How Carson City Open Space is tackling burn scars - and restoring native species in the process

The Prison Hill Fire of 2021 swept across 171 acres of land following a dry lightning storm which started multiple fires in a the span of only a few minutes. The burn scar can still be seen — including how close it came to the houses in the area.

However, that burn scar will disappear with time if the plans initiated by Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space are successful.

According to Open Space Manager Lyndsey Boyer, the city understands the dangers of allowing burn scars to remain unrestored, which is why as soon as the fires were out they got to work on a plan.

“The first aspect of the restoration plan was a completed aerial reseeding effort using a helicopter, which was done in Dec. 2021,” Boyer said. “For any fire, it’s important to start restoration immediately in terms of planning, and the restoration effort needs to be completed by the first fall or winter following the event.”

The reason is simple: to gain the upper hand against the region’s nemesis, cheatgrass.

Cheat grass is an invasive, fast-growing (and fast-dying) grass native to Europe and Asia that was introduced to the region during the western expansion, as it provided an easy food source for livestock.

However, as ranchers have diminished in the region throughout time, cheat grass has flourished; it spreads quickly and easily, and dies off before the hottest part of summer, providing substantial fuel for the ever increasing wildfires.

So what is the first line of defense against this invasive weed? Native planting.

“Cheat grass is our nemesis in the great basin, especially after a fire because of the flush of nitrogen (left in the soil) after vegetation is burned,” Boyer said. “In order to combat the invasion of cheatgrass, you want to do a reseeding effort competition of all native or locally adapted species.”

This is important as the great basin has unique weather patterns; cold snowy winters and very hot, very dry summers mean plants must be hardy and adapted to a range of temperatures. By using native plants, this ensures that the plants taking root in the burn scar will also be ones that can last.

Following the helicopter seed drop in Dec. 2021, the winter gave perfect conditions: a massive rain storm and a snow storm followed, providing much needed precipitation and a cover of snow allowing seeds time to germinate in place.

Since that time, staff has monitored the area, documenting new growth, lack thereof, and which plants are growing.

“There are ten plots we’ve established in the burn area on the hill where we can go out and do vegetation sampling to determine seed mix, natural recruitment (i.e. self-seeding from nearby plants), or both,” Boyer said.

This includes “photo point monitoring,” in which staff members will return to precisely the same locations of these ten points and photograph the area to measure growth over time.

“Restoration in the great basin is a slow process,” Boyer said. “You can have two to three years before you start to see above-ground growth; a lot of the time you’ll see these plants putting their effort into making roots first, and eventually they’ll pop up for above-ground resources.”

Boyer said that so far they have seen a lot of natural recruitment from nearby plants, and a small amount from seeded species.

The seeded species included shrubs, sages, wildflowers, and more — all of which were dotting the hill before the fire came through.

“This year after all this wonderful snow, it’s such good timing and good coverage — we’ll be in a good place,” Boyer said.

Seeding must be done in the fall or winter to provide a better chance at germination over the winter and into early Spring — even as early as February.

Boyer believes that, though the burn scar is still visible, the landscape has not been permanently altered by the fire.

“It will be visible for many years,” Boyer added. “But as revegetation takes off, it will disappear.”

The use of seeds verses seedlings (nursery plants already germinated and established) is due to numerous reasons, mostly due to cost and manpower.

“On the scale we had the fire on Prison Hill, that would be way too costly to try to get seedlings or nursery plants through the whole area, but we will use them to augment a seeding,” Boyer said.

The next phase in the project, Boyer said, is to potentially add back a juniper grove that was destroyed in the fire once the surrounding vegetation has taken root.

“Focusing on important areas like the juniper grove would be a perfect example of (using seedlings and) wanting to bring some habitat back for the birds, deer, and other wildlife — that’s when we would go in with seedlings,” Boyer said. “Logistically and access-wise you have to be able to get it up there.”

With the recent hiring of a new Parks, Recreation and Open Space Volunteer Coordinator, however, the community will see more opportunities for volunteerism on projects just like these, in which volunteers might load a backpack full of baby plants and hike them up to the burn scar for a community re-planting day.

When re-seeding efforts don’t work, however, other mitigation practices are brought in, such as the firefighting sheep the community can see moving across the western foothills every spring.

“The Waterfall Fie is a great example that you can do everything right and still end up with cheatgrass,” Boyer said. “We always start with restoration as our first project, but we might have to do additional forms of mitigation in the future, like the sheep project.”

However, Boyer doesn’t believe the sheep will be visiting Prison Hill any time soon — especially if the native seeds take root successfully.

“Because we got really lucky and we have had good winters, we may find our restoration efforts are really successful,” Boyer said. “No matter what we’ll have cheat grass, it’s the nature of the beast, it just depends on how much cheatgrass you will have.”

Looking forward, Boyer said, the city could even get involved with growing seedlings for restoration projects to help mitigate costs.

“In the future I would love the city to start getting into growing up some plant product for use in restoration,” Boyer said. “We talked about it before on a short scale, such as with willows to plant along the river, but without a greenhouse it’s harder to grow smaller species as they require more time and TLC.”

There are a number of ways the community can get involved in protecting our region from wildfires — starting with their own backyards.

Choosing native, drought-hardy species and reducing fuel (broken branches, dried pine needles, etc.) will reduce the time fires can spread.

In addition, for those who want to get their hands dirty and actively work with Open Space in the burn scars, volunteers should follow Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space on social media or their website to keep up to date on volunteer opportunities that come about.