CSUF's Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary recovers

Walking along a path in between a barren mound of soil and a fresh cluster of dark green shrubs, Cal State Fullerton biology instructor Bill Hoese carefully watches his step.
He doesn’t want to destroy what has just started to recover.
About a year ago, the now bleak heap of earth used to be filled with native plants for students to observe at the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary nature trail, an area of Modjeska Canyon owned and operated by CSUF.
Some of that land was scorched down to rubble in October of last year, when the Santiago Fire engulfed more than 28,000 acres, destroyed more than 14 homes and caused thousands to evacuate. Officials blamed the fire on one or more arsonists.
“Before it all burned, it looked like this,” said Hoese, as he pointed to a three-foot high healthy California scrub habitat. “But a lot of the plants are well adapted to fires.”
Fast-growing plants, such as the wild cucumber shrub, chamise and coastline oaks are reaching toward the sun first, after recent rains have allowed native vegetation to re-sprout.
Months after the fire came within 10 feet of burning down the sanctuary, ecology classes have now returned to find a recovering hillside, ripe for examining how vegetation adapts to fire destruction.
Hoese and two undergraduate students began taking photographs of two-meter plots in January, and they are documenting each plant's revival.