I thought this was pretty amazing. It shows the extent of the areas in southern CA burned in 2003 and 2004. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/lox/firewx/Fire_Boundaries_03-04.jpg
Fire
That is quite amazing Kelli. Are those areas revegetated enough to withstand this winter's rains?
I don't know. I can see the remains of the one called Simi from where I work. It was in the fall of 2003 and the area should have greened up some over the winter and spring but we didn't get much rain, so there was not a lot of growth and it still looks black. However, since it is just grassland (the section that I can see), it should green up and start growing pretty quickly if it ever rains again. If there is rain, but not too much rain at once, the chaparral can recover spectacularly without there being mudslides and such. I would assume that the forest would be the same, since fire has been part of western ecosystems for millenia.
It's chaparral fires that I know the most about. The occasional fire is actually healthy for that ecosystem. It cleans out diseased plants and dead stuff and returns nutrients to the soil. In this climate, decay doesn't work all that well, since decay needs warmth and moisture at the same time, which we don't usually have. Also, there are some chaparral plants whose seeds will not sprout unless they have gone through a fire. Some chaparral plants have the ability to resprout from the roots within weeks of a fire. Isn't nature amazing?
It certainly is amazing. :-)
That is an interesting link. . .We were down through Simi on a coastal trip back home last spring and were just sick at the devastation from those fires.
We just drove up to Lompoc (north of Santa Barbara) and back and I was amazed at the fire damage along the 101. It isn't on the map! The train tracks along the beach were seared to the point that the phone poles had nubs of melted wires dangling in some areas. We lats went in January by train and they were not like that then.
Would that be the spot by Gaviota? It shows on the map but if you don't have a 17-inch screen, it's hard to tell if they are showing a road or what, plus part of it is obscured by the 101 highway symbol. .