Resources for exploring fire ecology in Santa Cruz County and learning about the impacts of the CZU Lightning Complex. Contribute to our understanding by joining the CZU Lightning Complex and Community Science Project.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- 8/3 Amah Mutsun Fire Relationships (online)
Fire is many things to the Amah Mutsun and other California Indian Tribes — it is sacred, it is a tool gifted by Creator, and it is a way to restore balance to Mother Earth. This presentation will share … Read more - FULL 8/7 Exploring the Burn Zone: Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve
The Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve is an example of the unique Santa Cruz sandhills habitat and home to many of our local rare plants. It has also experienced multiple fire events since 2008, including last year’s CZU Lightning Complex. During this … Read more - FULL 8/14 Exploring the Burn Zone: Rancho Del Oso
While the majority of Big Basin State Park remains closed to the public after intense impacts suffered from the CZU Lightning Complex fires of August 2020, its coastal portion, Rancho Del Oso, has reopened. Explore the edges of Big … Read more - 8/16 A Striking August: Lightning and Wildfires with Chris Giesige (online)
In August 2020, Northern California was ignited by a series of 650 wildfires spurred by dry lightning from rare, massive summer thunderstorms. Today, all of California is experiencing drought conditions and fire season is well underway. Join us on … Read more - 8/21 Exploring the Burn Zone: TBD
Witness the impacts of the CZU Lightning Complex fires with your own eyes through this series of walks exploring different habitats that burned last August. Throughout the series, naturalists from the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, California Native … Read more - 8/24 Fire and the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve with Dr. Jodi McGraw (online)
Many of our native plants in the Santa Cruz Mountains are fire adapted, from the familiar coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) to the extremely rare Santa Cruz cypress (Hesperocyparis abramsiana) and Santa Cruz wallflower (Erysimum teretifolium). However, decades of fire … Read more - 8/28 Fire as Friend: Exploring Fire Ecology with Kids
Join the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History for an interactive program focused on Fire as Friend. We’ll explore how fire can be helpful to humans, plants, and animals through guided activities and traditional practices of Santa Cruz’s Indigenous … Read more
PAST RECORDINGS AND ARTICLES
- Coast Redwoods and Fire with Zane Moore
The CZU Lightning Complex fires burned roughly 80% of the old growth redwood forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains, notably including Big Basin, the largest contiguous stand of old growth redwoods south of Humboldt County. While … Read more - Rare Plants and Community Science in the CZU Burn Zone with Amy Patten
The area impacted by the CZU Lightning Complex Fires hosts a slew of rare plants. As we enter spring, the season of new growth, botanists will be paying close attention to these rare plants, but … Read more - New Perspectives on the Past Through Freshly Exposed Rocks
In this edition of Rock Record, the Geology Gents unearth a few key examples of how newly exposed outcrops have led to important geological insights, as well as some geologic exploration into freshly exposed rock … Read more - Long-term lessons: Perspectives on three years of mushroom monitoring in the Santa Cruz Mountains with Christian Schwarz
As mushroom hunters, we enjoy traveling far and wide, bouncing from place to place and following the rains to stay with the season. But what happens when we focus on revisiting the same small areas … Read more - Fire and Mud: Why Fires Cause Debris Flows in California with Noah Finnegan
Geomorphologist Noah Finnegan provides an overview of the science linking wildfires and debris flows in California, including lessons learned from the 2009 Lockheed Fire in the Santa Cruz mountains. Particular emphasis is paid to how … Read more - Naturalist Night: Coastal Prairies
California’s Coastal Prairies are a rare and incredibly biodiverse habitat found in Santa Cruz, and the most species-rich grassland type in North America. Despite its rarity and species-richness, this is a habitat-type at risk of … Read more - Naturalist Night: Redwood Forest
Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth, with lifespans that reach into the thousands, but their range is relatively small. A combination of longitude, climate, and elevation limit where they grow to a few hundred … Read more - Rockin’ Pop-Up: Impacts of Fire on Geologic Landscapes
This month, the Geology Gents are joined by their colleague Alandra Lopez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Earth System Science Department at Stanford University who will discuss the impacts of fire on geologic systems, as … Read more