Presidio Burn to Benefit Native Plants

By Ryder W. Miller

As part of its effort to help re-establish native plants in the Presidio, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) has implemented a control burn research program.

In the areas below Inspiration Point, but not as far as El Pollin Springs, visitors will find scorched land where native Serpentine Grasslands might be re-established.

The control burn program has already finished for the summer, but more control burnings are planned for the early Fall.

The GGNRA followed the dictates of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which decides which days the control burns are allowed. Present at the burnings have been Presidio and GGNRA staff and a National Park Service Wildland Fire Crew.

"Safety is a huge concern. We make sure the fire does not spread. It is watched very carefully," said Dana Polk, senior advisor for the Presidio Trust.

The test plots are burned within tall metal boxes, which prevents the fire from spreading outside of the test areas. Other testing plots will explore the benefits of mowing, scraping and tarping the scorched Earth. The purpose of the pilot project is to increase the population of the endangered Presidio Clarkia and to reintroduce Marin dwarf flax seed to the area.

"The remnant grassland at Inspiration Point is fragmented due to the planting of non-native trees and the invasion of annual and perennial non-native grasses," said Mark Frey, an ecologist working with the Presidio Trust.

Fire is a necessary part of California's wild ecology, in that it creates openings in the flora for new plants to re-establish themselves. Some seeds only germinate after a fire. When natural fires are prevented, wildland fires are more of a danger because there is an excessive undercover build-up.

Fire suppression has become dangerous to manage because human settlements have been made in the once wild areas of California, which were dependent upon fire to restore re-growth opportunities.

"We think this is the first control burn since the Ohlone," Polk said.

The Ohlone Indians were the primary tribes of Native Americans living in the Bay Area when early missionaries arrived in the 18th century.