After the Sourdough Fire: A Botanist's Role in Burned Area Emergency Response

A Sourdough Fire Burned Area Emergency Response team member surveys an area on September 9, 2023. NPS photo.

A vegetation ecologist on the team

One of the scientists on the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team for the 2023 Sourdough Fire was Janet Coles, then a supervisory biologist at Olympic National Park. In her first permanent Park Service job, at a park that had seen major fires, she saw fire's benefits — clearing thickets of young white fir — and its harms, such as invasions of non-native plants. Unlike most botanists, who study individual species, Coles calls herself a vegetation ecologist: she is interested in how plant species interact with the landscape, and how plant communities respond to stress.

What she did

• In the field: she surveyed invasive plants in unburned areas next to the burn. Weeds such as Scotch broom and bull thistle there could seed the newly burned ground.
• In the office: she researched park policies on invasive plants, talked with local experts, and analyzed existing data to work out which non-native species were most likely to turn up in the fire's footprint.

Why invasive plants matter after fire

Invasive non-native plants move into recently disturbed, open ground, where they can hold back the recovery of native species and the forest canopy. The first year after a fire is critical to setting recovery on the right course over the 3–4 years a BAER project is funded.

Because plants make up most of a fire's fuel, wildfire has a big effect on vegetation. Coles focused on places where fire suppression affected rare plants, where the fire met invasive plants, and where fire-damaged trees threaten people or infrastructure. BAER and its extension, Burned Area Rehabilitation (BAR), give native plants a strong start at revegetating burned ground, without letting invasives take over.

In spring 2024, as plants began to come up in the burn scar, restoration crews funded by BAER and BAR surveyed the area and carried out the recommended treatments against invasive plants.

How you can help

Coles compares visiting a newly burned area to visiting a loved one in hospital with a serious illness: the land is in a delicate state, and a careless visitor can set back its recovery. When burned areas reopen and are considered safe, check your gear — especially if you move between areas and ecosystems — and make sure you aren't carrying weed seeds on your boots, clothes or pack.

Sources

Based on "The Role of Botany in Burned Area Emergency Response," North Cascades National Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.