VOLUME 26, NUMBER 1 SPRING 2018 Also inside Replanting Guidelines Following the Fire Garden Calendar PHOTO: B. COLLINS SPRING 2018 Ironwood 1 DIRECTOR’S 1212 Mission Canyon Road MESSAGE Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Tel (805) 682-4726 sbbg.org Following Fire GARDEN HOURS n December 2017, the Thomas Fire Mar – Oct: Daily 9AM – 6PM Nov – Feb: Daily 9AM – 5PM caused us to close for two weeks. However, thanks to the heroic efforts REGISTRATION Ext. 102 I Registrar is available: M – F / 9AM – 4PM of firefighters, the fire was stopped more than a mile away from us, and the Garden GARDEN SHOP Ext. 112 Hours: Mar – Oct, Daily 9AM – 5:30PM suffered no damage. After having more Nov – Feb, Daily 9AM – 4:30PM than 70% of the Garden burn and losing GARDEN NURSERY Ext. 127 several structures in the 2009 Jesusita Fire, Selling California native plants to the we feel fortunate to have escaped —this public with no admission fee. time. Our only losses were financial. Hours: Mar – Oct, Daily 9AM – 5:30PM Unfortunately, many of our members Nov – Feb, Daily 9AM – 4:30PM and supporters were not so lucky. We DEVELOPMENT Ext. 133 extend our deepest sympathy to all those EDUCATION Ext. 160 FACILITY RENTAL Ext. 103 who lost loved ones, homes, and businesses MEMBERSHIP Ext. 110 due to the fire and floods. We know what they are going through VOLUNTEER OFFICE Ext. 119 and we understand the effort it will take to recover. It will not be easy but with community support, recovery will happen. Our open IRONWOOD | Volume 26, Number 1 | Spring 2018 spaces and wild lands will recover too, and with some rain, the ISSN 1068-4026 “fire followers” will bloom this spring and the coming years. EDITOR Flannery Hill DESIGNER Paula Schaefer Fire management and restoration are complex issues. In this edition of the Ironwood, we explore the role of fire in our environ- Ironwood is published quarterly by the Santa ment. What can we expect in the future, given climate change, Barbara Botanic Garden, a private nonprofit institution founded in 1926. prolonged extreme drought, and unprecedented fire and weather The Garden fosters the conservation of events? How can individuals, communities, businesses, and govern- California native plants through our gardens, ments best aid the natural fire recovery process? It is not as easy as education, and research, and serves as a role model of sustainable practices. Smokey the Bear led The Garden is a member of the American us to believe. We extend our deepest sympathy to all Public Gardens Association, the American There is much Alliance of Museums, the California Association of Museums, and the American Horticultural more to learn and those who lost loved ones, homes, and Society. ©2018 Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. understand about businesses due to the fire and floods. All rights reserved. how native systems recover from infre- BOARD OF TRUSTEES quent fire, as well what could happen if fires are more frequent CHAIR Peter Schuyler in the future. What might the central coast look like in 50 or 100 VICE-CHAIR Tom Craveiro SECRETARY John Parke years with more extreme weather events, leading to more frequent TREASURER Edward Roach fires and droughts? We don’t know yet, but we will be here to Samantha Davis help our native species and habitats make it through this time Lou Greer Frost Gil Garcia of change. The Garden conducts research and works to facilitate Elaine Gibson informed decisions on these big questions. Thank you for being a Sarah Berkus Gower part of this effort. Valerie Hoffman William Murdoch Gerry Rubin Sincerely, Kathy Scroggs Jesse Smith Susan Spector Susan Van Atta FOLLOW THE GARDEN! Steve Windhager, Ph.D. FACEBOOK.COM/SBGARDEN Executive Director YOUTUBE.COM/SBBGORG @SANTABARBARABOTANICGARDEN 1 Ironwood SPRING 2018 B. COLLINS Jute netting used for erosion control at the Garden WEED DON'T SEED PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR REPLANTING AFTER THE THOMAS FIRE BY BRUCE REED, HORTICULTURIST The California Flora is good at responding after intense different environmental conditions than those in the wild 1 burning. The best choice for homeowners and land manag- and it is impossible to predict which genetic characteristics ers alike is to allow the natural germination of seeds and will be favored by these conditions. Whereas in developed resprouting of surviving perennial species. Perennial survi- areas adding commercially produced native seed is fine, vors, like oaks, California lilacs, chamise, and many others and even good for wildlife, doing the same in wildlands are very robust–often beginning to sprout before rainfall. may cause more harm than good. The seedbank—long-fallen seeds from past years buried in the top inch or two of soil—is a part of these plants’ coevo- Allow the natural vegetation