b'PARTNER CONTENTNature 911: Why Post-fire Seeding Needsto be Considered an EmergencyI f Ive learned anything from 25 years in the fire reclamation business, its that nature doesnt wait for human schedules. After wildfires roar through, reclamation teams have the best of intentions. However, orchestrating, funding, analyzing, planning and rolling out reclamation work takes time. As seeding, which is usually last on a long list of reclamation tasks, gets pushed back and pushed back, hillsides erode, waters pollute and weeds take hold.David Gilpin,The optimal window for seeding is narrow.In north-president and owner,ern California, most native species need to be seeded Pacific Coast Seedsin the fall or, at latest, by early January. Waiting to seed Helped establishedlater into a new year brings greater risk to establishment Pacific Coast Seed, Incand success.in 1985 and servedThe Butte Fire in 2015 proved a perfect case studyGrowth of early seeded versus unseeded areas the spring as its Presidentin the comparison of early seeding, late seeding andafter the Butte fire.until 2016.David nowno seeding.Following the fire, the East Bay Municipal serves as Environ- Utility District voluntarily mobilized a crew to seed andI do see solutions. mental Seed Managermulch 30 acres as a contribution to their community. First, seeding for erosion control, water quality coordinating wild seedThis reclamation work was proactively planned andmanagement, and native seed recruitment must be collection crews,quickly initiated with seeding in October. At the sameconsidered an initial emergency priority rather than provide seedingsite, additional acres were seeded in mid-January, andthe last step in a clean-up process. Seeding must occur design and plantingsome was not seeded at all.alongside road-clearing, power line safety and other treatments and otherIn year one, the early seeding did well, arresting ero- first steps of recovery, rather than later in the reclama-client services. sion and protecting waterways. Despite being plantedtion process. So long as the ground is cool and safe to just three months later, the January-planted seedsplant, seeding should occur on natures schedule, ie: struggled.between September 15th and December 15th imme-In year two, the later-seeded areas caught up to pro- diately following the fire. If additional disturbance vide significant cover and biomass, but not soon enoughhappens post-seedingsay, from machinery working to limit the post-fire impacts of erosion and water popu- at structure clean-up or other tasksreseeding may be lation, but soon enough to stay ahead of major weednecessary in some areas. populations. Meanwhile, the unseeded areas were openSecond, we need to create reclamation systems that to potential weed invasion. proactively clear regulatory and organizational hurdles The Western Shasta RCD Carr Fire in 2018 had aahead of fire activity. CalTrans is a role model of exactly slightly different challenge. Seeding was somewhat de- this kind of forward thinking. They vet their contractors layed because getting hold of some homeowners provedin advance so they already know exactly who is quali-immensely difficult. Once seeding started in December,fied and available before fire ever sparks. They maintain the treatments were applied along strict property own- basic seed prescriptions that they modify for specific ership lines. This resulted in seeded areas being wellareas, and they establish key techniques and priorities. covered while unseeded areasstarkly delineated byBy completing much of the administrative burden in the property linesbeing overrun with weed species:advance, reclamation work is ready to roll smoothly and an issue that will likely persist until the next fire event. quickly - literally as soon as a fire burns out. Very unfortunately, timely seeding is the exceptionThe window to influence species composition and rather than the rule. Often, huge tracts of land are leftmanage sensitive landscapes is often very, very small. unseeded for a year or more, resulting in washouts, lossThe consequences of not seeding on time are devastat-of soil to erosion, water pollution that decimates fisher- ingly high. Its time to consider post-fire seeding an ies, andultimately - take-over by weeds. emergency.OCTOBER 2021SEEDWORLD.COM /51'