ONE TAM, an initiative of the nonprofit Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, hosted an outing this week in Marin County.
Hiking along the Bon Tempe Lake Trailhead, the group learned Tuesday about California native plants’ adaptation to fire by visiting sites where the Marin Municipal Water District’s most recent prescribed burn occurred last fall and summer.
The hikers examined botanical adaptations that allow plants to endure or even thrive after fire has swept through the area. Guides pointed out regrowth and wildflower sprouts that popped up near the prescribed burn areas, inviting hikers to observe how these native species respond to fire. The use of fire in the summer and fall creates a mosaic of regrowth that promotes biodiversity across the oak woodlands surrounding Bon Tempe Lake.
Prescribed burns play a central role in that recovery by reducing fuel loads, a land management practice used since time immemorial, and creating the patchwork habitats many native plants require. Fire opens the canopy, recycles nutrients into the soil and exposes mineral seedbeds that favor native seedlings over invasive competitors.
“Our ecosystems in Northern California are adapted to frequent low intensity fire,” said Zoë Vavrek, a Forest Health Community Engagement Associate at Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. “It helps bring nutrients back to the soil and certain plants have adaptations to the fire, like those with bulbs underground.”
On the route around the lake, hikers saw charred tree branches alongside resprouting wildflowers and meadows of fresh seedlings. Guides explained how certain trees, like the Bishop Pine found in Tomales Bay, need fire to melt the resin in their pinecones, thus releasing seeds that will grow in the freshly cleared soil. This is one example of how plants use fire as a cue to release seeds and boost native plant growth.
The guides also discussed how decades of fire suppression can disrupt these adaptations and threaten plant communities.
Frequent, low-intensity fires are a tool for creating biodiversity, according to Sophia Stewart, a California Climate Action Corps fellow with Marin Water.
By focusing on the science behind prescribed burns, the program frames fire as a stewardship tool that balances human safety with naturally occurring plant growth.
As spring blooms sweep the state, the landscape’s renewal offers a living lesson in resilience and the evolutionary ties between California’s native flora and a fire-shaped environment.