Tea Fire's wrath spreads destruction in popular nature areas
By Alex Wilson 12/04/2008
The devastating Tea Fire that destroyed 231 homes also tore through mountains and canyons near some of the area’s most famous hiking trails and gardens, and upon close inspection some fared better than others.
About a week after covering the Santa Barbara County fire live on KVTA 1520 AM, my wife, Dawn, and I returned to examine how the trails, vegetation and wildlife held up. I’ve enjoyed these nature areas since attending UC Santa Barbara during the 1990s, and was apprehensive about what we’d find.
When I first arrived in the fire zone before sunrise on Nov. 14, flames roared through hillside homes on East Mountain Drive. My heart broke for people whose property was going up in flames or who had been tragically injured. I was also concerned about the beautiful habitat and wildlife living on the rugged hillsides.
I drove past Cold Spring Canyon trailhead, just east of the charred Tea Gardens where the fire started. Burning tree branches and loose rocks had fallen onto the road near the trailhead. Flames roared on a steep, brushy hillside just west of the trails, and I saw worrisome glowing orange embers and thick smoke on the floor of the canyon.
On Nov. 22, we first visited Rattlesnake Canyon, one of Santa Barbara’s most historic hiking areas. The trailhead area on Las Canoas Road showed obvious damage. Yellow police tape blocked the entrances along with signs warning unauthorized people to stay out. The fire had scorched the ground right up to the wooden trail sign, which somehow survived undamaged.
About a quarter-mile up the trail, we viewed a burned hillside reaching up to the destroyed Mount Calvary Monastery. The terrain had a barren, almost moonlike appearance. Previously thick chaparral was reduced to blackened sticks poking out of the ground.
Some trailside trees burned almost all the way through and looked frighteningly close to collapse. A few were wrapped in orange caution tape that said, “Danger Killer Tree,” along with skulls and crossbones.
There was so much ash on the ground it looked like it had snowed. We encountered three dead rats in the middle of the trail, which apparently succumbed to asphyxiation as they tried to outrun the blaze, because they were not obviously burned.
About a mile up the trail the scenery was mostly green with a few burned spots. We saw encouraging signs like a squirrel and birds that survived the blaze, but it was clear that this area is going to need more restoration work.
Later that day, we hiked the popular Mission Canyon trails at the end of Tunnel Road leading to Seven Falls and Inspiration Point. That beautiful area was completely untouched by the fire, which apparently stopped near Rattlesnake Canyon.
The following day’s return to the Cold Spring trailhead was pleasantly surprising. There were areas of charred leaves and ash on the ground just past the trailhead, but almost no fire damage to the big oak trees and other lush vegetation along the creek.
The fire apparently stopped spreading at the trailhead area, just short of burning up through the canyons. The entire West Fork trail showed no other signs of the fire’s wrath.
It’s also fortunate that the fire narrowly missed the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Montecito’s irreplaceable Lotusland gardens, home to some nearly extinct plants found nowhere else on earth.
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