The Riverside Press-Enterprise ran a story over the weekend about the recovery of native plant species in Southern California deserts recently burned by wildfire. The article says scientists believe it is too soon to determine how plants will recover.
Reporter Gail Wesson gathered the bulk of her material for the story at the UC Natural Resources Continuing Conference, held last week in Palm Desert. She quoted conference speaker Jan Beyers of the U.S. Forest Service as saying a lot of native plants came up in the area affected by the 2006 Esperanza fire.
"Researchers will return to the field this month to see the effects of the fall-into-winter rains as part of a research project looking at recovery in the fire area where some areas burned a couple years ago, or as long as almost 80 years ago," the article paraphrased Beyer.
In the eighth paragraph of the article, the reporter noted that "Many (conference participants) have ties to Cooperative Extension, the educational arm of the university."
