Sept 14: Smith River Complex

The Smith River, carnivorous plants, and truly amazing regeneration

While I was in extreme northwestern California last month, I took a few hours off from the redwoods and visited a bog filled with Darlingtonia californica plants, aka pitcher plants, aka cobra lilies. Their main claim to fame is that they’re carnivorous; insects become their dinner.

You can read more about Darlingtonia here. You can also watch a video, which is not for the faint of heart, that shows how a couple of other pitcher plant species trap and absorb their prey.

On my way back to Crescent City, I spent a bit of time along the banks of either the Smith River or one of its forks. At one point, I found a small beach along the river, from which I took a few photos.¹

The small flowers below were growing right out of the sand on the beach. I can’t figure out what they are (some kind of lily?). If any of you have any ideas, please feel free to share them.

I left Crescent City on August 3rd. Less than two weeks later, on August 15th, the first of the Smith River Complex wildfires began. There are now twenty fires in the area, which are still less than 30% contained. I’ve been studying the maps and think the little beach probably wasn’t directly affected by fire, but I’m not at all sure about the Darlingtonia bog. I’m so grateful I spent some time in those areas before the fires began.

Early on, the powers that be (so to speak) shut down all electricity to Crescent City. My guess is that it was an excellent wildfire management tactic, which was also extremely disruptive to everyone affected — at the very least. As if that weren’t enough, firefighting operations had to be paused last week because a fuel vendor “mistakenly filled one of two fuel tenders at the Gasquet Base Camp with incorrect fuels — diesel instead of gasoline and vice versa.” Of course no one realized what had happened until vehicles began breaking down.

In 2011, New Mexico experienced its largest-ever wildfire (at that time), the Las Conchas fire.² It was in the Jemez, very close to Valles Caldera and the East Fork. I was both horrified and fascinated, and headed up there as soon as I could, to document some of the destruction wrought by the fire (above).³

I’m so glad I took those photos back then. Last week I took the photo above of roughly the same area, at roughly the same time of day. The regrowth there is nothing short of miraculous.

Here’s hoping the areas affected by the Smith River Complex fires will have regenerated every bit as well — if not even better — twelve years from now.

1. Yes, the water really was that green and clear. I was told that both characteristics are due to the significant amount of serpentine in the riverbed.

2. Its 150,000-acre size was superseded the very next year (2012). And last year, the Calf Canyon-Hermit’s Peak fire topped out at over 340,000 acres. The Smith River Complex fires are at 860,000 acres and counting.

3. You can see more comparison photos in another post I wrote about the Las Conchas fire two years ago.