Hannah
Partners: Julia, Jack
For our project my partners and I went camping in the Laguna Mountain Forest on October 11th and
12th. Our photos show a few of the beautiful pine trees that we observed. Most of the trees we
looked at were very large and seemingly healthy. The large, older trees had many pine cones
around it’s surrounding area, so one could assume that they are healthy and reproducing. There
were several saplings, which adds support to the fact that the forest is healthy and reproducing.
There were a few fallen/dead trees that could have been in said condition because of disease or
more likely some fires in the past.
Global Forest Watch’s interactive map tells us that in 2003, the Cedar Fire destroyed many of the
trees in this forest. Then, only four years later, the Witch Creek fire destroyed some of the
surrounding areas, but was not nearly as destructive to the trees.
The Cedar Fire was the largest fire in California’s history. It burned more than 273,246 acres of land
in and around San Diego. Four years later, the Witch Creek fire was the sixth largest fire in
California’s history, burning 197,990 acres of San Diego land. A controlled fire is to be burned soon
in order to burn away the dry brush that could cause a larger fire that could become uncontrolled.
The forest also had less rainfall this past year than the year before, so the grass was very dry and
the nearby lake was completely dried up.
In conclusion, I am hopeful for the prospects of this forest because it is protected by the state and
we saw many little saplings. Though our drought is concerning and lends itself to forest fires and to
plants dying of dehydration, but San Diego is in for an El Niño! An El Niño is a very rainy year so
hopefully this year will be without forest fires and maybe the lake will refill.
http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/20LACRES.pdf
http://wildfiretoday.com/2013/10/28/cedar-fire-californias-largest/
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/nov/03/controlled-burns-planned-mount-laguna-area/
http://rainfall.weatherdb.com/l/17757/Mount-Laguna-California