Fire fully contains Santa Rosa blaze; recovery looms

After burning through about a third of Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara, the fire is now fully contained, but researchers warn they still don’t know how much of the island’s rare plants, reptiles, and other wildlife were lost—or how long recove

Sadness came fast when the headlines started rolling in—flames ravaging Santa Rosa Island. the kind of place you don’t just visit. You remember it. Five years ago. on a life-changing backpacking trip that I chronicled for this newspaper. I walked those same paths and met the island’s inhabitants up close.

I still picture my first wilderness campsite near Ford Point. A several-thousand-pound elephant seal woke me from sleep with its jarring bark. Moving my tent afterward wasn’t pleasant. But watching the enormous animal—and his mate—in the gauzy morning light made the discomfort feel small.

The fire map later showed that much of what I charted is now seared. It also burned through a grove of critically endangered Torrey pines. the rare trees I had hiked to and gazed down on from above the island’s crystal blue water. The blaze passed through Water Canyon Campground. where I’d spent my final night in relative comfort after roughing it in the backcountry. And though my memories feel personal. they’re also tied to a place that’s home to species found nowhere else.

For Santa Rosa Island—one of five islands that comprise Channel Islands National Park—the scale is stark. Before it was vanquished, the fire chewed through about a third of the island. The cause is still under investigation. Early on, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that a shipwrecked sailor may have sparked the blaze after firing flares for help. Coast Guard images showed the 67-year-old man carved “SOS” into what looked like charred ground before being rescued by helicopter.

Santa Rosa and its surrounding archipelago are often described as the “Galapagos of North America” for the flora and fauna found only there, including the rarest plants. Fires of this magnitude are rare on Santa Rosa, and the island’s inhabitants haven’t evolved with regular burns.

Now, fully contained, the fire doesn’t end the worry—it shifts it. Specialists plan to begin assessing the damage starting Friday, with researchers saying there’s still much they don’t know about the fire’s impact and how long recovery will take, or whether it will ever look the same.

“It’s pretty much an unknown,” said Heather Schneider, director of conservation at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, where work includes studying and protecting rare plants on the island. “There will be winners and losers for sure.”

One example is the Hoffmann’s slender-flowered gilia. a federally endangered wildflower found only on the island. with much of it in the area that burned. Schneider said it’s possible the blaze incinerated the dainty purple-and-white flowers before they could drop seeds this year. But she and colleagues believe there’s probably a healthy collection of seeds in the soil from previous years that hasn’t germinated yet—seeds that could help the plant recover when conditions are right.

Some glimmers of hope have already come from what officials and scientists believe is intact. It’s believed the island’s Torrey pines are largely intact, and much of the campground survived. The pinnipeds that crashed my first night on the island were probably not affected much either. and certain areas I visited—such as the historic South Point Light Station—were spared.

Even so, the island’s living web may be affected long after the flames end. Greg Pauly. curator of herpetology for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. has researched the island’s reptiles and amphibians for 14 years. He described the aftermath as a sequence that won’t reveal itself all at once.

“It’s sort of a one-two punch,” Pauly said. “You’ve got to survive the fire, and then you’ve got to be able to figure out how to make a living in a landscape that looks very different than it did a week ago.”

In many parts of the island. Pauly explained. soil’s high clay content causes deep fractures to form as it dries. He expects many animals—including the gopher snake—to have gotten through the fire by hunkering down in those cracks. When the snake emerges, he said, it should find enough mice to eat. But if seeds and other food for mice are scarce, prey could dwindle over time.

Pauly also pointed to another threat that often follows fire: non-native grasses. He said those grasses that have taken hold “create a carpet of highly flammable material for much of the year.” In the aftermath of fire. such grasses often spring up quickly and shade out native plants. He expects the acreage of those grasses to increase—an outcome he said would be bad news for wildlife that depends on native habitat. including woody shrubs.

The island’s history has included human-caused changes that reshaped what could grow and what could survive. Within the past two centuries, cattle and sheep brought in for ranching ate up the island’s shrubs, Pauly said. Later, elk and deer for hunting added pressure. But since 2011, he said, the island has been free of those non-native grazers and native vegetation has rebounded. He expects there will be more change ahead. Scientists are clocking an increase in temperature and a slight decrease in fog. and Pauly predicts fires will become more common as more people visit.

Even as the worry settles in, Pauly’s description of change carried a strange kind of steadiness. My own trip memories are a snapshot in time. I went during the height of the pandemic. when my boatmates were masked and socially distanced. and much of what felt miraculous about the island was tied to that moment. I wouldn’t want that aspect of the journey to carry on—but the place itself. I keep thinking. deserves a fighting chance.

Some efforts are already moving. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has seeds for all of the rare plants in the burn area. a kind of fail-safe if the plants need help recovering. Just this March, the garden opened a conservation grove of Torrey pines grown from seeds collected on Santa Rosa. The Channel Islands National Park Foundation is also raising money for the park. Schneider said recovery will require coordination on multiple fronts.

“It’s going to be an all hands on deck situation to understand, assess and plan the recovery,” she said.

If I go back to Santa Rosa, I hope to recognize it—not as it was before the flames, but as it becomes after the work begins.

Santa Rosa Island fire Channel Islands National Park Torrey pines Hoffmann’s slender-flowered gilia elephant seal recovery conservation U.S. Coast Guard flares SOS