Firefighters continue to make big progress with Santa Barbara County’s Lake Fire, with containment up to 73% on the 38,000+ acre plus blaze. The fire only burned a handful of structures, but it did char a huge chunk of a nature reserve north of the Santa Ynez Valley.
UC Santa Barbara’s Sedgwick Reserve is 5900 acres of land in the foothills and mountains north of Santa Ynez. It’s home to dozens of research projects focused on subjects like climate science, and ironically fire ecology.
The fire swept through about half of the reserve.
"A lot of the reserve that burned...it's good fire for them. In other areas, it impacted some research plots, so that's not so great," said Reserve Director of Operations Lyza Johnsen.
She said firefighters did a great job of protecting the facilities.
"We lost acreage, and some research plots, cameras, and some other research equipment, but we did not lose any buildings," said Johnsen
She admits it’s been a tough two weeks. "Just seeing something you would see every day burn is a little bit rough."
Reserve officials say they’ve just been able to get back onto the property, and it could be months before they fully assess the fire’s impacts.
