Debate Grows Over Reseeding Santa Monicas

Reseeding efforts following the twin firestorms that denuded more than 50,000 acres of mountain brushland have rekindled a long-standing debate over introduction of non-native plants to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Park agencies, backed by conservation groups, have strongly opposed the conventional strategy of reseeding with ryegrass before the winter rains can set off erosion or mudslides, contending that ryegrass retards the growth of native plants and provides little or no erosion control.

State and county forestry officials say they will try to steer clear of parklands in the aerial reseeding, which could begin next week. But they said they are likely to use some ryegrass on adjacent public and private lands in the Santa Monicas due to the high cost and limited availability of native seeds.

All available stocks of native seeds may go to Orange County, where the Laguna wildfire consumed about 10,000 acres of habitat of the California gnatcatcher, a tiny songbird that is a threatened species, state forestry officials said.

Despite environmental concerns in the Santa Monicas, “we’re not dealing with the focus on endangered species quite like Laguna,” said David Neff, regional resource program manager for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Park officials and environmentalists have long been concerned with the deliberate introduction of non-native plants into the national recreation area, a 150,000-acre patchwork of wild-land parks and private lands extending from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County.

They say the introduced species crowd out indigenous plants that nurture the wide variety of animals that inhabit the Santa Monicas.

The National Park Service, which administers the recreation area, has urged homeowners nearby to use native plants in landscaping and has physically uprooted some non-native weeds that were choking native parkland flora.

Park officials said they will selectively install berms and plant native grasses to deal with the most serious erosion risks, but will rely mainly on the natural recuperation of mountain vegetation, which puts out new growth rapidly after wildfires.

Traditionally, ryegrass seed has been used after fires for erosion control because it is cheap and puts down roots aggressively.

But environmental concerns aside, park officials say ryegrass’ performance is spotty at best.

“It’s more placebo and more reassuring . . . than it is an erosion-control device,” said Peter Ireland, executive director of the Mountains Restoration Trust, whose 750-acre Cold Creek Canyon Preserve was burned by the fire.

“All ryegrass does is tie up all the nutrients, smother out the natives and only put a decent hold on the top couple inches of soil,” said Paul Edelman, staff ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, where more than 1,000 acres were scorched.

“There is evidence that shows that seeding with ryegrass and other exotics actually retards the healthy re-establishment of the native plants, which have the appropriate root systems to protect the hillsides and prevent erosion,” said Dan Preece, head of the Angeles district of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which had more than 18,000 acres burned.

“The quick fix is, in the long run, truly a mistake.”

Over the weekend, the California Native Plant Society and a Sierra Club conservation committee representing about 100,000 of the group’s Southern California members adopted resolutions opposing ryegrass reseeding in the Santa Monicas and other fire-scorched wild lands.

“Trying to stop mudflows with ryegrass is like trying to push the ocean back with the bald end of a broom,” said a Sierra Club statement accompanying the resolution.

“They’re entitled to their opinions and I’m entitled to mine,” said Paul Rippens, chief of the forestry division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which will oversee reseeding efforts in L.A. County.

“Ryegrass germinates faster with less water” than other plants, he said. “It’s less expensive and it roots rapidly.”

In the past, ryegrass has been used “sometimes successfully, sometimes not,” said Neff of the state forestry department, the lead agency for reseeding efforts in Ventura County.

Reseeding of about 4,000 burned acres near Altadena began Monday with a mix of ryegrass, native grasses and California poppy seed, Rippens said.

He said a similar mix might be used in the Santa Monica Mountains, although details are still being worked out.

* LESSONS LEARNED: FEMA may handle disaster relief better for fire victims than for riot victims. B1