By Patric Hedlund, TME • The Mountain Enterprise begins its 56th year of service to the Mountain Community this week.

Our hometown newspaper’s birthday surprise was to learn we have won first prize for the eight-part series, “California Burning: Debate rages among smoke and flames.” The award is from the National Newspaper Association for in-depth investigative journalism.

“This is what an in-depth series should look like,” the national judges said: “Great idea to include OpEds and letters to the editor.”

That part made us laugh, because that is what this community newspaper is. We are dedicated to reporting the facts and then providing a platform for …(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Pages from the 8-part series

Photos by Scott Robinson and Patric Hedlund, Paula Harvey, Rick Throckmorton, Gary Meyer, Jeff Zimmerman, HANGAR of Butte County, with maps by Bryant Baker.

To see full stories with photos, please purchase a copy of the newspaper at many locations (click this link for a list) throughout the Mountain Communities.

Or, have your newspaper delivered via mail and include internet access. Just call 661-245-3794. Classified ads are FREE to paid subscribers! See front page at www.mountainenterprise.com for details.

The e-Edition is available now with full photos and stories at The Mountain Enterprise e-Edition. Select the 2021-0813 edition.

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This is part of the August 13, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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