UC Santa Barbara Lagoon Area Fire Burns Bad Grass and Clears a Path for Native Flowers

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -  Smoke and flames could be seen throughout the lagoon area of UC Santa Barbara Monday morning where a special fire was burning.

It was set by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department in a special project with the  Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration.  This prescribed burn is planned and coordinated several other agencies including the Santa Barbara County APCD, San Luis Obispo County APCD, San Joaquin Valley APCD, Ventura County APCD, and the California Air Resources Board to minimize impacts on air quality on surrounding communities.

These types of burns first began in 2009.

The heat from the fire burns the grasses down to the top soil and new, specially chosen native seeds, will be planted before the first rains.

By April, new Spring flowers will return, some that have not been seen here in years.

A second burn site at Coal Oil Point is also part of the project to help with native grasses west of Storke Road in a former oil production area that is going through a major rehabilitation.

Students, staff and those researching the work from this fire project were on hand. Many were part of the vegetation clearing that was necessary before the fire was set by fire crews.

The burn went into a specific direction in the light winds to stay in the designated area. Hose lines were on all sides and firefighters were prepared in case there was a fire outside of the project zone. County Fire Captain Mike Gray said, "it is surrounded by hose line and firefighters so it is only going to burn where it is designed to burn."

Crews watched the outside areas in case some kind of hot ember escaped. They stayed in the area and also had hose lines laid out later in the day in case they were needed again.

Director of Ecosystem Management for UCSB's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, Lisa Stratton said, the timing for the burn gets the land ready for the first rain, "where we can spread seeds for these annual wildflowers that basically  have been suppressed  for years."

Students learning about this process said the fire's intense heat is a key component. Mandi Salinas is a former teacher and a current research student who says, this process can help with the "understanding how hot it can get and what comes after that and what organisms can come back."

The working area for the fire will produce results in the months ahead. "Just a regular fire  doesn't do it.  You've got to have a  this added fuel," she said about the piles of additional dry vegetation cut and delivered to the burn zone. Going with the wind, "the fire department is doing a back burn and that leads to full fuel consumption."

Some of the findings from this project will be presented at an environmental seminar scheduled on the campus in October.