Ash rained down and smoke blanketed Los Angeles during the 2025 wildfires, leaving behind a toxic legacy in soil and homes.

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Discover why you should test your soil in January, with insights from a garden expert. Get ahead of the growing season by ...

Now that we have experienced the first frost of the season, and the growing season for most garden and home landscape plants has come to an end, we as gardeners tend to start thinking about things we ...

Wildfire survivors across Los Angeles County are discovering that the most dangerous consequence from a wildfire isn’t always visible. Lead, arsenic, and other toxic metals could be hiding deep in ...

Over three days in late March, four Los Angeles Times environment reporters and an editor fanned out across the Eaton and Palisades burn scars to collect 40 soil samples from residential properties: ...

Soil testing begins with the homeowner, gardener, and farmer. The most critical step in soil testing is soil sample collection. Soil testing can help growers make informed decisions about fertilizer ...

MARTINEZ, Calif. -- A toxicologist hired by Contra Costa County began collecting soil samples Thursday to be tested for contaminants related to last year's accidental release of "spent catalyst" from ...

Representative soil sample testing done in a Los Angeles County Public Health study found a higher percentage of samples with lead levels above health-based screening thresholds taken from parcels ...

Learn when to sample corn plants, how to interpret results and how to use tissue testing data to improve your nutrient ...

Preliminary soil sample testing in the Eaton Fire burn area revealed a high percentage of lead, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. These results, released Thursday, come ...