There are more hillsides turning green besides the ones behind our house.  Further up Saddleback Mountain there is a growing patch of green.  But it’s not the natural green of tender shoots of new grass.  It’s artificial green.

 It has something to do with the crop dusters that have been flying over the canyons and ridges the past week.  These sturdy little planes have been circling above the mountains and then swooping down, much like the ariel tankers that were diving on the mountains two months ago.  But the material that comes out of this time is not water or the red fire retardant, it’s that same artificial green.

The Cleveland National Forest is seeding the hillsides with grasses.  The intent is to control erosion.  They’ve covered a few acres but with a total of 30,000 acres burned this is not something that will be finished any time soon.

One wonders what kind of seed they are spreading.  There’s debate about the soundness of sowing non-native grass seeds after a fire.  One of the problems we’re having with chaparral fires is the incursion of non-native grasses.  They burn hotter and faster than native grasses and thus the fires are more intense and spread faster. 

There’s a fair amount of talk about this down in San Diego where they lost 1000 homes.  Well, the fact is, that’s not the only problem in San Diego.  It’s a nice place to visit (and work) but I wouldn’t want to live there.  But I don’t want to get into this now.

So measures have been initiated to help Mother Nature revitalize herself.  Actually, Mother Nature needs no help.  She’ll just do it the way she has for millions of years.  The restorative efforts are to protect our incursions into her domain.

 To see a photo journal of the week of the fire, click here.

 To visit my fine art photography website, click here.