Mapping Recovery with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Update – 6/11/20
Hello Community Scientists,
Summer is upon us – the afternoons are reaching and exceeding 80 degrees F, and the slopes in many places have transitioned from green to gold as annual grasses go to seed. Some weeds are now more obvious and easier to spot (the star thistles are in full bloom), and the small fennel plants from March are now as tall as we are. Acmispon glaber (deerweed) and Spartium junceum (Spanish broom) have turned the slopes along highway 33 temporarily yellow.
I am pleased to report that all of the trails that we hoped would be hiked by volunteers have been mapped at this point – thank you all so much! We are up to >1000 observations in AnecData and >2500 plant observations in iNaturalist. Another way to look at it is: over 4 months, this project generated 20% of all observations ever made in the Thomas Fire scar over the past 10 years on iNaturalist. That level of data collection is worthy of huge applause and congratulations! Under other circumstances, I would suggest a celebratory summer BBQ, but we’ll have to put that off until next year. Keep your eyes open!
Regardless of whether you hiked and mapped for us this year, we would appreciate it if you would fill out our post-mapping survey, which you can find here. This will give us feedback for future improvement, and help us to know if this mapping project had ancillary benefits.
As I mentioned in the last update, now is the time to catch some of our later blooming species. There are many species of Mariposa lilies, or Calochortus, in our area, and they bloom for only a short period – between now and July is a good time to see them. If you’re up for a hot hike in the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled for some of these beauties:
As we get deeper into summer, many plants will set seed and die, or will go dormant until the first fall rains. If you’re planning to hike and haven't already gone out, we’d appreciate it if you could collect data before the end of June. However, the project overall will continue past the end of the month (after all, there are some late-season plants that you might catch!) – so please continue adding your recovery observations if you’re out exploring in the fire scar.
That’s all for this update! I’ll check in again when I have more info about the overall project findings, or to update you about any interesting late-summer finds. Thank you again for your work on this project, and until next time, stay healthy, and stay safe!
- Josie
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