Project Manager Robert Freese walks a ridge road above Bee Flat Canyon where he looks at the growth of yellow tarplant, which was part of the 10-year restoration project of the canyon which was recently completed.

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Bee Flat Canyon restoration project by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy

California gnatcatchers, coastal cactus wren and a host of other species may soon return in droves to an Irvine canyon that had been decimated from wildfires and hundreds of years of cattle grazing.

Robert Freese walks a ridge road above Bee Flat Canyon, where he looks at the growth of yellow tarplant. He is the project manager of the 10-year restoration project of the canyon was recently completed. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Robert Freese is the project manager of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy’s 10-year restoration project of the Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Purple needle grass flourishes on the side of a hill near Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Bee Flat Canyon is part of a 10-year environmental restoration project which was recently completed by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently deemed the Bee Flat Canyon restoration project a success. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

A burned piece of old fencing shows the scar of brush fire at the bottom of Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Yellow tarplant flowers bloom in Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Robert Freese walks in a field of purple needle grass and yellow tarplant in Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

A “farewell-to-spring” flower at the bottom of Bee Flat Canyon. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer)