{"id":354507,"date":"2026-06-10T10:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354507\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:54:13","slug":"fire-ravaged-a-pristine-california-island-will-it-recover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354507\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire ravaged a pristine California island. Will it recover?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SANTA ROSA ISLAND\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Just steps above a white sand beach with calm, turquoise waves, the effects of the largest fire in Channel Islands National Park history<\/a> are particularly stark: Fields of island grasses and chaparral have been reduced to ash, the earth singed to black. Hillsides are colored a rusty red from desperate retardant drops. <\/p>\n

And when the wind whips, the air reeks of a potent campfire \u2014 but no campers are around. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been just four days since firefighters reached 100% containment of the 18,379-acre blaze that scorched about one-third of the island and damaged many prized resources, including the island\u2019s rare Torrey pines<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Sasha Travaglio hikes along a burned mountain on Santa Rosa Island.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The remote island \u2014 some 30 miles southwest of Santa Barbara \u2014 is typically quiet, yet the stillness feels almost heavy this sunny afternoon. <\/p>\n

The 150 firefighters who responded to the blaze have returned to the mainland, and the island remains closed to the public. The only humans who remain are a team of about a dozen park rangers and Department of Interior scientists who are working to review the fire damage and understand the scale of the loss. <\/p>\n

Their findings will serve to prepare for what will likely be a years-long mitigation and restoration effort. <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of unknowns,\u201d said Sasha Travaglio, a spokesperson for the Santa Rosa Island fire Burned Area Emergency Response team, which includes a hydrologist, a soil scientist, an archaeologist, a paleontologist and a botanist. \u201cThe island ecosystem is pretty diverse and complex. There are a lot of things at play: wind, visitation, the remoteness of the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, officials say the initial days of fieldwork on this ecologically rich and culturally sensitive island
have found signs of hope. <\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the fire was a low burn severity, which is positive,\u201d said Jack Oelfke, the leader of the on-site emergency response team. \u201cThat means habitat and the ecosystem should come back with time.\u201d<\/p>\n

They hope that includes the protected Torrey pine stand<\/a>, which is one of the rarest pine species in the world. Torrey pines, named after 19th century botanist John Torrey, grow naturally only on Santa Rosa Island and in Torrey Pine State Park in San Diego. However, thousands of years of genetic isolation have made the island pine a distinct subspecies<\/a>, according to the National Park Service.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Kelly Singer, acting deputy fire chief of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service\u2019s Coastal Mountain Unit, gets off the ferry at Santa Rosa Island.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly has burned some large trees, but also, some were untouched,\u201d Oelfke said. Scientists just don\u2019t know how the trees will respond to or recover from the fire, because the island has so rarely dealt with flames, he said. Unlike other pines, the island Torrey pines are not fire-adapted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that there\u2019s going to be a quick recovery path,\u201d Ethan McKinley, superintendent of Channel Islands National Park, said of the pines. <\/p>\n

McKinley acknowledged that much of that recovery process \u2014 for the unique trees, and otherwise \u2014 \u201cis a big TBD.\u201d But luckily, he said, the park has a robust \u201cecological baseline,\u201d which includes two decades of population monitoring, species documentation and vegetation inventories that can help guide and inform next steps. <\/p>\n

Beyond the Torrey pines, five other plant species are endemic to Santa Rosa \u2014 meaning they don\u2019t grow naturally anywhere else in the world. They include the Santa Rosa Island manzanita and soft-leaved paintbrush, according to the park service. <\/a>It is also home to a lizard species<\/a> found only on three of the Channel Islands; a spotted skunk <\/a>that lives on just two Channel Islands; a unique island fox subspecies; <\/a>and several uncommon birds. The island also contains many culturally significant sites for the Chumash people.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Jack Oelfke, BAER team leader for the Santa Rosa fire, walks past untouched and burned areas of Santa Rosa Island.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Federal officials said they are still working to understand exactly how the fire might have affected the species, as well as the landscape, cultural sites, restoration projects and visitor resources. The Burned Area Emergency Response team is expected to complete its on-island work this week, before finalizing a report and making recommendations.<\/p>\n

Already though, there\u2019s been positive signs for the island foxes and the western snowy plover<\/a>, a threatened shorebird that has a year-round population on Santa Rosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver half of the island didn\u2019t burn, so there\u2019s still really good habitat for the fox to move over to,\u201d Travaglio said. \u201cThere might be some population decline because of the loss of habitat, but likely the fox will rebound.\u201d <\/p>\n

