Under Construction!Under Construction!
Landels-Hill UC Big Creek Reserve, southern Big Sur coastline, Monterey Co., CA, March 28, 2022
The Landels-Hill Big Creek UC Reserve is a dynamic place. On this day, last week, I was interested to observe the devastating impact and recovery underway of a very hot fire that swept through most of the reserve in August 2020, about 20 months ago, affecting most of the trees and vegetation but fortunately sparing the lower Big Creek canyon and its buildings, as well as Whale Point thanks to prudent fire breaks and implemented emergency sprinklers. Hiking up Highland Trail, it was a stark view of the removal of most trees in higher biomes, but now about 20 months later with abundant growth of the plants normally found in the open, but also with many trees sprouting every which way from their charred bases. A major rain event in January 2021, about 14+ months back, caused major changes to the creek with dramatic erosion of hillsides, and huge logs swept toward the ocean, taking out most of the trees near Big Creek's mouth, previously spared in the fire, and creating the first sandy beach at the ocean junction in recent memory. My overall impression was that the cycle of forest succession has begun again but full recovery would depend on the previously normal climate of heavy fog along with winter rain, but the Central Coast has instead experienced an extremely dry first part of 2022 following some December storms. Still, I was very happy to experience lush growth of the low vegetation and some signs of the return of animals, hopeful for the future.Return to Biology 317 Fieldtrip Map or Bio 317 Field Marine Biology Home Page
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