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38 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend July 18, 2004 A Bolander's lily adds a splash of color to the gray and brown left behind on the trail to Babyfoot Lake. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Biscuit’s brand new day Mother Nature lends a hand to the area recovering from the 2002 Biscuit fire By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune A tiny bright green seedling poked up from the forest floor below the massive black trunk of a fire-killed sugar pine. "That looks like a Doug fir — it’s definitely a conifer seedling that has come back naturally," observed Lee Webb,who retired as wildlife biologist for the Siskiyou and Rogue River national forests early this year. "The seeds could have blown in," he said, noting he didn’t see conifer seedlings in the area a year ago. "Or it may be they were already here and didn’t burn up." What it shows is the natural recovery continuing in the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, he said. It’s an area where the half-million-acre Biscuit fire burned intensely within the Siskiyou forest two years. The glacially-formed lake and a portion of the botanical area is tucked just inside the eastern edge of the 183,000-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. Once you reach the trailhead about 10 air miles west of Kerby, a hamlet some 25 road miles south of Grants Pass, the lake is a relatively easy hike of a little less than a mile. Advertisement The region is known for its rich botanical diversity. There are some 200 species of trees, shrubs, herbs, lichens, mosses and fungi along the trail itself. During a visit to the area a year ago for the anniversary of the July 13, 2002, fire, the Mail Tribune found the flora and fauna along the trail still heavily impacted by the fire’s passing. Webb, who worked in the forest for nearly 30 years, agreed to return around the fire’s second anniversary to see how Mother Nature is faring. He knows all about the fire: He was a member of the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation team that began a scientific assessment of the fire’s impact even before the fire was out. He also has been in the Babyfoot Lake area many times before the fire and several times since. Like most wildfires, the fire burned in a mosaic pattern, barely touching some areas while roaring like a blow torch in others. Much of the area along the trail was severely burned. "This area caught the end of a surge in the fire. It came in pretty fast and hot," Webb said as he looked up at the fire-killed old-growth. "These trees are gone — top to bottom." Several trees have shed their blackened bark in the past year. There appears to be more bird life now. A raven flew over, heading toward the lake. A woodpecker — Webb figures it was a hairy woodpecker — drummed away on a dead tree, looking for a meal. A mountain bluebird flew past at one point to land in a dead cedar. "There is good habitat for some birds now," Webb said. "Of course, it’s not good habitat for birds that feed in the tops of trees. Those tops, most of them, are all dead. "But there is habitat. It’s just different habitat for different species." A few fire-killed trees have fallen in the past year. Others will topple soon. Others may not fall for years. "Some fire-killed trees stay up a long time," Webb said. "They provide habitat while they are up. The ones that fall provide cover on the ground. Eventually, we’ll have a forest coming up around it — again. "And the same species that was here will be back, but it will take a while." The dramatic change that has occurred in the past year is the plant growth close to the ground, he said. Consider the acres of bear grass stalking the forest along the trail. "It gets the nutrient flush from the fire, plus the light," he said. "Of course, you’ll also see it out in more open areas." Bracken fern is thriving along sections of the trail. "It likes to come in after a fire," he said. Rhododendron is popping up along the trail. A huckleberry bush alongside the trail offers one red berry to a passer-by. Tendrils of wild blackberry, a low bush native to the area, reach along the trail. Trilliums, their white flowers long dried and blown away by the wind, grow along the trail. Bolander’s lilies with their telltale red-orange blossoms are now abundant in areas. A cardinal flower, its bright red blossoms resembling a cardinal’s biretta, grows alongside a tiny stream that eventually flows into Babyfoot Creek farther down the canyon. Water skippers dart along the surface of the pools. Lady ferns step lightly from the damp but rocky soil. More water is probably in the stream after the fire than before because the dead trees are no longer drawing water from the ground, Webb said. "The trees aren’t sucking anything up now," he said. The ring of green trees around the lake appears to have diminished in the past year, apparently the result of some trees having taken longer to die from the fire, Webb said. The picturesque lake remains unchanged. Rare Brewer spruce, white fir and Port Orford cedar are near the lake. Azalea also thrive around the lake’s edge. "If you were here 100 years ago, it would have undoubtedly looked quite a bit different than it did just before it burned," Webb said. "It will take a long time to get back to an old-growth forest we used to have here. "But everything changes. It’s different habitat now. It will be for a long time." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers