Eli Johnson of Johnson Tree Company(left) and Mitch Burmeister have a product with “humate” that can help treat damaged soil.
By: LOLA COFFEY
When fires exploded over the landscape of Los Angeles this past January devastating thousands of residents, it left many homeless and despondent about the loss of their communities, it was an inexplicable tragedy.
“I don’t think anyone knew how bad it would get that first day.” Said Mitch Burmeister, a resident of Pacific Palisades. “I was coming home from a chemo treatment at Cedars Sinai when my daughter called my wife and me to get home as soon as possible because her Palisades High track coach sent the team home from practice when they saw smoke coming over the hill.”
Burmeister, who was diagnosed four years ago with the same cancer that claimed Burmeister’s mom’s life, has great concern for the soil after the Los Angeles fires.
His and his mom’s cancers were caused by residual environmental toxins found in St. Louis’ Coldwater Creek, where Burmeister grew up and played in as a kid, which was linked to radioactive waste dumped during World War II’s nuclear weapons production era, the Manhattan Project.
“The toxic waste sank into the groundwater and eventually into the creek and soil of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Burmeister explained. Regarding the LA fires, he says, “It’s not enough to scrape the soil; it needs detoxification to ensure it is returned to its natural state.”
The Palisades and Eaton fires, which some refer to as “natural disasters,” were anything but “natural.” In addition to trees and brushes that many will argue should have been cleared long before these fires broke out, homes were built from outdated construction materials, including PVC pipes, appliances, batteries, and paint, not to mention car batteries and incinerated common household objects.
The combustion of these materials can release pollutants, including heavy metals like lead and arsenic, in addition to PFAS, a class of chemicals found in some common household items, including some carpets and clothing. Asbestos, sometimes present in older buildings, may also be released.
According to a New York Times interview on March 10, 2025, Anthony Wexler, the director of the Air Quality Research Center at the University of California, Davis said, “Whether or not the remaining soil on burned land is tested, it is safe to assume the soil is toxic at some level.”
“It’s not enough to treat the first six inches of soil,” he said.
Wildfires drastically alter the chemical composition and physical structure of soil. The intense heat volatilizes essential nutrients like nitrogen and sulfur, while also burning away organic matter and beneficial microbial life.
Worse, fires can leave behind a residue of heavy metals, ash, and toxins such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which seep into the soil and hinder plant regrowth.
In fire-prone areas like Pacific Palisades, with its chaparral-covered hillsides, and Altadena, nestled near the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, post-fire soil degradation is not just a threat to ecosystems — it’s also a hazard for human health, water quality, and long-term land usability.
Without intervention, these burned soils can become hydrophobic, increasing runoff and erosion, and preventing vegetation from being reestablished.
While levels of toxic material appear to be lower in Pacific Palisades than in Altadena, where there is a higher percentage of older homes with lead paint, Burmeister is concerned not only about the toxicity of the soil but also the fertility of the land.
Burmeister, who has been working with a humate product, says he can not only help clean up the soil of LA but also restore the land as part of the cleanup process.
Humate, derived from decomposed ancient organic matter (usually in the form of leonardite), contains high levels of humic and fulvic acids — the foundational building blocks of fertile soil.
These substances have a remarkable ability to detoxify, recondition, and revitalize soil in several keyways:
- Heavy Metal Binding: Humic acids bind with toxic heavy metals, reducing their bioavailability and preventing them from leaching into water sources or being taken up by plants.
- Restoring Microbial Life: Humate promotes the growth of beneficial soil microbes. These organisms are essential for breaking down contaminants, fixing nitrogen, and re-establishing the soil’s natural life cycle.
- Improving Soil Structure: By enhancing soil porosity and water retention, humate reduces erosion and runoff — both of which are common post-fire challenges in hilly regions like Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
- Boosting Nutrient Availability: Fulvic acid in humate acts as a chelating agent, helping plants absorb nutrients more efficiently. This is crucial in areas where wildfire has stripped the soil of its fertility.
Burmeister’s company, MWM Organics, and Johnson Tree Company, a long-time Palisades Family-owned business, have partnered to offer their time and product to mitigate the land and fields around Palisades Charter High School.
Unlike fertilizers that have chemicals and manure that has a pungent smell, MWM organics offers an organic product that is safe for pets and humans and does not smell. In addition to public gardens and parks, parents and grandparents should consider their yards where kids and grandkids will play.
“The process is a few-step application,” Burmeister said. “First, we’d treat the cleared lot, then go in again after the foundation work is complete, and finally one more time during landscaping.”
While every homeowner needs to take their health and safety into their own hands, Burmeister also feels the government must do better. To say this is personal would be an understatement.
“Knowing what I know about the government’s refusal to admit when they have illegally dumped toxic material into the ground of my childhood neighborhood gives me little faith to know that we can trust them not to deny it again. Knowing I have a product that can help eradicate and then rebuild our soil and ultimately our communities is a hill to stand on.
And if Burmeister has anything to do with it, the hills will be green and covered in healthy, non-toxic soil when he is done. click here.
The land in Pacific Palisades, behind Mitch Burmeister (left) and Eli Johnson, could be treated with a product that would enhance the soil.