One of the most consequential events in California State Park history is about to reach its 10-year anniversary, but it will not receive any celebration or fanfare. The referred incident was the 2003 Cedar Fire, which engulfed more than 280,000 acres and killed 15 people. The Cedar Fire was the most devastating fire to ever hit the California State Park system. The fire burned 30,000 acres of California State Park, with Cuyamaca Rancho State Park taking the heaviest toll with 24,614 of its 26,000 acres burnt and 10 historic structures destroyed.
In a news release, California State Parks Deputy Director of Communications Roy Stearns described his experience driving through the park a week after the devastation occurred. He recalled driving past the charred houses and realizing more than trees had been lost during the previous week.
“We also drove by the home of State Park employees Shirley Jones and Laura Itagawa, both burned to the ground. No one spoke. No one needed to. We all felt terrible for the loss of our fellow park workers … There are 10 of them,” Stearns wrote.
In 2007, the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Reforestation Project began to plant seeds in the hopes of restoring the abundance of conifer trees and bringing new life into the park.
After the fire occurred, non-native grasses and native chapparal shrubs replaced most of the land initially inhabited by trees. The restoration project aims to ensure these conditions do not become permanent by planting seeds in 15 percent of the total acreage in the park. The program states these new trees will produce enough seeds to begin natural recovery that will restore the rest of the remaining acreage. All new seedlings will be grown with seeds from the few patches of trees remaining throughout the park after the fire. The majority of these surviving trees were mostly limited to one species, the Coulter pine.
The cost of seedlings, along with the cost of removing unwanted vegetation from 11 percent of the park acreage, makes the restoration in Cuyamaca Rancho Park one of the most expensive restoration projects. Funding for the project initially came from a $2.8 million legal settlement with the Conoco Phillips Company. The Walt Disney Company has also contributed $2.9 million to the project as part of its longstanding history with nature conservation. Disney and corporations, such as the Coca-Cola and Stater Bros., donated to the project as a way to contribute to the reduction of atmospheric carbon levels.
A recent visit to the park brought the extent of the decade-old inferno into full realization. All that was left of the once-towering trees were scorched skeletons reaching skyward from patches of dry grass. Their charred silhouettes were a stark reminder of the calamitous events that devastated an entire region of California nearly 10 years ago. The seedlings growing beneath them, however, brought the promise that the park may one day resemble its former splendor.
