Reforestation: Nature and nurseries

Nature will have its way, but that’s not to say land managers can’t give it a little nudge. That’s just who gathered this spring in the hills of the Mendocino National Forest above Clear Lake in north central California. In an eight-day period, the Forest Service, Patriot Restoration Ops, and Clear Lake Environmental Research Center planted 71,000 seedlings east of the communities of Nice and Lucerne to restore areas of the 2018 Ranch Fire burn scar. The 2018 Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex Fire, burned 459,123 acres in 53 days. In the aftermath, communities, the Forest Service, and nonprofits came together, to develop a plan to help restore the forest.