Blankets
noun
/`blaNGket/
1. A thick mass or layer of a specified material that covers something completely.
2. Covering all cases or instances; total and inclusive.
3. Cover completely with a thick layer of something.
Oak woodland ecosystems15 used to blanket the Southern California region. Through processes of development and agriculture, these territories have drastically dwindled over time, to the point that they are now legislatively protected. These oaks, particularly the Coastal Live Oak are endemic to California’s fire adapted landscapes16 and, as such, provide a significant level of protection to these areas. Their canopies, sometimes measuring over 50 feet in diameter, coupled with a tough waxy leaf structure, provide fire resistance to a more fire prone undergrowth from embers traveling in wind driven wildfires17.
Overlaying zoning designations, such as jurisdictional boundaries and property lines, habitat overlays of complex ecosystems, constitute a pattern of wildfire dating back centuries. This invisible field of latent ecological forces speaks toward the fact that fires are not unusual occurrences to these regions and that their seasonal repetition illuminates the adaptive nature of these environments, assisting in the replenishment of ecosystems and habitat.
Humans have always lived with fire. But as technologies such as the automobile and rail advanced, urban centers began to spread into wildland ecosystems. With the rapid expansion of ex-urban and suburban developments away from city centers, peri-urban environments (landscapes bordering urban and rural territories) also expanded, bringing with it extensions of resource infrastructure (electricity, water, sewer) and modifications to the terrain through roads, parallelization, terracing (and flattening) of steep hillsides. These encroachments, in turn, removed areas of habitat, and altered valuable ecosystems (such as oak woodlands) which had established a level of resiliency to the landscape.
In the case of Los Angeles, these developments moved into the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains exponentially diminishing the zone between development and wildlands. Over time, the natural frequency of wildfires increased, placing life and property in danger. . As such, more and more people are intermixed with vegetation, most of which has now been replaced with invasive or foreign species (such as eucalyptus and mustard weed) which eliminates the adaptive nature of these landscapes. These, and other, changes to the landscape exacerbates the frequency of wildfire to the point that 100% of all wildfires in California are caused by humans.
Chaparral is a coastal biome (a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat) that exists within climates receiving 15–36 inches of precipitation per year; making the chaparral most vulnerable to fire in the late summer and fall. As a result of climatic shifts due to climate change, this vulnerability has extended into early summer and late spring.
Chaparral ecosystems have adapted to recover from wildfires that historically occured every 30-50 years, and the plant species developed ‘cues’ (heat, smoke, or charred wood, and chemical changes in the soil following fires) to initiate seed germination. Certain species, such as annuals and herbaceous, are known as ‘fire followers’ which depend on fires to burn out other vegetation, which allows sunlight to reach them. Although these ecosystems have adapted to infrequent fires, an increased frequency of fire (as we have seen over the past 10-15 years) can modify the community to become less fire resilient. For example, a frequency of fire less than ten years results in the loss of seeder plants (such as Manzanita). This prohibits these seeder plants to reach their reproductive size before the next fire, resulting in a shift in the community to ‘sprouter’ plants. Additionally, an extreme fire frequency (less than five years) additionally results in the loss of even sprouter plants by destroying their root structure, which serves as a protective ‘reserve’ from which the plant sprouts. These changes in fire frequency result in a phenomenon known as ‘disclimax’, which is the interruption of a natural succession of plants, by arresting their growth at an early or intermediate stage due to human influence - in this case, fire.
Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from a native shrub-land to non-native annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, especially under drought brought about by climate change. Additionally, there is considerable debate concerning chaparral fire regimes that fall into two categories: 1)stands of chaparral become old or stressed which necessitates fires to keep them healthy, and 2) wildfire suppression policies have resulted in dead chaparral to accumulate, creating increased fuel that result in larger and larger fires.
Central to understanding the potential for hazards within the wildland-urban interface is topography, orientation, and soil makeup. Steep, south facing slopes absorb more solar radiation and, hence, result in drier soils and vegetation making them more prone to wildfire and subsequent debris flows. North facing slopes, on the other hand retain more water content in the soil, promoting vegetation, and cooler microclimates through evapotranspiration18. These areas, then, create opportunity for climate or wildfire ‘refugia’19.
Climate Refugia are areas that typically escape adverse conditions of heat and wildfire due to their remaining relatively cool and/or wet. These areas pool colder air, thus creating cooler microsites / microclimates within the mountains. By gaining a better understanding of these microclimates, we can better understand their potential for providing a level of protection and resiliency towards the threat of wildfire. Key to this is establishing proper land management practices that treat not only the direct refugia zone, but also the areas around including potential networks and connective corridors across the terrain.
speculations
Parametric Policies
An estimated 120 million people nationally live in wildland-urban interface or intermix zones, and the health of these economies is directly related to the health of these ecosystems. Parametric Insurance policies promote stewardship of wildlands by residents of the wildland-urban interface by linking rates and liability to management of landscape and local ecosystems. This creates a partnership with the insurance industry to allow the measurement of how much risk proper stewardship and land management practices can reduce in wildland-urban interface areas.
The controversy of rebuilding versus ceding land to the government is central to a re-envisioning of the wildland-urban interface zones. Central to this revisioning is the notion of individual and collective responsibility. There is an argument that people residing in these areas should not be “bailed out”. Nor should the general public be paying for the enormous fire suppression infrastructure and manpower needed to fight these ever-increasing fires. These issues gets to the heart of the matter, highlighting the need to form an argument around personal responsibility that is not punitive, but rather catalytic. How can “personal responsibility” foster, and translate into, a new understanding of land stewardship? Through new public-private partnerships between the State, conservancies, fire-safe councils, and local businesses/municipalities, land management practices can be funded and incentivized to help maintain at risk landscapes so vital to the protection of life and property.
Woodland Umbrellas
Southern California wildfires are primarily wind driven. To mitigate this, we must initiate a massive reforestation project of the Santa Monica Mountains, which would consist of planting acres of CaliforniaCalifornia live oaks, also referred to as coast live oak, across the mountainous terrain and banded as linear groves across the San Fernando Valley. Doing this would serves to resuscitate mountain woodland ecosystems and oak woodland habitat, which would greatly aid to deflect and dissipate embers driven by the Santa Ana winds. Additionally, these groves would cool the environment, improve air quality, and, perhaps most importantly, serve to sequester carbon, assisting in reducing the effects of climate change.
Slope Sponges
Water collection “blankets” along the base of the San Gabriel, Santa Monica, and Santa Ynez Mountains operate as “bladders” following winter rains to provide resources for irrigation and firefighting. Similar to spring and seep containers20 a box with an open back is placed against the hillside and the runoff water channeled into the collection bladders. The tops of the bladders are then planted with native vegetation to promote an integration of habitat, fusing infrastructure with the ecosystem. By locating these systems shaded by topographic formations, the water additionally supports the formation of cooler, wetter microclimates that promote additional wildfire prevention.