Up My Nose

Posted on November 5, 2007 in Santiago Fire

Just after I made the left onto Glenn Ranch from Portola, I caught the scent drifting down the Serrano Creek drainage. An odor like a heavy smoldering log rolling off the foothills, seeking the bottom of gravity’s well. A few feet higher and the marine layer shoved it aside, giving the air a cleaner scent. The darkness agreed with the latter’s suggestion and showed no sign of the conflagration’s lingering glow.

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If you’re wondering just what the land looked like before it was torched, check these photos.

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A site about fire in the chaparral with discussion of the demerits of hydroseeding as carried out after the 2003 San Diego fires. Also suggests that fires make it possible for alien species to take over tracts of chaparral. Not good.

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Chris McGowan exonerates global warming as a factor in the recent wildfires, putting the blame on suburban expansion. Good old Republican slash, build and let it burn politics.

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And from 2003, a little article I wrote about how chaparral wildfires can make the soil waterproof.