Article taken from the
Santa Barbara News Press
Published with permission
Wildfire:
Recycler of forest
Out of terrifying flames, animal, plant life reborn
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Voice From Santa Barbara: Ray Ford
06/20/04
Editor's note: The following is the June 10 passage from author Ray Ford's hiking journal. He's titled this entry "The Cleansing Fire."
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The fire has consumed massive amounts of acreage in the past several days, though most of this is on Saturday evening when the winds are fierce and continuous. The Gaviota portion of the Santa Ynez Mountains are tilted steeply, with thick layers of sandstone lying at steep angles, tips exposed to form beautiful shapes.
Between these layers of upthrust rock are prominent saddles, low points like the swayback of an old horse. The winds have pushed the flames through a series of these saddles eastward, in the first 24 hours almost 4 miles to the brink of entering Arroyo Hondo Canyon.
Arroyo Hondo is a spectacular canyon, nearly 3 miles deep before the mountains rise up to the mountain crest. In between are a series of meadows, rock narrows and delightful hiking paths. The lower half of the canyon is owned by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County and operated as a preserve, a natural space where the plants, the animals and the water creatures come first.
I have worked with the Land Trust for the past several years, upgrading old jeep trails and building new ones so that visitors to the preserve may see a selection of the natural environments which Arroyo Hondo offers. I have spent the past several days at the ranch, partly to see how I can be of help but also to photograph the wildfire and begin the development of a record of the fire, and in the future, its aftermath.
Though there have been small fires on the preserve, the most recent major wildfire was a half century ago in 1955 -- the Refugio Fire. Begun when there was an equipment malfunction at Rancho la Sherpa located near the crest of Refugio Pass, in a week the fire marched relentlessly east toward San Marcos Pass, devouring everything in its path until stopped by massive amounts of equipment and manpower at Highway 154.
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Though wildfires such as these are terrifying and destructive, they are also cleansing and healthy -- without them the chaparral -- and by extension the flora and fauna -- would not be able to exist as a living vibrant community. In a dry climate such as ours, fire provides a powerful means for recycling plant nutrients.
As I walk through the hillsides I am amazed by how barren the ground looks with most of the chaparral gone. With the exception of a few blackened branches that did not burn completely, many of the hills are moonscape in appearance The ground is also powdery, thick with ash, broken rock and wind-blown soil.
It will be interesting to see how the next year plays out. Quickly the burls will begin to sprout new growth from their crowns and other fire followers will appear. Though it is barren now, the land won't be for long. More importantly, however, will be what next year's rainy season has to offer us. Without covering, the powdery soils may wash downhill into the creek, causing erosion on the hills and devastation in the creek. This last winter would have been a good one for a gradual period of restoration; there wasn't much rain, nor were any of the storms big ones.
I try also to think of the opportunities that fires such as this bring. We have long wanted to begin development of a trails network for the Gaviota region but the overgrown chaparral has made this difficult. There was simply too much brush to cut with skimpy Forest Service resources and volunteer help. Thanks to the fire, the trails are now clear and many of the roads re-opened once again.
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The fire may also provide a needed boost to the wildlife. Without chaparral and riparian growth to suck up groundwater supplies, the creeks may flow higher, providing a good source of water this summer. The fire followers and more open brush will most likely stimulate vegetative growth and in turn a more healthy animal population.
Yesterday I spotted movement in the creek and went to investigate, thinking it might be a sly fox trying to skitter by. Not so -- it was a young mountain lion, trying to creep by one of the meadows just a few yards from where the hotshots lined up with their massive trucks. Displaced by the fire, it appeared to be looking for a new place to stay. This may be difficult now but in a few weeks, after the fire crews are gone and it has an opportunity to re-explore its surroundings, it will find a land which looks much different than before, hopefully one more conducive to life over the next several decades.
Thankfully, the Arroyo Hondo adobe along with most of the other structures along the Gaviota coast have been spared; thus there is little need to talk about the fire's destructiveness.
Though it has burned a great deal of brush, forced the expenditure of a large amount of money and human resources, the Gaviota portion of the Santa Ynez Mountains not only will survive but most likely prosper.
RAY FORD / COURTESY PHOTOS
Though the landscape looks barren, above, with groundwater-draining chapparal having been burned off in the Gaviota fire, creeks actually may flow higher this summer. And, more open brush likely will prompt vegetative growth, thus allowing the forest's animal population, like this young mountain lion, right, to thrive.
The Arroyo Hondo adobe was spared in the recent Gaviota fire.
The author is a local writer of trail user guides and is executive director of the Los Padres Forest Association.