‘It’s devastating’: Irvine Ranch Conservancy works to restore land affected by wildfire

After the Silverado fire ravaged thousands of acres and chased 80,000 residents from their homes, Matilde De Santiago looked on at the charred remains of a two-year restoration project.

De Santiago had headed the effort for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, planting native greenery and restoring habitat along the view deck at the Sinks — what is known as Orange County’s “mini-Grand Canyon.”

The massive blaze consumed the plants along with the view deck.

“It’s devastating,” De Santiago said. “It hurts because I worked on that project for about two years and now have to start from scratch. I mean completely from scratch. The deck is not there. The plants are not there.”

De Santiago, project coordinator with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, said that about 10 other restoration projects have faced setbacks due to the fire.

Now about a month after the fire, the conservancy is focusing on restoration projects in two areas of OC Parks’ Limestone Canyon in Silverado — Bee Flat Canyon and Agua Chinon. The conservancy has been working to restore these two areas for years, though they were both affected by the fires.

De Santiago said the conservancy will begin planting about 200 oak trees in Bee Flat Canyon this week and another 100 will be planted in Agua Chinon at a later time. Other seedlings will be planted in a meadow near Limestone Canyon Road.

“It set us back, especially in Agua Chinon,” De Santiago said. “There are some oaks there, but you drive through there and it’s pretty bare.

“It didn’t affect all of Bee Flat Canyon, there was some oaks remaining there. The thing is, the fire burned uneven so some spots are really bare and some spots are not touched by the fire.”

The conservancy just completed a decade-long habitat restoration project at Bee Flat Canyon a few months ago. The land had been decimated over the years from cattle grazing and wildfires. The conservancy launched restoration efforts in Agua Chinon in 2013.

The 84-acre restoration of the 300-acre Bee Flat Canyon is the longest and most substantial project ever undertaken by the conservancy. The nonprofit, initially funded by Donald Bren, has managed open space in Orange County — primarily in Irvine and Newport Beach — through its 15-year history.

The conservancy has restored about 250 acres of land so far and manages about 30,000 acres in Orange County.

De Santiago said the restoration efforts will be more challenging because the conservancy cannot seek volunteer help due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conservancy has about 50 total staff, but about half of those are field workers.

A “farewell-to-spring” flower at the bottom of Bee Flat Canyon.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“My plan was to have the public participate on the planting of the trees as well as volunteers to go out there, but now we can’t do that,” De Santiago said. “The challenge now is finding staff to be able to go out there and plant that many trees.

“We will see how it goes. We will try and pull from our restoration team and field crew. Normally I would have a corporate, youth or school group and we would get it done in one day.”

The oak trees will come from the conservancy’s Augustine nursery, which was untouched by the fire.

De Santiago said they will plant more oaks in the nursery so they will be ready for next year.

“There’s a lot of wildlife that depend on this oak plant community,” De Santiago said. “Lots of animals use these plants for habitat ... It’s sad because before the fire there was a lot of animal activity out there and now, as you can imagine, there isn’t.”

Another fire broke out in Silverado on Wednesday night and has spread to more than 7,000 acres. It’s unclear how much damage has been caused to the Limestone Canyon area.

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