Escaping the Flames

After the devastating wildfires of 2003, few people thought it could happen again. Especially on such a grand scale. But it did. This past fall, San Diego experienced some of the worst fires of the century. Today we learned about the issues surrounding the fires. What fueled these fires? How did San Diego respond? What was the extent of damage caused by the fires? How did the fires affect the San Diego Wild Animal Park?

At 9:30 a.m. we left school for the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We arrived at 10 a.m. to find our escort waiting. She led us to the back area of the park to hear lectures regarding the fires. Two people spoke. The first was the bird curator who extrapolated on the affect of the fire on the bird population. He explained how amazingly there were only 2 casualties of the fires. Most birds were saved by the immediate and affective response of the Wild Animal Park staff. The Condors were gathered and delivered to safety at a rate of one every 5 minutes. They did this despite low visibility and fatigue (it was the middle of the night).

The next speaker was from Scripps Research Center. He spoke of the various ecosystems in San Diego and what issues are plaguing them. I learned that San Diego is one of the most bio diverse cities in the world! Although much of San Diego is chaparral, there is an equal amount that is desert, mountainous or coastal. The lecture was long and informative. Apparently it was a little too long for Keion who fell asleep and at one point actually began snoring. :)

After the talks, it was time for our tree planting activity. Our objective was to regenerate the topography of the regions affected by the fires. We boarded the tour truck and headed out to the eastern border of the park. On the way we saw animals I have never seen before in person! Rhinoceroses were the highlight!

When we arrived at our destination we split up into a few digging teams. My group consisted of Myrna, Keion and Joe. We had a ton of fun. :) And in all honesty we got a bit silly. Mortal Combat was a major topic of conversation. We "finished off" at least 3 trees. Joe even managed to finish off an irrigation pipe between the two sprinkler heads. :)

The planting lasted for about 30 minutes. At this point, the whole group (including myself) was hyper. We decided that we would be our own exhibit. :) Our truck travelled back through the park and people looked at us as if we were the animals.

We left the park at 1 pm and arrived back at school at around 2. Pizza was waiting for us. Joe's mom was nice enough to order 5 large pizzas. Those were gone within 5 minutes. Boy were we hungry! We spent the rest of the day updating our blogs. Word!