This dedicated team of volunteers in Santa Barbara responds to disasters. And in between, they take on year-round projects, restoring parts of the community each week.

It was January 9, 2018 when the high-pressure storm system of the season hit Montecito, California. The steep landscape had no chance. For almost all of previous month, the Thomas Fire had scorched more than 280,000 acres, not sparing the vegetation in the hillsides above Montecito. With no vegetation to hold back the water, the mountains turned to a 15 foot wall of debris, racing through the narrow riverbeds. This black river engulfed everything it found, from living trees to boulders the size of trucks, and slammed into the quiet town below. 

The creekbed couldn’t hold it, and the mud and debris jumped the river, flowing through the residential spiral. It damaged 482 buildings, and wiped an additional 72 off the map. This 3:30 am disaster left 163 hospitalized and 23 dead, two of whom were never found. It cost an estimated $200 million in damages, and remains arguably the worst natural disaster in Santa Barbara history. Following the debris flow that January morning, the National Guard was deployed, along with Santa Barbara’s first responders, including paramedics, law enforcement, and firefighters. But that wasn’t enough.

A Community Pitches In

With all of Montecito pleading for help, the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade was born. “The Bucket Brigade was created to revive and modernize the ancient human tradition of helping our neighbors in a time of crisis,” says Abe Powell, a former firefighter and current community leader. The idea first began around the kitchen table, where Powell knew something needed to be done to help. 

Like the line of firefighters, passing buckets of water person to person to extinguish the blaze, the SB Bucket Brigade works as one, a line of volunteers and leaders working together, digging each other out of the mud.

Once the idea had taken shape, Powell, the group’s co-founder and director, gathered his friends to help his neighbors dig out their backyard. Then they moved up the street. The group grew, starting at a dozen friends to 2,000 volunteers within two months as the community tried to recover and rebuilt after the landslides. And then what began as an effort in response to the catastrophic debris flow morphed into an organization with a broader mandate to lead in building community resilience, from hosting CPR trainings to local restoration projects. “The Bucket Brigade builds community connection and disaster resilience through a year-round cycle of response, recovery, restoration, and training,” says Powell. 

Training the Next Generation of Volunteers

In order to stay prepared in the event of a disaster, the Bucket Brigade trains volunteers by restoring and preserving the land. As Powell explains, “We are experiencing a global loss in biodiversity and habitat due to human development and climate change. Individual species are going extinct each day and we need to take action — locally and globally. It starts with us: We can restore habitat and help to preserve species in our own community.” 

One project that exemplifies the Bucket Brigade mission takes place at the locally loved Elings Park, where I was first able to participate in 7th Grade (see “Restoring Elings Park” below). This park, which has become overrun with invasive plants, is a training ground for the Bucket Brigade Academy, which consists of high school volunteers like me learning about leadership, first aid, disaster relief, and habitat restoration. As Powell says, “Put simply, we train to restore the community after a disaster by restoring part of the community each week.” 

Each weekend, the Bucket Brigade offers a variety of projects with which volunteers can get involved. Volunteers help fill sandbags and do post-disaster clean up during the winter. The Bucket Brigade also operates on a small farm across from Elings Park. As a regenerative farm, they grow crops with alternate pest-mitigation techniques and and use cover crops to enhance soil biodiversity. The farm, run by the weekend groups of around 20 volunteers, donates all of its produce to charities and food banks across Santa Barbara County.

Anyone can help out at the Bucket Brigade’s Humanitarian Garden, or their farm, or with their other ongoing restoration and preparedness projects. Just go to sbbucketbrigade.org to find out how you can contribute, or, as we say: “Team Up, Tool Up, Ride Out, & Get it DONE!” Come harvest fresh vegetables for food banks, plant native species on the hillsides of Elings Park, or apply to become a leader in your community at the Bucket Brigade Academy.

And The Fires Keep Burning.

Since the Thomas Fire, California has had eight record-breaking wildfires. As of August 2025, the Thomas Fire is California’s 9th-largest fire, burning a total of 281,893 acres. For reference, the previous record was the Cedar fire in 2003, burning 270,000 acres.

Wildfires in California are becoming normal, burning bigger and brighter.  However, the purpose of this article is to share a story about a community that was bonded in wake of a disaster, and how it has learned and grown since. 

To all those affected by tragedies like these, we send our deepest condolences. We hope that other communities can recover and find strength in each other. What I learned from the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade is that no matter how difficult a situation may be, people will come together for each other.

Thank you to the Bucket Brigade for being there for Montecito when it needed it, and thank you for continuing to be there for our community. Your work is a reminder that resilience is built not just in the face of disaster, but in the everyday care we show for our neighbors.

Restoring Elings Park: How the SB Bucket Brigade fights invasive plants and restores native species at this local area

1. Planting: In the summer of 2024, 15 volunteers, including me and my friends, started off this project by carefully planting all of the native plants grown in plastic cups and compost from local farms. This soil is made locally and will feed the plants until their roots are large enough to drink from the original soil.
   
2. Sheep Mulching: Right after the plants are planted, we move into sheep mulching. This oddly-named process is started by spreading cardboard and mulch over patches of weeds. The mulch and cardboard completely block the sun from the weeds underneath it, killing the unwanted vegetation, and in turn providing a huge layer of decomposing material. Insects and microorganisms help decompose the weeds, cardboard, and mulch, enriching the soil and enhancing the plant health. By the time the cardboard and mulch break down (about six months), the native plants that we planted had grown up, out-competing invasive weeds. By planting the natives close together and sheep mulching around them, we give them an opportunity to grow. And once large enough, these natives will crowd out (block sun and nutrients to) the invasives.

Want more from Ethan? Read about his experience with motion-activated trail cameras. Learn more about the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade after the storms in this video from Oprah Winfrey.