[pct-l] Burned area recovery

[cmkudija at earthlink.net]

Rick is right, too.  However, I was referring specifically to the _oaks_
Mike mentioned, which are more or less in my neighborhood, about 30 miles
north, and in the vicinity of the Tejon Ranch where the new/old PCT route
will go.  California oaks, walnuts, sycamores - generally broadleaf
evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs in the chaparral - are adapted to
periodic fire.  From what I've heard of THIS fire, it's not the hot, intense
kind that sterilizes the soil and forms a hydrophobic barrier that inhibits
seed germination.  In _this_ case, the oaks are more than likely to have all
their present foliage and smaller branches and twigs burned completely.  In
about a month or two, new shoots will emerge from the blackened trunks, and
eventually form new branch structures.  I've observed this in a canyon where
I regularly hike, which burned to a moonscape in the fall of '03.
EVERYTHING there was just soot and ashes - and the fires had been incredibly
hot, exacerbated by hot weather.  There was discussion at that time of
vegetation not coming back the way it should, hydrophobic soil layers, etc,
etc, etc.   Well, what happened was what I described above - and last
summer, trail maintenance involved clearing huge mustard stems from the
trail margins with loppers (I did my share - it was fun!).  Most of the
oaks, walnuts, sycamores, and other chaparral shrubs are happily growing new
foliage, with only those on high, exposed ridges having succumbed to the
fires.

Conifers are different - e.g. the 1993 Rainbow fire area near Mammoth (not
decades ago - 13 years).  Conifers, with some exceptions, aren't fire
adapted in the same way oaks are (where the parent tree survives the fire
and new shoots arise from dormant nodes in the trunk).  Instead, they may
have cones that require high heat to "open" and shed their seeds, or seed
coats that require fire or abrasion to permit water to enter and thus
germinate, or simply open areas in the forest to allow sunlight in for new
growth to occur.  All that's happening in the Rainbow Fire area; it's just a
slower process than post-fire chaparral recovery.

I hiked through there in the summer of '94.  There were chest-high lupines
carpeting the forest floor, creating a stunning contrast to the burned tree
trunks.  Lupines are legumes, and enjoy a relationship with nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in nodules in their roots.  The bacteria actually take in
atmospheric nitrogen (a necessary plant nutrient) and fix it in the soil,
helping new plant growth.   I hiked through there last fall, and was
surprised that there wasn't more vegetation, and I did notice substantial
erosion processes - but the soil there is loose, fast-draining volcanic
tuff, and it's a more difficult environment for a new forest to develop.
Not as much water is available in the soil during the growing season,
because the soil won't hold it - consequently it's likely going to take
longer for that forest to recover, even with the substantial winter snows
this area receives.   Knees willing, I'll be hiking through there again in a
couple of weeks, and get to see what changes have occurred this year.

Can you tell I'm an optimist about Nature's ability to recover?  I grieve
when humans start horrific fires and do other things to trash our
environment and our beloved PCT, but yet I'm basically optimistic - don't
know why.

Christine "Ceanothus" Kudija , trail optimist
PCT partially '94

www.pcta.org
Join Now!

Ceanothus (see-ah-no-thus) or California lilac:  Shrubs or small trees,
often with divaricate, sometimes spiny, twigs...[flowers] small but showy,
white to blue or purplish, sometimes lavender or pinkish, borne in terminal
or lateral panicles or umbellike cymes.
                                                               Philip A.
Munz
                                                               A California
Flora, U.C. Press, 1973


-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]On
Behalf Of Richard Woods
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:22 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Burned area recovery

Well, right in some cases.
If there is not much of a fuel load around the tree, then a grass or
brush fire just 'takes out the trash' so to speak, passing through
quickly without heating the tree and the ground too deeply. Plants
and critters can survive underground or by getting out of the way.
You'll see blackened tree trunks for a few years, but most of the
burn scars will disappear within a year or two. The up side is the
incredible flowers the following spring, and the speed with which the
ecology springs back to life with all the added nutrients suddenly
returned to the soil.
But.
Here comes the big qualification.
When fire does NOT take out the trash often enough (chance or fire
suppression) the fuel load gets heavy enough to create a really hot,
intense fire, such as crown fires in heavy timber. That type of fire
is death to a forest for decades to come. That is the kind of fire
that sterilizes the ground and kills the root systems of conifers
which are generally shallowly rooted.  Everything burns. Every seed,
every critter, every root, even the soil bacteria.
A classic example is the burn area just south of Reds Meadow. You
pass through an area of black tree trunks for about a mile. That fire
burned decades ago, and the area is only now being repopulated by
brush and grasses. There is almost no vegetable matter in the soil,
except what has blown in from the outside. Therefore, no soil
bacteria, nothing to hold moisture in, no way for a normal forest
ecology to survive except in little spots where enough decaying plant
material has gathered in one spot to support a mini-oasis in that
moonscape.

I don't feel bad about natural fires passing through, no matter how
much it disrupts my personal plans. If I plan to be in an area when a
fire is passing through, that's just the luck of the draw. We should
get nervous when a fire doesn't pass through an area every decade or so.
Rick

On Aug 15, 2006, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:


Christine is right. There was a fire in 1910 on Mount Si in WA. The
bark is
still shows evident's of the fire on one side. That's almost 100
years. Of
course we have tougher hides up here in the great North West.

Lonetrail

Mike,Don't worry too much about the oaks.  Most of 'em will  survive the
fire, and
in five years, you won't be able to tell (at least  from the oaks)
that a
fire had passed through.  It *will* look like a  moonscape for a
while, but
oaks have a remarkable capability to sprout new  shoots from many
dormant
nodes along their branches post-fire.     The bark is burned, but the
cambium
layer - the living part of the trunk  and branches - is still alive
inside,
where it counts.

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