Angeles National Forest fire takes toll on wildlife

The Station fire in the San Gabriel Mountains has taken an enormous toll on the environment, a fact that was particularly evident along Angeles Crest Highway, which remained closed to public traffic this morning.

Under skies tinged corral and gray by dense smoke, mile after mile of mountain and canyon lands along both sides of the two-lane highway, Route 2, had been stripped of manzanita, sumac, sycamore and pine trees that had not previously burned in nearly half a century.

Vistas had become moonscapes of dirt, rock and ash in the Angeles National Forest. Every few hundred yards, the charred remains of a squirrel or rodents could be seen lying by the side of the road. Some creatures, however, managed to survive.

Birds, including scrub jays, flitted among rare patches of chaparral clinging to cliff sides. A female mule deer wandered along the highway. A rabbit sat forlornly on a plateau covered with gray ash. Many firefighters recalled crossing paths with surviving rattlesnakes.

Federal wildlife authorities said biologists and environmental rehabilitation specialists were expected to begin inspecting the damage and developing recovery strategies in the near future.

Nearly every firefighter had a heartbreaking story to tell about an encounter with dead or dying wildlife.

"We came across a rabbit with a broken back, and we put it out of its misery," said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. Nick Shawkey. "But the majority of animals die from superheated gases that precede the fire front. Their respiratory systems get knocked out. Essentially, they suffocate."

Standing on a cliff edge and surveying the devastation, he added, "It’s sad. Really sad. But it will come back."

-- Louis Sahagun at Mt. Wilson

Comments

[Mike Clark]

I have noticed this past week that woodpeckers have taken residence in my back yard in San Dimas, although not rare, they are uncommon. At my office next to a green belt in Covina, woodpeckers have also appeared recently, But today, outside my office window appeared to be a bird I've never seen before: a large dark-red sparrow...that evidently was covered by fire retardant during the Station Fire. Seemed OK, just a bird of a different color.

[frank m]

We can spend $40,000,000 on putting out a fire and much more to go to war but some people will complain about bringing a few specialists in to help rehabilitate the forest and especially the suffering wildlife.

This fire was definitely not a natural phenomenon. It was set by an arsonist. Natural fires created by lightening strikes do not burn in the same way and create such destruction.

What we need to figure out how to control and prevent are the mentally disturbed individuals who set these fires. This is a human problem, really, and not a drought, or dry brush, or global warming problem.

[Kerry]

In response to the comments that wildfire is part of the natural ecosystem, the ecosystem is designed to survive and thrive by the burning of shade loving (and often invasive) underbrush, germinating seeds, etc. Thick bark protects trees from heat of quick moving fire. In this case decades of underbrush provided too much fuel which super heats beyond what a recovery system is designed to sustain. Toast. I recently visited the Southern Sierra, site of the 2002 McNally fire, which 7 years later still looks like a nuclear winter. The McNally fire burned 150,700 acres over 2 months. The Station fire has burned over 140,000 acres in less than a week. That is one hot fire.

The loss of habitat to housing, while a huge problem, is nothing compared to the loss of habitat for wild life caused by this fire. There is no food or shelter for those who survived. It is horrific that those who survived the fire may well end up dying of starvation. I hope that the Forest Service will find a way to support the survival of of the critters who have managed to survive the inferno, through hay drops, etc.

I would also suggest the creation of a massive volunteer work force to help in the soil stabilization projects required to avoid massive mud slides in the coming predicted El Nino winter. Once this fades from media attention, the real work begins. Not glamorous, but necessary. I am saddened to know I will probably not see the recovery of the San Gabriels in my lifetime.

[WilBiologist]

Regrowth in burned areas will improve forage and wildlife habitat in general. Fire-adapted chaparral ecotypes like those burned are considered "decadent" when fire is excluded for decades, because the closed-canopy brush is far less productive than earlier successional seres. Individual animals are lost but populations as a whole will benefit; that's how nature works.

[caerbannog]

JR needs to lose his (or her) tinfoil hat.

[LN]

The fire was human-caused, though the details have not been released. Humans are the problem, plain and simple. I hope to God it wasn't another illegal pot farm, but if it was, I hope those bastards cooked.

If the fireman weren't having to protect homes that should not have been built up in those canyons in the first place, they could have gained the upper hand on the fire sooner.

And those that minimize the toll on wildlife and think that the habitat can easily be restored are idiots.

[JR]

The Times did not publish my previous comments so here they are again: I firmly believe that the Forest Service allowed the houses to burn. There is a strong belief that private and public housing has no place in the Angeles National Forest. With the Forest Service now staffed with environmental extremists, they will get rid of all housing by not allowing any houses or cabins to be rebuilt after being destroyed by wild fires. Sure, CALTRANS will go through the long, painful and costly process of filing environmental impact statements and obtaining permits to rebuild. But the environmental wackos, aided and encouraged by their buddies in the Forest Service, will legally fight and stall them until CALTRANS gives up. The rich and powerful, whose houses were saved, will continue to get richer and powerful while the rest of us are distracted by fighting over the scraps.

[Elizabeth]

We survived the 2007 Witch, Guijeto, and Rice fires that burned 267,000 acres (mostly caused by faulty power lines) in San Diego. The hills are beginning to come back. One book I found helpful in understanding the black hills was "Tending the Wild - Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources" by M. Kat Anderson. Another was
1491" -- to understand that native Americans have done controlled burns for centuries, and managed the "wilderness" quite effectively and ensuring the extraordinary richness that is California.
There was an unusual number of migratory birds that came to different elevations seeking food. Lots of cedar waxwings. Good time to put bird feeders out. Nature endures in spite of us and our so-called management.

[Eric]

I see that many of you want to play the role of "God". Read what you're all saying. Climate change, rehabilitation... etc.

