Julie Cart

Julie Cart is a projects reporter on CalMatters’ environment team who focuses on wildfires and natural resources. Her projects have included an examination of the state’s push to build massive offshore wind farms, a deep dive into the crisis of PTSD and suicide among California firefighters as wildfires escalate, and the vulnerability of the state’s coastlines to rising sea levels. 

Julie’s work for CalMatters has received numerous national and regional journalism awards, including from Best of the West and the Society of Environmental Journalists. In addition, Julie and colleague Bettina Boxall won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their 2009 Los Angeles Times series on wildfires in the West. In 2023 she won the international Covering Climate Now award, which honored her four-part series in CalMatters documenting the mental health crisis among the crews that fight California’s wildfires. That project was also recognized with an Emmy Award for a collaboration with CBS News. 

Julie came to CalMatters after a long career at the Los Angeles Times, where she held many positions: sportswriter, national correspondent and environment reporter. She has reported from numerous countries, including South Africa, Argentina, Cuba and throughout Europe. In 2017 she reported on Gov. Jerry Brown’s trip to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Bonn, Germany.