Recently, I went to the moon. Or at least it seemed like it.
Walking through a portion of the 600 acres of burned-out vegetation from the June 2008 Martin Fire in Bonny Doon, I couldn’t help but imagine it as a moonscape.
The misty fog was lifting after a night of rain, and milky sun warmed us as we walked through the burned-out trees. It was surreal and made even more so by nature’s valiant effort to regrow and fill the void left by the fire.
At ground level, the earth was bursting with life. Every inch of sandy soil was growing or sprouting something alive. You could almost hear it, if you listened closely.
The fire destroyed three homes and severely damaged another. About 60 percent of the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve burned.
It’s amazing to see the recovery already taking place. The bracken ferns came first, followed by the endangered Bonny Doon manzanita, some of which has sprouted from burned bases, while 6-inch-tall starts from seed are everywhere.
The burned, gnarled trunks render the landscape otherworldly and magical. Pockets of manzanitas that were spared by the fire are in full bloom, dripping with clusters of delicate, white, urn-shaped flowers. This manzanita is endemic to the Santa Cruz Sandhills and occurs nowhere else on the planet.
Golden chinquapin sprout from the bottom of their mother tree, and around the base are scattered the burr-like bracts that contained a sweet-tasting nut.
California broom, so unlike the invasive Scotch broom, blankets the ground. This is one of the first plants to colonize an area after a fire, and its quick growth can aid in erosion control, as well as soil enrichment, through its relationship with the nitrogen-producing rhizobium bacteria in its roots.
Large stands of bush poppies are growing between the huge manzanita trunks. Bush poppies are common in sandy or rocky soils, often in burned-out areas. These plants are taller than I’ve seen elsewhere in this area, reaching 4 or 5 feet. They are going to be spectacular when they bloom in April through July, but they also flower a bit in all seasons.
Silver-leafed lupines are doing their part to help the soil, both by stabilizing it with their deep roots and by building up the nitrogen supply with the bacteria in their root nodules. Warty-leaved ceanothus are also growing in large patches and getting ready to bloom with their deep purple flowers.
Yerba santa are plentiful as an opportunists in open areas. They easily sprout from the roots after the fire, as well as seeding themselves.
This area is a fire ecology and will come back just fine. It’s an extraordinary maritime chaparral habitat with a dense concentration of unique endemics that have emerged here in response to tens of thousands of years of periodic fires.
Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Contact her at
ja******@ao*.com
or JanNelsonLandscapeDesign.com.
