Scars, and signs of life

RANGER Martin O’Toole surveys the burned-out brush along Cheeseboro Canyon Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, where the full brunt of last month’s wind-whipped fire was unleashed.

The 4 1/2 -mile route up a canyon once framed by full, leafy oaks now has an eerie moonscape feel, permeated by the aroma of burnt wood. The ground is black with ash; the leaves of the burnt oaks are a dull light green and crumble like potato chips at the touch. In spots, the fire burned so intensely that the remaining ash is white, looking like snowbanks against the jet-black ground.

It’s the same at nearby Palo Comado Canyon to the west.

“It was beautiful in here,” the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area ranger says as he steers his patrol truck along dusty fire roads bordered by ash-covered hills, dotted with singed oak trees and the burned remains of sage and chaparral. “The sage was soft and fragrant in spring. But it will be back again this spring.”

Hiking trails in the Simi Hills and the northernmost stretch of the Santa Monica Mountains reopened Thursday after being closed for three weeks because of the Topanga fire that started Sept. 28. But the opening was short-lived. On Monday early rains rather than fire prompted authorities to close the trails again until they dry out.

Two-thirds of the 24,175 acres that burned was public parkland, including popular hiking areas in Cheeseboro and Palo Comado canyons in Agoura Hills as well as Liberty and Upper Las Virgenes canyons at the former Ahmanson Ranch.

And though everything here is a darker shade of charcoal, enthusiastic visitors to the park crowded into the entrances on the first day trails reopened, anxious to see the destruction firsthand and savor areas that were spared.

“We couldn’t wait for them to open it up,” says Tammy Shuman of Agoura Hills, leading her horse back from a ride along Cheeseboro Canyon Trail. The ash and dust gave her horse sneezing fits, Shuman says, but the views she saw from China Flat were worth the trip.

“You can see down into the valleys,” she says. “You get to see all of the devastation.”

O’Toole continues his survey of the canyon, stopping his truck under a large, leafy oak tree that escaped the flames.

“Welcome back,” he calls out to a mountain biker.

“It’s about time you guys opened this place up,” the biker says with a grin. He pulls up behind the ranger’s truck, dust kicking up from his knobby tires. “I was getting withdrawals.”

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A mosaic pattern

THOUGH users will be greeted with drifting ash and charred sage, the damage to these trails isn’t permanent. The chaparral so abundant in the Santa Monica Mountains has a strong root system and an ability to recover quickly from fire.

Last winter’s record rainfall added extra vegetation that fueled the fire, but the area was spared permanent damage because the Santa Ana winds that carried the flames south through the canyons subsided a few days after the blaze ignited. As the winds died down, cool coastal breezes picked up, increasing the humidity and preventing the fire from jumping the Ventura Freeway and burning toward the coast.

The result is a mosaic burn pattern throughout the parklands, with some islands of dry grass, sage and coast live oaks surrounded by an ocean of charred branches and black ash. O’Toole says the unburned islands will provide cover and habitat for wildlife, such as rabbits, deer and bobcats, until the burned area regrows.

While park officials have yet to conduct any scientific surveys to determine how many animals died in the blaze, O’Toole believes deaths were minimal, noting that firefighters found a four-point buck that perished.

Rumbling up the Cheeseboro Canyon Trail, O’Toole spots a red-tail hawk circling over a small creek lined with heavy shrubs and a bare hillside. The hawk tilts its tail and glides onto one of the top branches of a tall oak tree.

“It’s like a barbecue for the hawks and the turkey vultures because their prey has nowhere to hide now,” he says, looking up at the hawk.

Parks officials are optimistic about the natural recovery, but cast a wary eye toward winter, when torrential downpours could lead to heavy mudslides and severe erosion while showers like those that started Saturday can help regrowth.

Despite the damage, conservationists and park officials say opening access to the park isn’t causing any further damage -- provided visitors stay on the trails and roads.

That’s crucial to the recovery, says Woody Smeck, parks superintendent of the national recreation area. After a fire, parklands are vulnerable to erosion caused by foot traffic or rain because the native plants and shrubs that hold the soil in place are gone, Smeck says. Hikers and cyclists who wander off established trails can also slow the renewal by compacting soft soil and trampling on seedlings that are ready to sprout, he says.

As a result, visitors are restricted to enter only between sunrise and sunset and are confined to established roads and trails. To enforce the new rules, national park officials are considering recruiting park rangers from the Gulf Coast states who were left idle when hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced the closure of national parks in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Officials say none of the trails are so far gone that they need to be rerouted, and only a few remote paths in the Upper Virgenes Canyon will remain closed. The burned area, the northernmost portion of the national parkland, was once home to Chumash Indians who lived in the canyons for thousands of years and are believed to have forged the trails that became the routes used today.

In addition to an array of wildlife, the parkland is also home of the endangered San Fernando Valley spineflower and the California red-legged frog, whose discovery played a key role in stopping the development of Upper Las Virgenes Canyon, formerly known as Ahmanson Ranch.

As the fire blazed through the Simi Valley hills, firefighters made a point to try to protect several patches of spineflowers in the path of the fire.

In a few rare spots, soft green blades of grass have already begun to peek out from under the black ash. O’Toole points out the new growth as he steers his SUV toward the main entrance at the bottom of the Cheeseboro Canyon Trail.

“I encourage people to come back,” he says. “They can see the changes take place on a weekly basis. Little by little it will all come back.”

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SNAPSHOT / A patchwork of burned areas

The damaged landscape in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills varies widely from trail to trail.

The Topanga fire burned hottest during the first 24 hours, charring a diagonal swath from Upper Las Virgenes Canyon and spreading south toward the base of Cheeseboro and Palo Comado canyons north of Agoura Hills. After winds died down, the fire burned sporadically across the Simi Valley hills.

Check with rangers at (805) 370-2301 for trail conditions and new closures due to early rains.

Cheeseboro and Palo Comado canyons

Cheeseboro Canyon Trail: Along this 4.6-mile fire road that follows a streambed, the flatlands near the park entrance were unscathed. But less than a mile in, there are blackened hillsides with singed oak trees. Be ready to breathe in ash and dust; look for hawks and turkey vultures circling overhead, trying to find a meal on the exposed ground.

Palo Comado Canyon Trail: A 4.4-mile steep fire road is the best place to see the before-and-after effects of the fire. Back fires ignited by firefighters burned the east side of the trail, leaving the west side -- south of the Ranch Center connector trail -- unscathed. North of the connector, the parkland is charred on both sides, with a few patches of untouched areas.

Modelo Trail: A 1-mile trail that offers good views into both canyons. Fire burned in patches along both sides of the trail.

China Flat Trail: A 4-mile loop with a 1,000-foot elevation gain and spectacular vistas of Simi Valley and Agoura Hills. Expect to see more blackened canyons and hillsides with a few patches of unburned grass and chaparral.

Sage Ranch Park

The main 2.6-mile loop trail in the Simi Hills is bordered by burned grass and oaks but structures in the park were saved. Check out the massive sandstone rock formations that appeared in old westerns.

Upper Las

Virgenes Open Space Preserve

Fire burned throughout most of the roughly 3,000-acre preserve. Along the four main corridors (Las Virgenes Canyon, East Las Virgenes Canyon, Lasky Mesa Loop and the El Escorpion trails), expect to see blackened rolling hillsides dotted with singed oak trees and a few tufts of unburned dried grass.

For online hiking maps of these parklands, go to www.lamountains.com and www.nps.gov/samo/maps /cheese.htm/

-- Hugo Martin

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Hugo Martin can be reached at hugo.martin@latimes.com.