fire recovery on the land

by Tom Tolliver

As I approached the end of the meadow where the grass and browse are quickly recovering from the fire, I could see about eight blacktail deer crossing it. I counted one buck, what appeared to be two yearlings and five does heading for Stuart Creek. This was the third week of February at Glen Oaks Ranch.
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My job as fire recovery project manager is to manage the repair or replacement of the infrastructure at our fire-affected preserves. This offers an opportunity to see firsthand not only the damage at the Live Oaks, Glen Oaks and Sears Point Ranch preserves, but also how natural processes repair the fire damage of the natural areas. The best story is the one told in photos. (Click photos for captions)

glen oaks ranch

At Glen Oaks Ranch, the Nunn’s Fire entered the property from the northwest and burned all the vegetation over the Manzanita Loop Trail.

The fire moved over the ridge and through the manzanita-covered slopes, revealing a road and fence lines we were not even aware existed!

The stone barn, which was restored in 2012, burned extensively and is a complete loss. Since it’s on the National Register of Historic Places, we’re unable to begin any clean up or reconstruction until we’ve developed a plan describing how it will be restored, rehabilitated or preserved. An architectural historian and a structural engineer have been engaged to assist us in the process of determining a path forward.

live oaks ranch

The Tubbs Fire began just north of Calistoga and burned over the ridge and onto Live Oaks Ranch. On this property, the fire burned grasslands, forest, fences and two small structures. In one structure, personal belongings were lost. We also lost a garage with a 1959 Willys ranch pickup truck and the ranch tractor, a 1950 Ford model 8N.

If you’ve not been to the property, as you enter from Highway 128 in Knights Valley, you encounter a large meadow with Bidwell Creek running through it. This portion of the creek — a known salmonid riparian stream — was being restored before the fire. The irrigation system and the many plants and trees that had recently been installed and were lost in the fire have since been replaced.

Many longstanding trees were lost. Often the tree would burn, fall over ….

… and the roots would continue to burn underground, leaving pockmarks in the soil.

Another phenomena seen at Live Oaks Ranch are “ghost trees,” a tree that completely burned, leaving a white outline akin to the chalk outline of a body in the street.

sears point ranch

The fire at Sears Point Ranch began along Highway 37, burning grasslands and fences in all directions up Cougar Mountain to the north and into the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge to the south.

signs of recovery

Today, the land is repairing itself. At Glen Oaks, the grass is now growing vibrantly without competition from the thatch understory.

Even the rocky hillsides that were once covered by manzanita are showing signs of growth.

At Live Oaks, we see the succession of wildflower-filled hillsides in Spring, 2016, to ….

…. the same burned hillside in October 2017, to ….

…. what it looks like today as it regenerates.

Regrowth on the upper ridges of Live Oaks Ranch is remarkable.

At Sears Point, Cougar Mountain is rapidly vegetating, returning to the expansive grasslands that dominate this part of Sonoma County.

Historically, local native American tribes deliberately burned lands to improve forage, control insects and increase basket-making materials. Today, we have the opportunity to see what they saw, as the land repairs itself and returns to a new stasis. In my work, I’ve been fortunate to regularly see firsthand not only the damage, but also to witness how natural processes repair the fire damage of our protected lands. They are, as they say, “fire adapted.” 

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​Tom Tolliver is the fire recovery project manager at SLT.  Almost daily he gets to enjoy spectacular views and witness nature at its finest, and he continually asks himself, “They pay me for this?” 

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