L.A. Wildfires
In Altadena, a network of home gardeners answer the call to build a free “library” of plant seeds.
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Reporting from Los Angeles
When Nina Raj saw the sky glow orange outside her Altadena home as the Eaton fire approached last Tuesday, the first thing that she packed for evacuation was her seed collection: Matilija poppy seeds, Engelmann oak acorns, California buckeye, sage and buckwheat seeds, along with so many others she had gathered around Eaton Canyon.
“That first night we were down our block putting out fires,” she said. “We’re smoky, but safe.”
Ms. Raj’s home is still standing, but hundreds of other homes and backyards burned as the Eaton fire devastated 14,000 acres in Altadena, including thousands of acres of woodlands, streams and undeveloped land where locals hiked, rode bikes and watched for birds and other wildlife.
Ms. Raj, a University of California naturalist and master gardener, is a docent at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and had been working to build a seed bank there. Altadena residents were familiar with one of the dozen or so wooden structures she had scattered around the neighborhood marked “Altadena Seed Library,” where people could take or leave free seeds.
“Plants do so many amazing things,” she said. “They’re so intelligent.”
Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem in Southern California, so much so that some native plants have adapted to germinate in the ashes, while others have been shown to clean scorched soil and prepare it for new growth.
As wildfires become more dangerous, extreme and fast-moving, the re-establishment of native plant life, coupled with clearing away invasive species that dry out, becoming kindling, is urgent work for conservationists across Los Angeles.
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