Volunteers, US Forest Service team up to help revive rare plants after Caldor and Mosquito fires

The fires reshaped the landscape of parts of these forests, leaving room for rare plants to emerge.

The fires reshaped the landscape of parts of these forests, leaving room for rare plants to emerge.

STATE’S UNIQUE BIODIVERSITY. I’M SO IMPRESSED AT HOW THIS AREA IS COMING BACK THREE YEARS POST-FIRE. HONESTLY, AFTER THE 2021 CALDOR FIRE, THIS LANDSCAPE, YOU CAN TELL BY ALL THE STANDING DEAD SKELETONS AROUND US. THIS USED TO BE A VERY SHADY, CLOSED CANOPY CONIFER FOREST. THE EL DORADO NATIONAL FOREST IS SLOWLY COMING BACK TO LIFE. WE’RE UPSLOPE FROM SACRAMENTO AND A LITTLE WEST OF LAKE TAHOE JUST TO ORIENT THAT COMEBACK, GETTING SOME HELP FROM THE FOREST SERVICE. YOU CAN REALLY SEE, LIKE IN THIS AREA, OUR ROLE IS TO HELP TO MANAGE RARE SPECIES ON THE FOREST AND PREVENT THEIR DECLINE ON THE FOREST AND THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY, COURTNEY. GABRIELLE. ANYTHING UPSLOPE? AND TODAY WE ARE LOOKING TO COLLECT REALLY IMPORTANT DATA ON SOME RARE PLANT SPECIES THAT WERE IMPACTED BY THE CALDOR FIRE. I THINK WE FOUND IT. ONE PLANT, THE PATCH, ONLY APPEARS AFTER A WILDFIRE CLEARS OTHERS. THIS IS THE VERY FIRST LEAF THAT EMERGES FOR THIS PARTICULAR SPECIES. A RARE PLANT CALLED THE PLEASANT VALLEY MARIPOSA LILY. IT’S CALOCHORTUS CLAVATUS AND IS TYPICALLY ONLY FOUND IN THE EL DORADO NATIONAL FOREST. IT’S ACTUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH A VERY SPECIFIC SOIL TYPE THAT’S ON OUR FOREST. THIS IS A BLACK OAK THAT’S RESPROUTING. IT’S AN IMPORTANT LINK IN CALIFORNIA’S DIVERSE FOREST SYSTEM. YOU THINK ABOUT THE NATIVE BEES LIKE IT, A LITTLE POLLINATOR ACTION. ALL THE POLLINATORS THAT ARE VISITING THESE DIFFERENT PLANTS AND JUST THE DIVERSITY THAT THESE PLANTS ARE BRINGING BY. I JUST FOUND SOME NEMOPHILA MACULATA. FINDING THESE PLANTS IS A CHALLENGE, BUT THERE ARE MANY EYES HERE TO HELP. WE TRAINED ALMOST 60 VOLUNTEERS JUST FOR THIS PROJECT, 60 VOLUNTEERS WORKED TOGETHER TO FIND THE PLANTS. OKAY, TEAM, IS EVERYBODY READY FOR SOME DATA COLLECTION? YES. SO, YEAH, IT WOULD BE BETTER TO WALK TODAY. WE KIND OF WANT TO GET INTO SOME PARALLEL LINES. THIS TEAM IS TAKING NOTE OF THE EARLY GROWTH PHASE. HOW WERE THEY AFFECTED BY THE FIRE. HOW ARE THEY RECOVERING AFTER FIRE. WELL THIS IS A FIRE SCAR. SO IT COULD JUST BE BIG VARIEGATUM WHEN THE PLANTS FLOWER LATER THIS SUMMER, ANOTHER TEAM WILL HARVEST THE SEEDS AND THAT WILL BE PUT INTO JUST LONG TERM STORAGE. AND THESE DEEP FREEZE STATES SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO BE FOUND HERE. YOU FOUND A CALOCHORTUS EVEN WITH THE UNKNOWNS OF FUTURE WILDFIRE YEARS, THIS IS INCREDIBLE. OTHER SEEDS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE FOREST SERVICE. THOSE WILL BE PLANTED SOON. KEEP YOUR RUNNING TALLY. WE’LL ADD THEM UP AT THE END IN HOPES OF HELPING THIS AREA REGROW NOW. AND WE CAME UP WITH IT WAS 390 WAS OUR NUMBER I THINK 389 ACTUALLY. BUT CALIFORNIA’S FIRE ADAPTED ECOSYSTEMS ARE ALREADY OFF TO A PROMISING START. I’M VERY HOPEFUL FOR WHAT WE SAW HERE TODAY. LIFE FINDS A WAY. AND VOLUNTEERS ARE ALSO GATHERING RARE PLANT SEEDS IN THE AREA BURNED BY THE MOSQUITO FIRE IN 2022. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER WITH THE CALIFORNI

Volunteers, US Forest Service team up to help revive rare plants after Caldor and Mosquito fires

The fires reshaped the landscape of parts of these forests, leaving room for rare plants to emerge.

