Coast live oaks are designed to defy fire. Their thick
leaves retain moisture, and the trees can re-sprout from both the base
and crown.
This was explained by Park Service fire specialist
Jennifer Chapman while leading a tour through part of the Point Reyes
National Seashore that burned in the 1995 Inverness Ridge fire.
"The coast live oak is the most fire resistant
of our coastal trees," she noted.
Ten years ago this week, the oaks’ resilience
was put to the test. The Inverness Ridge fire burned through more than
19 square miles of federal, state, and private land.
The fire, which started on Mount Vision Oct. 3, had
quickly spread south down Inverness Ridge, outpacing firefighters who
had raced to the Paradise Ranch Estates subdivision of Inverness Park,
the Point Reyes National Seashore, Tomales Bay State Park, and parts
of Inverness. By the time the fire was contained a week later, it had
destroyed 45 homes and damaged 12 others.
The live oaks, Chapman said, generally survived, along
with others in moist woodlands near creeks: alders, hazelnuts, and buckeyes.
Most other plant life in the burn area was scorched while the large
majority of animals who lived there were displaced or died.
Scorched-earth policy
Today, trails into the forest give hikers a closeup
view of the foliage they may have believed would never exist there again.
On her tour, ranger Chapman showed hikers a spot near
a creek that remained untouched while the fire raged nearby, providing
a haven for animals and birds. One hiker compared that area to the Superdome
football stadium in New Orleans where many refugees from Hurricane Katrina
found shelter.
The lessons of the fire are many. It has given both
scientists and outdoorsmen a firsthand account of how the area’s
ecology co-exists, and sometimes depends, on fire’s destruction.
As explained by Chapman, here is a glimpse of what
happened to other nature in the national park:
• Coyote brush produces a large amount
of seeds, which are dispersed by wind, and it possesses the ability
to re-sprout from its base when the top is damaged. As a result, it
quickly became a prominent shrub after the fire, showing up as early
as one month afterwards.
• Two species of manzanita grow in the burn area.
The common variety (Eastwood) can re-sprout from its burl base. The
other variety (Marin manzanita), is considered "rare," but
began to show in relative abundance after the fire. It lacks both the
burl base and ability to re-sprout from its base; however, like ceanothus,
the seeds of manzanita require heat to soften their coat and allow them
to germinate.
• Mountain beavers (rodents that burrow near
creeks) lost approximately 40 percent of their known habitat in the
fire. Very few living in the burn area survived. Recovery since the
fire has varied from site to site, partly because the dense thickets
in which they live can take up to 20 years to develop.
• Alders and other hardwoods on creekbanks were
more resistant to fire because of their higher moisture content. They
became critical refuges for birds and other animals. However, because
of the stress of the fire, some died the second year after the fire.
Now, a new generation of alders has replaced those trees.
• The oldest Douglas firs in the burn area are
more than 400 years old and have multiple fire scars in their tree rings.
They have thick bark that is much more fire resistant than the thinner
bark of the bishop pines. Most of the tall conifers now seen growing
in the burn area are Douglas firs. However, younger, weaker Douglas
firs mostly died in the fire.
• Salamanders survived the fire because during
the hot, dry time of year they burrow and go into semi-hibernation.
• A previously unknown species of black moth
caught scientists by surprise when it appeared in abundance after the
fire, feeding on the seeds of rush-rose, which heretofore was not known
to be growing in the park.
• Deer saved themselves. As the fire raged, at
one point devouring an acre every five seconds, large numbers of fleeing
deer became trapped between the flames and the ocean. On the basis of
tracks and observations by ranchers, it appears they swam across the
lagoon near the Limantour Beach parking lot, headed to the tip of Limantour
Spit, and then swam across the broad mouth of Drake’s Estero to
Point Reyes. Naturalist Rich Stallcup of Point Reyes Station reported
seeing hundreds of tracks leading up from the estuary’s northwestern
shore, and ranchers on the point reported being suddenly overrun with
deer, even on roadways.