For early November, it was an unusually beautiful day in the high 70′s with no wind. It was my first visit to this area of the Cloverdale Ranch since the burn on 27 October. See my previous post for more information on the burn.

The purpose of this visit was to establish a photographic baseline of the return of the area to its post-burn state. Botanist Neal Kramer with Kramer Botanical and I established 13 photo points to track different aspects of the burn. Some areas burned lightly while others burned intensely. Some areas didn’t burn at all due to the moisture in the ground as this image of a pond shows.

Here’s an example of an area that was intensely burned. According to Neal, the flames leaped 30 to 40 feet in the air. As you can see, it was a complete sweep. This area used to contain Coyote Bush, wild berry vines, and grasses.

If you have a sharp eye, you may have noticed a speck of green near the bottom of the image.