes. So they encompass at least 150 ft around their home in all directions so they can see exactly what vegetation is out there,' said Curta. He says the need for an aerial view is increasing. Commerce City police will soon send drones to respond to 911 calls The drone has a 4K camera capturing aerial imaging and detailed visual documentation for people to access risk areas, track changes over time, and make informed decisions to protect your property, infrastructure and natural landscapes. 'Wildfire preparation starts long before the smoke is seen. If you wait until you see the smoke before getting ready, it's too late, folks, you've got to go. So, it's important you take the steps now,' said Curta. 'With the wildfire situation being the way it is, and the Marshall Fire. Every year we have worse and worse fires. The more you can do to protect your home, the better off you are. I don't want to see anyone get their insurance canceled. There's been issues with that concerning overgrowth of trees and things like that. So, that's some of the things we look at.' A few days after the drone flight, the company sends a written record of what they observed and will give basic fire mitigation tips. For more information, you can head over to Rocky Mountain UAV Industries' website or give them a call at 303-903-4809. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado Dems urge Noem not to get rid of FEMA ahead of peak fire season
DENVER (KDVR) — A group of Colorado Democratic lawmakers is urging U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reconsider restructuring or dissolving the Federal Emergency Management Agency ahead of peak wildfire season. Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Reps. Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen, in a letter sent Monday, argued that cutting FEMA's workforce and shutting down disaster relief programs places both current recovery efforts and future responses in jeopardy. Well wishes pour in for former president Joe Biden 'Cutting FEMA's workforce, closing mitigation programs … or even dissolving the agency completely threaten to jeopardize ongoing recovery efforts and hinder our ability to swiftly and effectively respond in the future,' the letter says. The letter also highlighted the help lawmakers argue FEMA provided during the 2021 Marshall Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, during which more than 1,084 homes were destroyed, lawmakers said. 'FEMA provided critical support that helped Coloradans recover, rebuild infrastructure, and prepare for future emergencies,' the lawmakers wrote. Kelly Loving Act signed into Colorado law Noem said in March that she planned to 'eliminate' FEMA, reports CNN. The revelation came months after President Trump said in January that he planned on signing an executive order to 'begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA,' reports CNN. Trump, who made the comments during a visit to North Carolina to survey damage caused by Hurricane Helene, said that he may get rid of FEMA entirely, saying, 'I think, frankly, FEMA's not good.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
16-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Boulder City Council backs plan to expand fire-threatened area ahead of Colorado wildfire season
Boulder's City Council unanimously backed a plan on Thursday night to expand the city's view of properties that will face additional requirements due to the risk of wildfire in Colorado. The move, which faces a final vote likely in June, will increase the number of properties considered to be in the Wildland Urban Interface from 4600 to over 16,000. CBS Most of the property is west of Broadway, but in some areas, the properties that will likely face new restrictions will be east of the north-south throughfare. "I think there's a growing level of fear and neighboring communities because of the Marshall Fire and what happened, our proximity to the mountains, " said Karl Guiler, development code amendment manager for the city's Planning and Development Services. Some people spoke in support of the change in a lengthy council session on the issue Thursday night. "The purpose is not just to protect individual homeowners, it's to protect our city," said one resident to the council. The change means properties in new areas of the city will be subject to greater requirements for building codes to reduce fire danger. There are three classes of property designation. Most of the additional properties will be a Class III designation, with the fewest requirements. It will mean things like fire-resilient roofs and decking, as well as metal, not plastic, gutters and downspouts, as well as restrictions on fencing material when fences are close to homes. Boulder City Council CBS Reviews of the plans are mixed. "I think it's a good idea to have some kind of fire protection regulations, but let's not overdo it, said longtime homeowner Janet Heimer. Council members quizzed city leaders, including the Boulder Fire Chief, about the changes, but ultimately backed the plan. Boulder is trying to remain compliant with the International Wildland Urban Interface Code, which has been slowly dialing up recommended regulations about wildfire-prone areas. The city is in the 97th percentile of fire risk in the U.S. The requirements will not mean retrofitting. It is only for new construction or for significant changes like a new deck, not replacing an old one. "It's unrealistic to just change the rules overnight and then require everyone to meet the new rules, like the city doesn't have an enforcement arm that has the capability of enforcing to that level," said Guiler. A neighborhood in Boulder. CBS Colorado has required communities to adopt codes like this to mandate that communities meet or exceed the requirements of the state model codes. Boulder is among those acting earlier. There are likely to be additional regulations coming on landscaping, with recommendations in the summer. Highly flammable vegetation like juniper trees could be prohibited.
