RESTORATION / SUMMER 2023

Photo by Wade Sedgwick

OVLC’s Ventura River Steelhead Preserve, situated seven miles inland from the Ventura County coast, is a low-density rural residential area surrounded by open space. It encompasses a unique groundwater-dependent ecosystem along the river that has ebbed and flowed with the river’s breath over many centuries. Over the last 100 years, human activities like grazing have deeply influenced the landscape. 28 acres on the preserve are primarily non-native vegetation communities, dominated by yellow starthistle (Centaurea spp.), nonnative grasses (Bromus spp.), and more. Around the edges of this historical grazing are California black walnuts (Juglans californica), coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.), and purple sage (Salvia leucophylla) scrub. These native relics of the land are stalled along the edges, waiting in the seed bank, and anticipating a time to recruit into alluvium soil and mix into a diverse ecotone. 

To bring a disturbance like fire, is to disrupt the rhythms of the non-native plants (unadapted for fire unlike our natives) in order to bring back conditions that promote the traits of native species. This is to hopefully, with thought of target species physiology and phenology, tip the scale in their favor. 

On June 22, 2023, in partnership with the Ventura County Prescribed Burn Association and Ventura County Fire, 28 acres were burned on the Ventura River Steelhead Preserve. The prescribed burn project had many goals and objectives that pieced together the first prescribed burn for restoration purposes in the county. 

The first goal of the burn was to train firefighters, equipping them with hands-on fire experience. Each firefighter played a crucial role in planning, executing, and ensuring the success and safety of the fire. 

Sophie McLean on the burn scene!

Moreover, the burn facilitated a collaboration between the UC Cooperative Extension and the Ventura County Resource Conservation District to research three consecutive burns and the effect of subsequent yearly seedings on the target species (yellow starthistle). Research plots were divided into burned, unburned, seeded, and unseeded, and paired with in-depth vegetation surveys, biomass sampling, weather sampling, fire intensity and duration readings, and soil seed bank sampling. All of these factors are building an understanding of the characteristics of this burn. Even the day of the burn, when commotion and heat was at its peak, our colleagues were collecting samples of the vegetation. 

Insight into these factors will aid us in understanding how this burn will affect the plant populations and, in turn, the land. Most importantly, research expands our reach in empowering future burns. 9 

In a single day, all 28 acres were burned, in addition to another 17 acres on our neighbor’s land. The dried grass carried the fire through each section, not entirely encompassing the star thistle, but girdling it with heat. It was loud; the wetter fuels sizzled and popped, while heat radiated. The land burned black in an instant of light and smoke, and it carried further and further, until it reached the firefighters’ drawn lines and anchors. The yellowed uniforms dotted the edges of the burn like a string of lights. They did not face the fire, but looked outward into the bordering oak woodlands. 

Fire is a tool for restoration that is an alternative to chemical or other physical removal. Because it is a pivotal component to our local ecosystems, the habitat’s response to fire can be tremendous. Our community has seen this happen, from resurrecting Ceanothus burls, hillsides of colored fire-chasing forbs, or even now, years after the Thomas Fire, a diverse succession of perennials and annuals. Fire is a component to our land that adds heterogeneity and complexity. As landowners, we are constantly learning the intersection between human and nature, and how to blur that line. 

The land sits black at the moment, with lined rectangles of unburned research plots.

Now, planning for seeding, we wait for rain. 

Sophie McLean
Native Plant Specialist