Editor's Note: I saw an article in the Age shortly after the fires (I don't know the date) reporting on an "eminent scientist's" calls for aerial seeding of grasses after the fires in NSW because of the so called catastrophe in the making due to erosion. The absurdity of the concept struck me; erosion may be a problem but where do you get the money, the seed (considering conservation issues), etc. The scientist that was interviewed also showed great ignorance about the fire ecology of native vegetation in NSW. Fortunately, from what I have heard the proposals for aerial seeding in NSW were not implemented. This article from America subsequently came across my desk and it struck me how familiar the whole story is. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Southern California is a place that likes to burn. The land has evolved with fire as an integral landscape component. Couple this fact with a history of fire suppression and the blazes that raged through the Southland the last week of October come as no surprise. The fires, 25 in all, burned over 173,000 acres in six counties, fueled by hot, dry Santa Ana winds. Roughly 24,000 acres were coastal sage scrub and mixed sage scrub/grassland. The remaining acreage was chaparral and houses. Over 300 endangered California Gnatcatchers (a small bird) representing 6% of the total population are thought to have perished in the fires, along with 800 Coastal Cactus Wrens (17% of the nation's population). Perhaps the most significant blaze in terms of sensitive species and habitat occurred in Orange County, where an arsonist ignited the San Joaquin Hills. The fire burned the largest intact area of coastal sage scrub on the coast of California, as well as a bunch of houses in Laguna Beach. It was found to have been started along the proposed pathway of a highly controversial tollroad, leaving local activists wondering about the arsonist's real motivations. The Reaction The Transportation Corridor Agency, in charge of building said tollroad, immediately filed to have the present injunction against construction in the area lifted. Their argument: since there are no more Gnatcatchers in the hills there is no legal reason for the injunction to remain, and besides, construction of the road will help contain erosion (?). One thing the fires did not bum away was entrenched attitudes of the control of nature. Local editorial pages screamed at the type of "overzealous environmentalism" that did not allow extensive weed clearing, reservoir construction, and roadbuilding that "could have stopped the fires". Following the fire, desperate to "do something" about wild nature running amok, the California Department of Forestry (CDF) proposed massive aerial reseeding of the burned areas in the San Joaquin Hills. The plans immediately drew intense criticism. The seeded plants compete with native vegetation for water and nutrients, hampering its recovery. Although intended for erosion control, the shallow roots of non-native grasses are ineffective. In fact, the grasses actually encourage water-logged slopes to sag from the additional weight. The annual grasses also provide fuel for the additional fires when they die. Ignored is the fact that most of the erosion "problems" are due to sedimentation and bank cuts in watercourses that won't be affected by re-seeding either way. The outcry was not enough to stop the mad plans, only limit them. Rather than re-seeding the entire 14,000 acres of the San Joaquin Hills burn area, the CDF limited their program to 3,400 acres of urban facing slopes. Instead of using the originally proposed ryegrass they opted for a mix of native grasses and Zorro fescue, a European invader. The native grasses were of the genus Stipa and while the species is indigenous to the area, the seed stock was not locally procured and could cause significant genetic pollution. In other areas the scenarios are much the same. The Forest Service intends to reseed the Ortega fire, within the Cleveland National Forest, with a seed mix similar to the San

Joaquin Hills area. The Bureau of Land Management also has plans for re-seeding in San Diego County. (Editor's Note: Historically, the Forest Service was given the management of forested land in mountains, subsequently emphasising logging activities, while the Bureau of Land Management was given managetent of low lands in the American west that had few trees and was seen as only suitable for grazing. They aren't well co-ordinated either, the Forest Service is part of the Federal Department of Agriculture while the BLM is part of the Federal Department of the Interior.) The Recovery Despite the blackened moonlike appearance of the land and the short-sighted actions of the government, the land is not dead. It is alive! Left alone it should recover just fine. The spring will bring a carpet of wildflowers, including fire poppies and whispering bells, as well as lupines, fiddlenecks and phacelias. In fact, plant diversity is greatest after a fire. Perennial shrubs will resprout from secially fire-adapted root systems, and vigorous blooming will send forth a rain of seeds, fueling an explosion of seedlings the following spring. Two to four years from now Deerweed, a nitrogen-fixing shrub of the legume family, will likely dominate. Deerweed converts the nutrients of the ashes into usable form for the plants to follow as well as a nutritious snack for herbivores. In five to ten years the land will resemble its pre-fire form. South facing slopes will increasingly be dominated by drought-deciduous shrubs and succulents, such as prickly pear cactus, buckwheat and sages. Northfacing slopes will likely be dominated by evergreen shrubs, such as Laurel Sumac, Scrub Oak, Toyon and Lemonade Berry. In coastal sage scrub, the initial wave of annuals will have mostly died off with increasing canopy cover. A new wave of annuals begins to appear, however, and species richness continues to climb until 20-30 years after the fire. Forty years after a fire, plant diversity is greatly reduced; a few shrubs dominate with almost no under-storey herb content. Some ecologists even consider areas like this senescent, a community in decline until the fire once again renews the cycle of succession. The Upshot In order to protect coastal sage scrub and the species within it, fire must be accounted for. Repeated fires can convert coastal sage scrub to grassland, while a lapse in the fire cycle might see the opposite phenomenon. The landscape must be seen as an interconnected mosaic of habitats dependent on each other. Simply delineating boundaries around coastal sage scrub will not work. Vast areas, in fact every undeveloped area left in southern California, must be protected so that the interplay of natural succession has room to take place. In addition, restoration of disturbed lands needs to occur to upgrade linkages. No more "Islands"! This will become increasingly critical as the effects of global warming are felt, and plant communities attempt to migrate with changing conditions. The need for large landscape linkages is further enforced by the serious loss of Gnatcatcher and Cactus Wren populations from the fire. The loss is not simply one of numbers - genetic variability was also lost with the fires, and with it potential adaptability to future conditions. Sourced from: The First! Journal, Yule (December) 1993.