The Pickett Fire’s destruction hid a quiet miracle in Napa County’s hills

Two months ago Napa County s Cleary Reserve was a cathedral of green Oak branches arched over the entry road Salamanders flickered in the brush and a century-old lodge stood ready for students At its heart lay a rare redwood grove the largest part inland natural stand in California where waterfalls spilled through its shaded canyon Now it s a graveyard Ninety percent of the nearly -acre nonprofit preserve in Aetna Springs has been reduced to ash by the Pickett Fire leaving blackened tree skeletons and stone ruins where generations of students once learned Biologist Jeff Alvarez displays a photograph of a historical cabin at the Cleary Reserve which burned during the Pickett Fire in Aug Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat A singed pine tree and a black oak in the Pickett Fire burn scar at the Cleary Reserve in Aetna Springs Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat Biologist Jeff Alvarez strolls through the Cleary Reserve which burned during the Pickett Fire in Aug Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat The Pickett Fire in Aug ripped through a stand of ponderosa and douglas fir trees on the Cleary Reserve in Aetna Springs Jeff Alvarez the reserve s biologist surveys burned timber and surroundings Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat A Douglas fir cone burned by the Pickett Fire at the Cleary Reserve in Aetna Springs Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat An adult Western rattlesnake warms itself in a shaft of light in the Pickett Fire burn scar at the Cleary Reserve in Aetna Springs Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat The Cleary Reserve s library of books and historical notes burned during the Pickett Fire in Aetna Springs Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat Bracken ferns sprout from burned landscape of the Pickett Fire at the Cleary Reserve in Aetna Springs Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat Show Caption of Biologist Jeff Alvarez displays a photograph of a historical cabin at the Cleary Reserve which burned during the Pickett Fire in Aug Thursday Sept Kent Porter The Press Democrat Expand For biologist Jeff Alvarez who first came here as a college scholar in the loss is deeply personal He stated he fell in love with the landscape then and has spent decades teaching generations of students from college down to elementary school how to evaluation its frogs snakes lizards and even bears Related Articles Map See where California FAIR Plan seeks home insurance rate hikes Large fire erupts at Chevron refinery in Southern California Bay Area cities and counties sue Trump administration over crisis and calamity preparedness funds Newsom calls on regulators for new solutions to California s insurance problem Santa Clara County may form its first prescribed burn association pending state grant Particular of the bigger oak trees that one was apparently years old he stated pointing to a blackened trunk still standing near the lodge as he guided The Press Democrat through the charred footprint It is not going to survive I will never see it grow again It is sad but I have to get used to that idea But the oak was just one marker of loss The fire had spared Cleary at first until a single night changed everything A night when the fire turned In the first days of the Pickett Fire which ignited Aug Cleary Reserve and nearby Aetna Springs were untouched Alvarez kept watch from afar refreshing Cal Fire s live fire map hoping the flames would pass the land he had stewarded for nearly years Then came Aug As darkness fell the blaze exploded in intensity swelling to more than acres the largest fire in Napa and Sonoma counties this year When the map updated Alvarez saw the fire had burned straight through the reserve His worst fears were ratified when he returned days later buildings and hundreds of trees reduced to ash the landscape unrecognizable It s hard to look at he commented The s stone lodge once filled with bunk rooms a library and rows of pinned insect specimens collapsed into rubble All that remains are stone walls and a chimney A smaller house of late restored by assistants was also destroyed The Pickett Fire burned almost everything the Glass Fire didn t Alvarez reported recalling how the blaze which burned acres and destroyed more than structures in Napa and Sonoma counties had spared the lodge Nature has a different lifetime Amid the devastation signs of resilience appeared promptly Mountain lion and bear tracks traced the ash A rattlesnake basked on a dirt road Salamanders and lizards tucked underground during the fire began to reemerge Wildlife is resilient Alvarez revealed Plants too will return though perhaps not the same ones New species will replace particular of the oaks and olives that perished It is hard because we see everything through our own lifetime Alvarez disclosed Nature has a different lifetime It just takes longer Time will fix it all One source of hope stands untouched the redwood grove and waterfalls spared even as the fire devoured almost everything else Scientists consider it the the bulk inland natural redwood grove in California a distinction that makes its survival even more remarkable The cost of starting over Nature may heal on its own The reserve s infrastructure will not As a small nonprofit largely run by Alvarez Cleary faces an uphill climb County law requires property owners to remove hazardous debris For Cleary that means a costly cleanup before rebuilding can even be considered Linda Weinreich a spokesperson for Napa County declared the county s Recovery Operation Damage Assessment Branch will soon evaluate the reserve for asbestos unstable structures and other hazards Once assessed a cleanup deadline will follow Failure to comply could lead to violations or even land seizure Alvarez estimates the price tag at just to remove the debris With Federal Emergency Management Agency funding limited and federal mishap programs shrinking he mentioned he s not sure where that money will come from State endorsement is uncertain Donations he reported may be Cleary s only lifeline Rebuilding is not on the horizon for a long time he revealed Teaching through the ashes Even with its lodge gone Cleary Reserve remains a living classroom Alvarez worries the destruction might deter professors from bringing students back But at least one educator sees the fire itself as part of the lesson Floyd Hayes a biology professor at nearby Pacific Union College commented he still plans to bring his vertebrate biology classes to Cleary It s really a beautiful reserve Hayes stated I would love to take students there every year The fire he added offers a unique opportunity to scrutiny ecology in real time how species adapt how landscapes recover and how human decisions shape those outcomes Whether the lodge ever rises again is unclear But Alvarez announced the mission of Cleary Reserve endures There is a new lesson here he announced about fire ecology and safety and human impacts that we will try to teach when we get everything cleaned up