Takeover of Non-Native Plants One Result of Wildfire Cycle

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 29, 2007 at 12:18 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

One of the tragedies emerging after the fires is the destruction of wildlife habitat. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more on the toll the wildfires has taken on nature.

Some of the short, scrubby habitat that dominates San Diego's backcountry was just starting to recover from the Cedar Fires. Now much of that land has been burned again. The variety of shrubs and plants are collectively called chaparral.

David Hogan with the Center for Biological Diversity says the chaparral is being burned too often, letting non-native plants to take over.

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Hogan : The non-native grasses are much more flammable and therefore much more dangerous to people than the chaparral. So we get into this horrible cycle of loss and destruction that has just as many harmful effects on people as it does on nature.

He says the burned chaparral should be restored. Hogan says burned areas should not be seeded because most seed mixes contain non-native weeds. He says prescribed fires should be stopped in native chaparral except for creating defensible space around homes and communities.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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