Living things do the slow work.
Cinder & Root was founded in 2023 by a soil scientist, a landscape crew lead and two neighbours, to clean burned and polluted ground without hauling it away. After the 2025 fire it grew to six staff and about sixty volunteers.
Four rules on every site.
Test first, test again
No site starts without a first test and none is called finished without a second, at the same depth, by the same outside lab.
Follow how land recovers
Fungi first, then plants, the order a burned hillside takes on its own. We start the process and keep it going.
Use what is local
Native plants, straw from valley farms, char made from brush we clear. Nothing invasive, ever.
Report, do not advise
We publish what we found and what we did. What a number means for someone’s health is for their county health department.
Six staff, a board of seven.
Every person named on this site is invented, like the organization.
For agencies, schools and landowners.
We take on soil contaminated by fire, fuel and runoff: public land, school grounds, parks, gardens and lots. We do not handle radioactive material or buildings. Most of our work is in the Sable Hills; ask about anywhere else.
How a project starts
A site visit and a first test, then a written plan with the method, the date of the second test and the cost. Public agencies can use a service contract at cost.