Mulching Post-fire

From: Cindy cindyburrascano@cox.net
Date: 11/29/03
Time: 08:09 PM


Both the Forest Service and BLM are planning on doing some large scale mulching; FS on Viejas Mountain and BLM on Viejas Mountain. Mulch does not seem like a good idea for allowing a natural process to occur with fire followers. I have only seen one paper on the subject and it only covered a 6 month period and did show inhibition of natives. Since Viejas Mountain has a list 4 orchid species which has winter leaves, this seems like a really bad idea. Any suggestions or references I should read?

From: Greg Rubin calown@pacbell.net
Date: 12/16/03
Time: 01:37 AM


Hi Cindy: What are they mulching with? If it is straw, they just converted Viejas mountain into a cow pasture. Mulching is a terrible idea - they should just leave it alone. With the light rains we have been receiving, the risk of severe erosion in native areas at this point is almost non-existant-you just need a bit of vegetation to stop it. Greg