At the end of May trained SFREC staff along with members of Cal Fire conducted a prescribed burn to manage vegetation on the center. There are many advantages to conducting a burn rather than other management practices. These advantages include the ability to kill off weed-seed violations and remove any unwanted species that threaten the native species in an ecosystem. However, with the current air-quality regulations and state of drought, a prescribed burn can be difficult to get approved this time of year. SFREC had a burn scheduled last week that was postponed to a later date because of these difficulties.

The burned area will be used to look at the utility of spring burns to manage vegetation and eliminate invasive species such as medusa head and star thistle as well as look at the success rate of the native species after the invasion and burn.

We thank the members of Cal Fire for working with our staff to conduct a safe and successful burn.