The 2021 Caldor Fire razed parts of the Eldorado National Forest in El Dorado County. The fire’s intensity totally reshaped some areas of the once densely forested landscape. Several years later, there is promising regrowth of grasses and larger brush, including a plant known as the Pleasant Valley Mariposa Lily. This is one of several species that tend to flourish in the wake of a wildfire. A group of expert volunteers with the California Native Plant Society is teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service to help preserve this rare native species.“One thing we can do is this seed collection and sort of assisted recovery after fire,” said Kristen Nelson.Nelson is the rare plant program manager for the California Native Plant Society.When plants like the Mariposa Lily bloom in large groups, Nelson says that seed collection can be a beneficial tool for preserving and spreading the native species.Some of the seeds will be planted by the U.S. Forest Service. “This can be a boon for local wildlife in many ways,” said Stephanie Calloway, a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service within the Eldorado National Forest. The forest has a historically diverse population of plants and animals. Calloway said that supporting rare plant species helps to keep that biodiversity.The volunteers intend to collect enough seeds to also seal some in cold storage. Those seeds could be used if the Mariposa Lily is threatened by extinction in later years.“That's going to allow us to protect that genetic diversity and those species in the long term,” Nelson said. The seed collection process began in May as the Mariposa Lily was just beginning to emerge. It was then that volunteers carefully combed through a large area where the plants were known to have grown recently. Each person carefully counted what they saw and entered their findings into an app.More volunteers will go back to the same spots later this summer when the plants flower and produce seeds. Similar work is also being done in areas burned by the Mosquito Fire in 2022. The U.S. Forest Service is providing funding to the California Native Plant Society for this ongoing project.You can learn how to volunteer with the California Native Plant Society here.This story was produced as part of our Wildfire Ready special. See more resources with our 2024 guide for how to prepare for wildfires in California

The 2021 Caldor Fire razed parts of the Eldorado National Forest in El Dorado County. The fire’s intensity totally reshaped some areas of the once densely forested landscape.

Several years later, there is promising regrowth of grasses and larger brush, including a plant known as the Pleasant Valley Mariposa Lily. This is one of several species that tend to flourish in the wake of a wildfire.

A group of expert volunteers with the California Native Plant Society is teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service to help preserve this rare native species.

“One thing we can do is this seed collection and sort of assisted recovery after fire,” said Kristen Nelson.

Nelson is the rare plant program manager for the California Native Plant Society.

When plants like the Mariposa Lily bloom in large groups, Nelson says that seed collection can be a beneficial tool for preserving and spreading the native species.

Some of the seeds will be planted by the U.S. Forest Service.

“This can be a boon for local wildlife in many ways,” said Stephanie Calloway, a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service within the Eldorado National Forest. The forest has a historically diverse population of plants and animals. Calloway said that supporting rare plant species helps to keep that biodiversity.

The volunteers intend to collect enough seeds to also seal some in cold storage. Those seeds could be used if the Mariposa Lily is threatened by extinction in later years.

“That's going to allow us to protect that genetic diversity and those species in the long term,” Nelson said.

The seed collection process began in May as the Mariposa Lily was just beginning to emerge. It was then that volunteers carefully combed through a large area where the plants were known to have grown recently. Each person carefully counted what they saw and entered their findings into an app.

More volunteers will go back to the same spots later this summer when the plants flower and produce seeds.

Similar work is also being done in areas burned by the Mosquito Fire in 2022.

The U.S. Forest Service is providing funding to the California Native Plant Society for this ongoing project.

You can learn how to volunteer with the California Native Plant Society here.

This story was produced as part of our Wildfire Ready special. See more resources with our 2024 guide for how to prepare for wildfires in California

Volunteers, US Forest Service team up to help revive rare plants after Caldor and Mosquito fires

The fires reshaped the landscape of parts of these forests, leaving room for rare plants to emerge.

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