First Post-Fire Hike in Griffith Park

Charred trees on the hillside by the newly restored Griffith Park Observatory.

Last weekend, M* and I joined Tyler and Nico for a short hike through parts of the newly reopened Griffith Park in Los Angeles. We'd hiked in GP many times when we lived in the area, and the hike that we undertook most regularly, which started a walkable distance from Nico's place, is still closed since the May 2007 fires which reduced over 800 acres of the park to ashes.

The hydromulching has brought green back to some hillsides.

We were surprised by how verdant parts of the hillsides were during the hike up the Mount Hollywood Trail. The new plant growth was bright green—a dramatic contrast to the charred tree remains. We were singularly impressed with nature's ability to regenerate. While some plants do need occasional fire for germination, I just learned from the Griffith Park blog that the level of growth we observed was due to carefully planned hydromulching efforts of 479 park acres.

Checking their blog today, I read that heavy rains bombarding the LA Basin this past week have caused some of the recently reopened areas to be shut again. The "mild to moderate debris flows and flooding" the park is experiencing are surely exacerbated by the destabilizing effects of the fires.

Griffith Park
(click photos for larger image)

Tyler looks tough, but the polarized, sport sunglasses and the straw hat keep M* from being badass.	I love the dramatic twists of this chard tree.
Somehow the palms at the top of the hill survived.	The area around the Hollywood Sign was unscathed.
Without reseeding work, the burnt areas would still look as brown as the hill in the background.	Without the new growth, all these burnt trees would be a bit sad.