National Geographic
08-05-2025
- Climate
- National Geographic
You really can recover from a painful experience—and be better than before
Before performing on stage members of La Cachada, a theater troupe that focuses on tackling unspoken taboos, do a performance exercise. It's this sort of community gathering that can help foster growth and recovery after a traumatic experience. Photograph by Cristina Baussan, Nat Geo Image Collection Erica Solove remembers December 30, 2021, like it was yesterday. She was at home in Superior, Colorado, a Boulder suburb at the foot of the Rockies. 'It was an extremely windy day,' she says. 'Hurricane-force winds. And we quickly realized it's not just wind coming down the mountain – it's fire.' She grabbed her napping two-year-old daughter out of her crib while her husband scooped up their five-year-old son. The family got in the car, struggling to open the doors against the wind, and fled without wallets, coats, or even shoes. She remembers how half the sky was black with smoke, while the other half was a bright crystalline blue. They were fleeing the Marshall Fire, the costliest in Colorado history. Her family lost everything. In the early weeks after the disaster, Solove experienced panic attacks on windy days, and the kids went to trauma therapy. 'What an absolute nightmare,' she says. But three years later, Solove, an organizational psychologist, says she feels stronger than before, even 'triumphant.' She now finds it easier to put little stressors in perspective. Her life has grown richer in some ways: She and her neighbors became as close as extended family. She is still overwhelmed by gratitude for the many acts of kindness they experienced, like strangers dropping off home-cooked meals and LEGO sets for her son. And notably, she has embarked on a new career. Earlier this year Solove started working for a nonprofit called Extreme Weather Survivors. She's managing an online community for victims of the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles. 'The kindness people showed to me, I want to pay it forward. A lot of bad came from this, but what good can come from it?' (Happiness and wealth aren't enough—here's why you should strive to 'flourish') Solove's Marshall Fire story is an example of what researchers call Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)–a term first coined in 1995. Studies have consistently found that on average, between half and two-thirds of survivors report positive changes and a new life outlook after a tragedy or crisis. Resilience can be defined broadly as 'bouncing back' from adversity, returning to how you were before the hardship struck. When people experience post-traumatic growth, by contrast, they identify improvements in their lives. Recently, researchers have been finding brain structures that correlate with this kind of growth. And they've been unearthing new social and community factors and personal behaviors that contribute to fostering it. The researchers also stress that you don't need to go through extreme hardship yourself to draw lessons from the phenomenon of post-traumatic growth. We all face some level of adversity, and the experiences of people like Solove hold inspiration for anyone looking to build a more satisfying, connected, joyful life. How and when we grow from pain Lawrence Calhoun and Richard G. Tedeschi, now professors of psychology emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, coined the term 'post-traumatic growth.' They were finding in studying survivors of traumatic experiences, that the survivors sometimes reported positive outcomes. So they developed a validated scale to further measure and understand this kind of growth. Since then, studies by them and others established that people–sometimes a majority–report positives after experiencing a variety of hardships, such as losing someone close to them, surviving cancer, divorce, sexual assault, or even being a prisoner of war. As people start to heal and recover from trauma, they may feel more self-reliant and self-confident than before the event. New possibilities then open up in their lives, their relationships are stronger, and they feel more gratitude for the 'little things.' According to Tedeschi and other researchers, post-traumatic growth can be promoted in several ways: Education: Simply being aware of the possibility of a silver lining helps you look for one. Eranda Jayawickreme, a psychologist at Wake Forest University, points out that this lesson is common across cultures. 