Orange County Register

Even before the last flames of a weekend wildfire died out, a state environmental scientist sent to survey the blackened landscape in Chino Hills State Park saw hopeful signs of life.

“The first thing I saw coming into the park was a two-and-a-half-foot-long Southern Pacific rattlesnake,” said Ken Kietzer, who works for California State Parks. “That was cool.  And a coyote, and a deer. That was Sunday, the day after. There still were trees smoldering and fences on fire.”

An estimated 90 percent of the state park’s 14,102 acres burned in the Freeway Complex fire, and scientists are just beginning to investigate the ecological damage. (Photos shot by Leonard Ortiz.)

Kietzer returned briefly Tuesday for another look. He is one of several scientists who will be surveying the park in the coming days and weeks.

“Right now, I’m just kind of seeing what’s left,” he said.

Erosion is a major concern, he said, as well as flooding or debris flows if rains in the coming season are heavy.

In the park’s southern reaches, round hills covered in black stubble marched to the horizon. In a ravine, a stand of increasingly rare native walnut trees, though seared, seemed to have survived with much of their greenery intact.

Lizards wriggled their way between clods of black dirt, ground squirrels poked their heads out of burrows, and birds darted among the branches of the few trees that relieved the monotonous landscape.

Other scientists, Kietzer said, reported seeing at least 16 bird species in the park Tuesday, and a variety of hawks since the fire, as well as a golden eagle.

In one part of the park, about 40 percent of the coastal cactus wrens known to dwell there before the fire were seen by biologists afterward. The troubled species’ numbers have been dropping locally, possibly because too much of its habitat has burned over the years.

And while no fresh shoots of green were yet visible Tuesday, Kietzer said that can happen pretty fast: within 72 hours of a wildfire in some cases.

“Some of this stuff will recover pretty quickly,” he said. “There’s supposed to be some rain next week. There’s reason to be optimistic.”

Overall, Kietzer seemed upbeat about the prospects of the park’s recovery. Orange County’s native habitat is adapted to periodic wildfire, resprouting readily from the base of charred plants; some species, such as wildflowers called fire-followers, even rely on chemical signals from wildfire to germinate.

Debate continues among scientists, however, on just how much wildfire the native vegetation can stand. The plant communities known as coastal sage scrub and chaparral are adapted to wildfire every few decades, but in parts of Orange County, fire is coming far more frequently — every decade, or even less.

Too much wildfire, and there’s a risk of “type conversion:” healthy stands of native shrubs, for instance, could fail to grow back, while non-native grass — also known as weeds — takes over.

Much depends on rain. Orange County’s traditionally rainy months are approaching, and a series of light rains will help the habitat grow back, Kietzer said.

“One thing we’re concerned with is erosion,” he said. “It will be beneficial if we get three to four light rains, a quarter inch or less. We’ll get some stuff sprouting.”

Heavy rain, however, could cause hillsides to slump, or even debris flows.

State parks officials must decide, among other things, whether to send in work crews to repair damage related to firefighting. But Kietzer saw encouraging signs there, too. While bulldozer tracks were in evidence, blading of the landscape by bulldozers was not.

“Fortunately, it appears there wasn’t too much bulldozer activity in the park,” he said.

Kietzer will alternate over the next few weeks between extensive walks in the burned out park and meetings with other experts to map out the damage and plan any intervention that might be needed to help the park return to life.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can do to bring this habitat back to a lush, green, native, diverse state park,” he said.

But the apparent determination of the park’s wild animals to get back to business was encouraging.

“It always lifts my spirit to see life after such damage,” Kietzer said.

>> SEE PHOTO SLIDE SHOW OF BURNED CHINO HILLS STATE PARK

>> GO TO COMPLETE FIRE COVERAGE

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