Nearly three months after the Franklin Fire and Palisades Fire scorched Pepperdine’s and Malibu’s hillsides, plants are sprouting on the once charred land.
Depending on the type of vegetation, revival can take anywhere from months to decades, Restoration Ecologist Joey Algiers said. However, perfect conditions are needed to see complete regrowth.
“It’s a rugged, natural area.” Algiers said. “It’s beautiful, people love it, but we do need to be careful and stop ignitions and make sure the communities here are built in a fire-resistant way so they can persist and not have to deal with these catastrophes in the future.”
Woolsey Fire
In November 2018, the Woolsey Fire ripped through Malibu and burned nearly 97,000 acres, according to CalFire.
Paramount Ranch, located in the Santa Monica Mountains and the filming location for Westworld, faced the Woolsey Fire head-on, Algiers said. Nearly seven years later, the landscape is flourishing in many areas.
Depending on the weather, chaparral can take 5 to 10 years to recover, Algiers said.
While the shrub community, including chaparral, is thriving at Paramount Ranch, the tree and riparian community is not recovering as fast, Algiers said.
“The tree community can take much longer, 50 to 100 years,” Algiers said. “Some of the trees that we lost could be 100 to 200 years old.”
Trees that burned in the Woolsey Fire remain on the property and now serve a new purpose — creating homes for wildlife, Algiers said.
Although recovery varies across the Santa Monica Mountains, Algiers said it takes time for vegetation to regrow.
“I do think there are some locations that are going to take decades and decades to return back to what they were, but at the same time, there are other locations that are doing what they should be doing,” Algiers said.
Ideal Conditions
In order for native plants to recover, conditions must be ideal. Two of the most important factors are fire frequency and rainfall, Algiers said.
Native plants are adapted to infrequent fires, however, the Santa Monica Mountains are experiencing frequent fires, Algiers said.
“The period of time between fires is becoming shorter,” Algiers said. “When that happens, its not giving the vegetation community enough time to recover.”
Native plants are used to a fire regime, Algiers said. Burning every 30 to 150 years gives the vegetation enough time to recover.
Frequent fires can severely damage a plant population, according to California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Fire Recovery Guide.
“Should another fire sweep through a site too soon, before populations have rebuilt their natural fire ‘insurance policies,’ these rare plants may not recover and population could be diminished or even extirpated,” CNPS wrote in their Fire Recovery Guide.
The right amount of rain is also needed to promote growth, Algiers said. Too little rain does not encourage germination. Too much rain can cause landslides and soil erosion.
“In general, our mountains like a light, long, sort of deep soaking rain, and then they light to dry up and then they like another deep, long, soaking rain,” Algiers said.
A good amount of rainfall can result in denser foliage and a wildflower bloom.
Fire Followers
With just the right conditions, burned mountains can experience a bloom in wildflowers, something Algiers called fire followers.
“They’re beautiful, pastel-colored, crayon box-looking plants that just blanket the hillsides,” Algiers said.
Fire followers include lupines, poppies and goldfields, Algiers said. Fire followers can make an appearance after the first good rain of the season.
According to CNPS, another common fire follower is the Brewer’s Calandrinia.
The Brewer’s Calandrinia can lie dormant for over 80 years and germinate after fire-created ideal conditions, according to CNPS Fire Recovery Guide. Once chaparral returns to the landscape, the Brewer’s Calandrinia goes back to its dormant state.
Fire followers can be seen as early as a few months after a fire and up to two years after a fire, Algiers said.
“It’s not uncommon to have incredible blooms, especially after a fire because maybe you got good rains in December and maybe some early rains in November,” Algiers said.
Invasive Species
After a fire, plants that can withstand fires tend to move in. These plants tend to be an invasive species as some invasive species thrive after fire. Invasiveness can pose a threat to the recovery process, according to CNPS.
“Flammable invasive trees, shrubs and grasses lengthen the fire season and increase the chances of ignition, especially in grassy areas and along roadsides,” CNPS wrote in their Fire Recovery Guide.
Common invasive species include mustard and thistles, Algiers said. These plants live for about a year, spread their seeds then die.
“You can burn those once every couple years or few years and they’ll do fine,” Algiers said. “But our natives need a lot more time between fires.”
Following the Woolsey Fire, Algiers said there has been an uptick in invasive species at Paramount Ranch.
Researchers found an 8% increase in invasive species in burned areas, Algiers said. These plants are spreading through the mountainsides.
“We have native recovery, but we have an increase in invasive species which are adding further stress to these ecosystems,” Algiers said.
Clearing Land
Algiers said the National Park Service (NPS) does not clear land or conduct prescribed burns in the Santa Monica Mountains.
One reason is the terrain.
“If you’re moving through chaparral, you’re probably army crawling,” Algiers said. “It’s difficult to get through.”
The natural fire regime is also why NPS does not conduct prescribed burning, Algiers said. Since chaparral can start appearing as soon as five years after a fire, burning or clearing out the brush could slow down the process.
Clearing the brush could also encourage the growth of invasive species.
“If we were to clear things out, we’re not giving the vegetation enough time to recover, but also that’s going to be encouraging invasive species to come through,” Algiers said.
Seed farming
NPS is using a technique called seed farming to promote the growth and restoration of native plants, Algiers said.
Seed farming is the process of growing native plants in an agricultural setting, Algiers said.
NPS is planting approximately 150 plants a year through the seed farming technique, Algiers said.
“We’re doing it to maximize the amount of seed that we can amplify and collect,” Algiers said.
The seeds NPS is planting replace flammable invasive species like mustard with native herbs, Algiers said. One shortcoming of this process is capacity and labor.
However, the more seeds there are, the more land that can be covered, Algiers said.
“If we have hundreds and hundreds of pounds, maybe even thousands of pounds of seeds, we can work with the weather and we can cover much larger areas,” Algiers said.
Algiers said restoration is important not only for the ecosystem but for people as well.
“Restoration is the solution to human health,” Algiers said.
___________________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Gabrielle Salgado via email: gabrielle.salgado@pepperdine.edu