Initial assessments of the plover also failed to identify any dramatic declines. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like plover habitat was minimally impacted, which is great news,\u201d Travaglio said, pointing to the island\u2019s eastern point, where beaches are closed during the spring and summer to protect the birds\u2019 nesting area. <\/p>\n

As she spoke, her eye caught sight of some new greenery already popping up in a completely singed field. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of areas that are resprouting with native plants, like this native grass,\u201d Travaglio said, smiling. \u201cNature always prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a point recently, however, when it seemed as if all might be lost on Santa Rosa Island. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

An image on a smartphone depicts wildfire damage while resting on a map of Santa Rosa Island. <\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It was three days after a stranded mariner\u2019s emergency flare apparently sent flames raging through the south end of Channel Islands National Park\u2019s second-largest island. <\/p>\n

Winds of up to 50 mph stoked the flames and severely limited the fire response by hampering boat and aircraft access to the remote island. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot much the firefighters can do when it was blowing that hard,\u201d said Kelly Singer, acting deputy fire chief for the newly minted U.S. Wildland Fire Service\u2019s Coastal Mountain Unit, which led the response to the fire. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we have fire engines out there, so it\u2019s all by hand. We had to rely on Hotshot crews and small, 10-person\u201d teams. <\/p>\n

Still, he said they worked hard to create boundaries and hold those lines despite the fire\u2019s ballooning acreage, up to 30-foot flames in some areas and the uncooperative weather conditions. <\/p>\n

On Day 4 of the fight, officials realized that the few dozen fire crews on the ground needed air support to maintain the fire lines they\u2019d secured \u2014 yet winds didn\u2019t appear to be letting up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was grim days in the first few days of this fire,\u201d McKinley said. \u201cThat night, I didn\u2019t sleep. … A full island burn would have been the worst case.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there ended up being a few \u201cslop-overs\u201d that night, or pockets of fire breaking out of built fire lines, but fire crews fought hard to contain them from reaching critical park resources, including buildings and campgrounds. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey held the line, and we have them to thank for saving housing, saving the island, saving the history of the Santa Rosa Island,\u201d McKinley said. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Jack Oelfke, BAER team leader for the Santa Rosa fire, walks a burned area at Santa Rosa Island.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Luckily, the next morning, air tankers were able to make it to the island, dropping much-needed retardant and water \u2014 both under strict parameters to limit environmental damage. Then, the following day, large \u201csuper-scooper\u201d aircraft arrived and were able to drop seawater on remaining hot spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the tanker support, we probably wouldn\u2019t have been as successful as we were,\u201d Singer said. <\/p>\n

The fire was first spotted May 15 by a plane flying over the island. Although the official cause of the fire remains under investigation, the Coast Guard and witnesses have told The Times<\/a> that the fire was inadvertently sparked by a man who crashed his sailboat into rocks on the island\u2019s rugged south side and then fired emergency flares to signal for help. <\/p>\n

The fire also destroyed two historic structures \u2014 Johnson\u2019s Lee Equipment Shed and Wreck Line Camp Cabin \u2014 as well as a storage building and a wind shelter at Water Canyon Campground.<\/p>\n

The island remains closed to the public through at least June 30, though the park has alerted people with campsite reservations through Aug. 14 that they may be be canceled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to restore access at some level as quickly as is reasonably possible,\u201d McKinley said. \u201cThese places only last for a generation or two if you don\u2019t inspire that next generation to take care of them. … So inspiring the American people is part of our mission, and it\u2019s as important as protecting these resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

And inspiration is easy to find in this piece of North America\u2019s so-called \u201cGalapagos,\u201d<\/a> where the Pacific sparkles in the background of any burn scar. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery fire is complex,\u201d Travaglio said. \u201cI\u2019m in these beautiful places at their worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, she knows, is temporary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA ROSA ISLAND\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Just steps above a white sand beach with calm, turquoise waves, the effects of the largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[144539,7,9,8,217,144537,3802,26504,113336,144535,21023,1741,144540,3335,144536,133827,144538,3016],"class_list":["post-354507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-area-emergency-response-team","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-day","tag-ethan-mckinley","tag-fire","tag-flame","tag-island-fox","tag-island-grass","tag-line","tag-lot","tag-nesting-area","tag-official","tag-rare-torrey-pine","tag-santa-rosa-island-fire","tag-sasha-travaglio","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}