to flourish and expand. It lution with fire, and will germinate, even with very modest 3 will do this best without interference. The best influence amounts of rain. Allow these natural dynamics to unfold. we can have is to watch for and remove young, resprout- Achieving 60% soil coverage in the first rain season after ing invasive plants. (See Cal-IPC’s site on plants invasive in a fire is common. And 90% or better in the second year is California, www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profiles). This may be also common. No added seeding is necessary in previously the most important action we can take in the first growing undisturbed or semi-wild areas. season after a fire. Adding seed is problematic for the native vegetation on Most rains we experience locally are small in quantity 2 two fronts. It risks the possibility of introducing plants 4 and quick. This pattern is perfect for natural revegetation that may become invasive (like the introduction of black of our foothills. However, long-lasting and heavy rainfall mustard decades ago to “control” erosion after fires) even if totals can happen. While a growing, resprouting hillside they are native elsewhere in the region and also may intro- is better than most man-made strategies for controlling duce species not present in your locale before, requiring erosion, this growth can take time. There are a number of surviving plants to compete. temporary erosion control methods that can be effective in On very disturbed sites where it is demonstrated that immediately stabilizing soils without reducing the regenera- the native seedbank is not adequate, the best choice is tion of native plants: to reseed with seeds collected locally. Many restoration- a. straw rolls, or wattles ists would consider “local” on the south coast to be seeds b. jute netting collected from Rincon to Point Conception, for instance c. air-dropped soil tackifiers, like paper mulch, intended and representing species already present on the site. It is to last through the first couple of rain events, do not inhibit seedling germination. However there are few often underappreciated how fragmented populations of studies demonstrating how effective they may be in our native plants are becoming because of development stabilizing bare soils. Note that no fertilizer or seeds and other land-use practices. It is common to have small should be included in such applications. populations of some species that are more vulnerable to a “swamping” effect when commercially grown seeds are Straw mats or plastic sheeting will impede seedling germination to planted nearby. Commercially produced seed is subject to different degrees and are not recommended. SPRING 2018 Ironwood 2 FOLLOWING THE FIRE by Sonia Fernandez THE RECENT THOMAS FIRE reminds those of us who live on Santa Barbara’s South Coast of the sobering reality that we live in a place where wildfires are a part of life. What started as a small brush fire some 40 miles away was joined by a second blaze ignited by a power line, and together they burned through both urban and wildland terrain for weeks. The fire ate up about 282,000 acres, and became the largest wildfire in California’s history. ll of us in Santa Barbara County JUST ADD WATER watched the blaze march west across However, before the trees and shrubs come back the foothills, aided by warm and dry to restore the hillsides, we can look forward to F. LAMBRECHT F. northerly offshore winds and fed by a bloom, as herbaceous flowering plants take Afuels that hadn’t burned in decades. In the end, advantage of the clearing and the release of nutri- C. 2000 BEFORE JESUSITA FIRE what remained was a charred landscape of ash ents into the soil to spring from seeds that have and blackened trees. lain dormant for years. But one community’s devastating disaster is “Botanists get pretty thrilled at the prospect another’s regenerating spark. The local coastal of a fire because there are certain wildflowers sage and chaparral are fire-adapted plant commu- that you see only after a fire,” Collins said. nities that have evolved to depend on fires to set It’s a well-orchestrated process that these the stage for their renewal. plants, called “fire followers,” have developed “Even though we view it as tragic, there's in response to their ecology, Collins explained. actually a great rejuvenating aspect to a fire,” Their seeds are tough enough to withstand said Betsy Collins, the Santa Barbara Botanic intense heat and they respond to temperature Garden’s Director of Horticulture. Because it's so and chemical cues brought on by fire, ash and dry in this region during the warm season there's smoke. Awakened by these cues, and moist- not a lot of decomposition the way there is in ened by the rains that come with California’s the wetter regions of the world, she said.