Give me a a break. Fire has been part of the earth far before mankind and fire is a "normal" and "natural" part of a forest. In fact, fire suppression efforts is one of the reasons why many of our forests are unhealthy and being attacked by bark beetles. We've been stopping the fires that need to happen and now they're larger than they would be if we just let them happen.

The forest will rehabilitate itself without our intervention. Let me repeat that. The forest will rehabilitate itself.

There is potential for more damage if we try to play the role of mother nature. Leave it alone, let it heal itself and the Angeles National Forest will become one of our healthiest forests thanks to this fire.

[Pete Kalmus]

I wonder if the aggressive fire suppression of the last hundred years or so plays a role here. I suspect that fires of this size are NOT natural in the ANF, but that frequent smaller fires (which don't sterilize hundreds of thousands of acres) ARE natural. I'd like to see serious discussion in the Times of our de facto policy of "build your house wherever you want and we'll spend millions and risk lives suppressing any fire." Maybe we should consider letting our so-called wild places burn when they're meant to burn.

[PUENTE]

Birds fleeing the smoke might come to your yard. Put water out, and bird seed. Be generous. Keep dogs and cats inside for the next month if you live in the foothills below the fire, because larger animals have nowhere to go for food and water except where you are. After all, if you think about it, they aren't in your yard, you are in their wilderness. Keep fresh water outside, easy for them to reach, dog food outside is ok, as all creatures try to survive for one more day.

From the Santa Barbara fires, I can tell you that birds arrive in yards all full of ash and they are looking for small amounts of running water, in which to "shower". A dripping hose will do, a water spray mister, or a gently running fountain, all are helpful. I inch of water in a pie pan will create a lifesaving place for wildlife. Help out, for at least the next month.

[pk]

"this sucker is being fueled by the drought and climate change."

Wrong. Native California chaparral is drought adapted. In fact, rainfall levels in southern California have generally not been far off historical averages. Drought, as most people understand it, is only a drought inasmuch as demand for water by people and their cities far outstrips supply. But for native chaparral, relatively undisturbed by development, what is ocurring is completely normal, and plants like Arctostaphylos (manzanita), Rhus (sumacs), Eriogonum (buckwheat), artemisia (sagebrush), Cercocarpus (mountain mahogany), etc, all have finely tuned strategies to cope with drought (not "The Drought").

The last thing the ANF needs after this fire is extinguished is for humans to go running in, manipulating an otherwise natural, millenia old fire regime with controlled burns and planned brush clearance. Leave it alone. It will renew itself. There are billions of seeds banked, many of which will germinate following the fire. Natural succession will occur, and things will, one day, look as they did a little over a week ago.

That is, as long as people don't screw it up.

People need to take the long view. Yes, it's sad to have to look at thousands of acres of charred mountain side, and as someone who lives twenty minutes easy drive from the station after which this fire is named, and as someone who recreates in the ANF dozens of times a year, I will miss terribly the beauty of the mature chaparral in the ANF. But I know that this is normal, and although I will be an old man by the time the burned forest is restored to its pre-fire state, I know that for generations to come, it will be as if nothing special at all ever happened.

After all, who actually remembers or sees any trace of the last fire that burned most of the forest a hundred odd years ago?

[Figgis]

Thank you for addressing this issue. As media reports focus on threats to homes, it's rare to see coverage of the devastating effects on wildlife. Not only are wild animals continually displaced into smaller and smaller swaths of wilderness as we overdevelop the land, they also suffer tremendously in these disaster situations.

I work as a wildlife rehabilitator in Northern California. We're still taking in baby squirrels (squirrels breed this late in the season) so there are obviously also baby animals who simply cannot not escape this fire. I appreciate the attention you've drawn to their plight by this article. Any focus at all on wildlife issues is desperately needed.

I don't suppose I can post a link here without being flagged, but if you search You Tube for a video called "California Wildfires Continue to Destroy Wildlife" you'll find a touching story/video I found last year during our spate of wildfires up here.

* And thank you Animal Advocates (posted above) for the great rescue and rehab work you do in Southern California!

[Anth]

The biggest issue for the animals that have survived will be the decimation of their food supply. Low rainfall makes it harder for the vegetation to re-establish itself. But Im sure nature will figure it out as its done for the last 3 billion years.

[Mary]

If you find ill, injured or orphaned wildlife in the LA area, contact Animal Advocates. They are a licensed wildlife rehabilitator specializing in small mammals such as skunks, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, opossums, squirrels, bats, moles, voles...

[Dr Reese Halter]

This fire is having an awful toll on larger critters who cannot escape. Some of the smaller critters are able to burrow into the earth, many however are not.

This is the first fire I've covered in southern California that has not been driven by the Santa Anna's-- this sucker is being fueled by the drought and climate change. Is this a glimpse at the future?

Dr Reese Halter's latest book is The Incomparable Honey Bee, Rocky Mountain Books. http://DrReese.wordpress.com

[thecanimalshusband]

What about the children?

[CSchoen]

While we should get rid of introduced flora and fauna, endangered and threatened species were wiped out as well. And why are they endangered? Because of these developments. I'm tired of people supporting development when many homes stand empty. Protect our environment and support these wildlife conservationists. While fire is natural, I haven't heard a word whether this particular one is or not. If it wasn't it did caused unwanted harm

[Stacy]

Why are we looking at rehabilitating it? It sounds expensive and potentially unnecessary. Fire is a natural course of bio cycles here in the chaparral. Are we concerned because of 50 years of preventing it from burning? I can see working to prevent invasion of non-native species during the re-establishment of the forest, and rehabilitation of potentially unstable man-made structures post-fire. Looking to direct recovery of the native flora seems... presumptuous.

[Firecracker]

What can we do to help?