'If you look at different religious traditions, you have stories about how adversities can be a teacher or can allow you to gain knowledge that you didn't have before,' he says. Emotional Regulation: Tedeschi says developing the ability to relax and focus allows you to more fully confront and process your trauma, rather than pushing it aside because it's too uncomfortable. Tedeschi's nonprofit, Boulder Crest, has served over 100,000 veterans and first responders, with programs to help reduce the symptoms of PTSD. There, participants pursue emotional regulation through meditation, spending time in nature, and through activities like archery and horseback riding. Disclosure: Sharing what happened and how it affected you can begin the healing process. 'Some people write it in a journal,' says Tedeschi. 'Some people tell a friend, some people write a song, some people paint. People express their experiences in different ways; they have to get it outside themselves.' Narrative Development: While talking about hardships is important, simply rehashing the chaotic bits and pieces of a terrible experience isn't necessarily going to promote post-traumatic growth, says Tedeschi. Instead, he says you have to assign the episode its place in a new life story, one that includes your recovery and turns toward the next chapter. This can happen through conversations with a therapist, friends, loved ones, or through writing. Growth can also come from putting one's struggles in a broader historical and cultural context. Émilie Ellis at the University of Georgia has studied post-traumatic growth in queer women and nonbinary people. They went through Ellis calls 'political healing' as they realized their experiences were similar to so many others across the world and throughout history. 'So many people talked about how it helped… to learn 'I wasn't the only one who'd gone through this,'' Ellis says. Cultivate community: Ellis's subjects described finding healing through relationships with partners and 'chosen family.' Another study, by Mariah F. Purol and William J. Chopik at Michigan State, also found supportive partners and close friends are important to helping people cope and thrive after a trauma like cancer. And research by Luke Hyde and colleagues at the University of Michigan has found close-knit neighbors can buffer the impact of experiencing difficult childhoods in neighborhoods full of poverty and crime. Acts of Service: Helping others can make you feel useful and take the focus off you and your trauma. Through service, 'you get the idea that the world is bigger than you,' says Tedeschi. Connection is key One throughline in all these ideas is the presence of caring others, who can listen to you and help you make sense of what you've been through. Tedeschi calls this type of person an 'expert companion,' and like Solove, it can often be someone who's been through something similar. One potential pitfall to talking about post-traumatic growth, say researchers, is that it might impose unrealistic pollyanna expectations on people who are hurting. 'In America, we are partial to a movie-like narrative of a really strong person who takes on challenges and just comes back stronger,' Jayawickreme says. His view is based in part on his experience of conducting post-traumatic growth research in his native Sri Lanka, which experienced decades of civil war. When a whole community is suffering severe, prolonged material deprivation, with murdered and disappeared relatives, they aren't necessarily looking for silver linings. 'For many people who live outside privileged communities, trauma and adversity is a part of daily life. Bad things are bad. People don't expect to grow from them.' (Nat Geo's ultimate guide to 'touching grass') Solove endorses this pushback. ''Everything happens for a reason,' 'It's all part of Gods' plan'— that's not what you want to hear when you're devastated.' Nevertheless, after people have time and space to grieve, that's when the idea of growth becomes most helpful. Jayawickreme says that mental-health practitioners he's worked with in Sri Lanka ultimately embraced post-traumatic growth because it offers people agency, no matter how difficult their circumstances. 'We want to honor the human capacity to engage with extreme suffering and overcome it.' The takeaway is that no matter what life may bring, how you tell your story matters. Relationships are crucial. So is your emotional regulation. And most importantly, there's always a chance to feel better by helping someone else. 'That kind of value system can really sustain you when your own life is feeling pretty rough,' Tedeschi says.
