10-1-20
The sun rose today like a tomato, edging up from a horizon veiled in California’s smoke. I thought we were done with that —this being central Washington and October. I thought our scorched shrub-steppe land, leveled homes, and blackened wheat fields were behind us. The sage grouse and the pygmy rabbits were losers, but plans to reseed the burnt land and cheat the cheat grass were progressing. We could replant sagebrush and rabbit brush and bitter brush. We have done that before even though we know it will be years before the obligates are able to shelter in and nibble those shrubs, returning to their one-time habitats.
I learned that the redwoods in California will be sprouting new growth from their blackened trunks and new infant trees from around their bases. Within three or four years the redwoods will look like their old old selves again. There is hope for the same in our burnt lands.
Merry Roy
North Central Washington Audubon Society
furthering the knowledge and the conservation of the environment of North Central Washington