Here I am back in my apartment in Tokushima, after a long two weeks visiting my family back in Santa Barbara. I had a really nice visit, and it was a bit hard to leave.
As is evident in the photo, the Santa Ynez Mountains and foothills above the city were ravaged last year by not one, but three wildfires: the Tea Fire, the Gap Fire, and the Jesusita Fire. I was able to survey the damage of the Jesusita Fire by taking a short hike up the trail that it was named after.
There are still a lot of blackened areas, but things seem to be greening up nicely. Predictably, weeds were the first thing to move in, but grass and other plants are also growing and the scorched trees are sprouting new leaves.
I will post the handful of other photos I took to my Facebook page.
Hiroki Matsuuchi
January 11, 2010 at 10:19 am
There are species of pine that drop cones that will only release their seeds when exposed to the heat from a fire. Fire in nature can be a natural phenomena, but in CA’s case, when you try to artificially populate a desert through massive irrigation and water diversion, it really does seem like a recipe for disaster. The scenery is beautiful but beware the WRATH OF NATURE!
*Nice photos too.
Andrew
January 11, 2010 at 10:33 am
Natural fires are a regular occurrence in those areas, the main reason why last year’s fires were so devastating is because 40-50 years of aggressive firefighting to protect the structures up there left lots of combustible growth.
It’s a pretty place to live, but if you build a house in those foothills you have to accept the fire risk.