For many, an understanding of rural living is less about population numbers and topography and more about a sense of being.

Part of this month’s Rural Living series.

There are many benefits to living in rural areas. But doing so comes with its own challenges. PG&E’s answer to the challenges of wildfires: Shut off power — a move that has hit rural areas the hardest.

We can continue our costly, 100-year-old pattern of trying to find new water supplies, or we can choose instead to focus on smarter ways of using – and reusing – what we already have. 

Ten of the 20 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since 2015. These megafires fueled by hot, dry winds and climate change seemingly blanket every late summer with gray, smoky skies and a gnawing worry among Californians that the next one might take out their home.

A growing movement of farmers is focused on agricultural practices that can mitigate or adapt to an uncertain future brought by climate change.

Part of this month’s Innovation issue

In California, where 90 percent of American strawberries are grown, the time is ripe for a faster, better way to pick them. That’s the idea behind Advanced Farm Technologies, a Davis-based startup that uses customized tools to lend farmers a helping robotic hand.

Research shows being close to so-called “blue space” like river trails, a lake or even urban fountains can have certain psychological benefits similar to those associated with green nature.

If you’re shopping for a live Christmas tree this year, you may have to search harder than in the past. Over the last five years Christmas tree shortages have been reported in many parts of the U.S.

During the first week of November every year, like clockwork, the gates to the fish ladder open at Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River, and the Chinook salmon — crucial to California’s commercial and recreational fishing industry — climb 22 steps to complete their final journey home.

Wildfires are threatening homes across California. Those fires are offering critical data and insight that can be used by first-responders and government agencies to prevent them in the first place and better rebuild communities when they do occur.