What's Growing On
Fall 2008

by Jason Lopez, Resources and Trails Manager

One Year after the Witch Fire

I started with the Park in August 1996. My office was in a non-insulated wood shed and the bathroom was a few miles away at the RB Recreation center.  I came to the River Park because I knew that I had an opportunity to work on a local open space conservation project from the ground up.   From the beginning, I worked with other Park Rangers, volunteers, and community groups to help convert the atmosphere surrounding the trails near Lake Hodges into one more befitting a Park that contains natural and cultural resources of region wide significance.  Over the years, we have worked to create a system where trail users respected each other and also respected the needs of wildlife that also used the area and we continue on that path regardless of any changes in the Park.

When I came back to work after the fire, I patrolled the Park, and realized that almost every project that I have worked on for the last decade had just burned. Just about every trail that I ever worked on in the Park burned, most of the natural areas that I had been working to protect burned, and 11 years worth of habitat restoration burned. Hundreds of park features like wood steps, retaining walls, check dams, fences, benches, kiosks, interpretive signs all burned. There were 13 Bridges (bridge= 12 feet and over), or about 514 feet of bridge tread, burned.  All my pre-digital camera photographs that I had planned to organize and scan also burned. A careers worth of information burned up along with my desk and office, and all the Parks desks, computers, and data was gone. Every tool and most equipment that I had acquired over the last 14 years burned (we had had great tools for working in remote environments).

By far the largest loss caused by the fire, which I realized immediately after the fire, and now more intimately, is to the  coastal sage scrub habitat in the Lake Hodges and San Pasqual Valley area. The low number of plants that survived the fire combined with the rapid intrusion of invasive species has resulted in ecosystems that are forever changed. One thing that I have learned from working in a post fire situation is that tan is bad. Tan landscapes are often degraded natural areas. Tan equals dead invasive plants such as non-native grass, mustard, and thistle. One year after the Witch Fire, I have notice a lot more tan. For me, the tan hillsides, that were once olive green, is worst thing to see at the one year anniversary.

Weeds have forever changed our local ecosystems.   Throughout the natural lands around Lake Hodges and in the San Pasqual Valley, fire has benefited the vigorous invasive weeds especially in coastal sage scrub. Fire was a bulldozer for the weeds and it took out thousands of acres of native vegetation and therefore cleared a path for the invasion non-native plant species.

A number of rare and endangered species utilized the upland habitat in San Pasqual Valley and Lake Hodges. The area supported 235 pairs of California gnatcatchers and 90 pairs of cactus wrens, two very important species for our region.   The ecosystem was healthy and stable and included other attention-grabbing animals such as mountain lion, long-tailed weasel, golden eagle, and bobcat.

One year after the Witch Fire, where are we now?

Well, with regards to coastal sage scrub, the change is dramatic. Wildlife species that utilize this habitat, and rare plants contained within it, were negatively impacted in way that probably will cause permanent changes to the composition of plants and animals at Lake Hodges and in the San Pasqual Valley. The connections between coastal habitats are not what they were even 20 years ago and the spread of plants and animals from adjacent environments is made even more difficult by invasive weeds that have quickly occupied the cleared land.

The trails are fine. Park Rangers have worked extremely hard to restore the trail system and worked even harder to save the trails from erosion after the fires. In the past, we have taken pride in the fact that after most rains, even big rains, that we rarely need to close SDRP trails. And we are the River Park and our trails are never far from water.  We construct and repair trails to handle most flood events. Last winter, after the fires, the amount of soil washing from the hillsides exceeded the capacity of many of the trail drainage features. Park Rangers quickly installed and re-installed and excavated erosion control measures that saved many sections of trail.   If a designated trail is not currently open, it has nothing to do with the work of Park Rangers but rather because of a large construction project, like a bridge, or permitting and funding obstacle.

After the fire, Park Rangers were left with 1 truck in the shop and one at the showroom. We quickly mobilized to close the park and prioritize areas that required special protection. We worked out of a storage shed that we rented to store tools and the trucks. Public safety and resources protection guided our work. We created a “ Post-fire Emergency Actions Needed for Recreational Access and Habitat Preservation Plan” and established criteria for re-opening areas. We identified areas that contain healthy stands of native vegetation before the fire and protected those areas by fencing, signage, and patrol. Soon after, we began installing erosion control features to save the trails at drain crossings. We were able to open the North Shore Trail one month after an incredible shift in the landscape and trail system.

At this time, Park Rangers are mostly done with the fire replacement work. The 2 mile long Sante Fe Valley Trail and a few bridges are the only projects standing in the way of opening the entire trail system, which represents about approximately 40 miles of trails. The Sante Fe Valley Trail is a different type of fire recovery project because the trail was built in a location where a trail probably should have never have been built and therefore required lots of bridges and fencing, all made of wood.  And I mean lots. We are working to use more steel in the replacement projects. As far as the SDRP Field Staff is concerned, we are done (well mostly done).We have completed most of the steps required to open up the entire trail system. Now, we back fill with signs, benches, and habitat restoration as needed for public safety and resources protection.

If you ask a Park Ranger the question “one year after the Witch Fire, where are we now?”, their short answer would definitely be “busy” .

Although we are still working on fire replacement projects and re-building our office and operations, we have started with several other projects including:  

Del Dios Gorge Trail - Construction project which was the project we were working on before the fire.

Coastal Sage and Cactus Scrub RestorationLake Hodges– Habitat restoration projects covering approximately 60 acres of coastal sage scrub on the south side of Bernardo Mountain above Lake Hodges.

Coastal Sage and Cactus Scrub Restoration San Pasqual– Habitat restoration projects covering approximately 40 acres of CSS in San Pasqual Valley.

Santa Ysabel Gorge Pond Restoration – Perimeter fencing and riparian habitat restoration in the Santa Ysabel area.

Cloverdale Creek Wetland Restoration – Wetland creation and habitat restoration project to restore approximately 3 acres of degraded habitat.

Of course we manage our normal everyday trail operations including volunteer programming, volunteer work parties, and the maintenance of trails and previous habitat projects. We have also recently created a new staging area near Sikes Adobe! We probably have never been this busy but we have an exceptional staff and barring any unforeseen problems, I expect successful projects all around. The unknown variable is how the hills and creeks will respond to winter rains so we will see if Park Rangers get diverted.

Keep in mind that the list of projects that Field Staff is busy with is not necessarily the only current SDRP projects. Other hard working SDRP staff is busy implementing several other projects like the coastal trail, wetland treatment ponds, Sikes Adobe reconstruction, and Lake Hodges Pedestrian Bridge. We are actively planning trails in Pamo Valley, Santa Ysabel, and several regional trail connections.