Contemplations of Fire, Rebirth, and Resilience
- Emily Franc
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
A recently returned Cali girl, I am becoming acquainted with the abundant natural trails and beaches in the Monterey Bay region. One such traipse, through the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, led me along the Old Growth Loop Trail where towering redwoods scrape the sky and soft ferns and leaves shush human sounds below. The park website extols it as “a forest in a perpetual state of becoming.”
I was there, occupying just one moment in its “becoming” within the vast history of this redwood-stretched ravine. It was incredible to see evidence of past moments in time—in the growth rings of long-ago trees felled during its logging phase, some smooth, some burned and jagged from both man-made and natural causes—and in the small shells and fossils marking its past at the bottom of an inland sea over three million years ago.
One cluster of trees in particular caught my eye. Within the circle of 6 newer trees already reaching over 20’ high was a burned stump of a redwood tree over three feet in diameter. It was incredible to see the evidence of time and history as the burnt-out hulks of once massive redwoods make way for new growth. Some of these trees are over 150 years old. Their capacity to sequester atmospheric carbon extends beyond their natural lifespan unless released due to wildfires.
Adaptation is the core of our work and is defined as the “modification of an organism or its parts that makes it more fit for existence under the conditions of its environment.” However, how quickly an organism can adapt to changing environmental conditions varies by species. We are witnessing an accelerated rate of change in the Monterey Bay region, and our communities are determined to adapt. I am not sure humans today are as nimble at adapting as our ancestors.
Winding my way along Aptos Creek, reflecting on my return to California to start a new job coordinating efforts of the Monterey Bay Climate Adaptation Action Network (MBCAAN), I am struck by how impactful such collaborative efforts will be in safeguarding such natural places from rampant fires caused by a rapidly changing climate.
The newly forming MBCAAN network of local non-profits, tribes, community-based organizations, cities, and counties is committed to collaboration across the region to safeguard human spaces and natural places from impacts caused by a rapidly changing climate. The implementation of new adaptation strategies, as well as traditional ecological knowledge of land stewardship held by indigenous tribes, is already happening!
The Network’s efforts over the next five years will involve dozens of partners and over 21 adaptation implementation projects across the Monterey Bay region, seven of which will implement beneficial prescribed burns, fuel reduction, and traditional cultural burn practices. Funding is provided through the NOAA Office for Coastal Management. In addition to mitigation projects, this grant provides substantial funding to train a climate-ready workforce proficient in the specialized skills needed to do the work. Cross-cutting strategies like this could minimize future fire risk and prevent damage like that caused by the CZU Lightning Complex fires in 2020, which burned across 86,509 acres, destroying 1,490 buildings.
Personally, I am excited to learn more about the beneficial uses of controlled burning and its importance in forest health and reducing fire risk in our built communities.
Prioritizing nature-based solutions such as beneficial and traditional cultural burn practices to address extreme wildfires will build adaptive capacity for our vulnerable communities, as well as the redwood groves in Nisene Marks State Park, in the face of a changing climate.