EFFECTS OF BIG FIRE STUDIED : POINT REYES BLAZE FASCINATES BIOLOGISTS.

Byline: James Bruggers Contra Costa Times 

In addition to spectacular crops of wildflowers and Bishop pine trees, last year's fire that charred thousands of acres on Point Reyes sprouted a harvest of research projects.

Bay Area biologists are getting a rare opportunity to study the effects of a big fire so close to home.

``There will be a number of master's theses out of this fire,'' said Sarah Allen, a National Park Service biologist. ``There are students and professors from UC Berkeley, San Francisco State and other colleges that are doing work in the fire area.''

It's all part of the recovery at Point Reyes National Seashore, where flames that topped 3,000 degrees charred 12,354 acres. The fire that began Oct. 3 destroyed 48 homes and other structures on private property before racing 4 miles from Mount Vision to the Pacific Ocean in just two hours.

The fire started dozens of studies on everything from birds to mountain beavers to invading plants to fungi, said John Dell'Osso, a park service naturalist. ``It's doing nothing but benefiting us.''

One researcher - Tom Bruns, assistant professor of plant and microbial botany at UC Berkeley - was particularly fortunate.

He had already collected five years of data on the mysterious relationship between certain kinds of mycorrhizal fungus and the root systems of Bishop pines. In a true symbiotic relationship, the pines cannot survive without the fungus, which helps tree roots fight off disease and absorb nutrients. In return, the fungus gets sugars and carbohydrates it needs.

The fire destroyed all of Bruns' plots. But it also gave the researcher a chance to contrast soil conditions under what had been a 60-year-old forest with a brand new one.

``I was very happy, actually, when it happened,'' he said.

Very little is known about the kinds of mycorrhiza, let alone mycorrhiza after a fire, Bruns said.

``Our main question after the fire is what comes back and where. We are finding the community looks dramatically different from the way it looked before the fire. The most common species are no longer common.''

He has found that nature moves quickly. One kind of fungus or another has inoculated between 80 and 90 percent of all pine seedlings, which stand about 4 inches high. That's good for both the pines and the fungi, Bruns said. ``If they don't find each other, they are both cooked.''

The fire produced one of the park's most dramatic wildflower seasons in memory. Many of the seashore preserve's 850 species of flowering plants burst into full bloom.

In late winter, purple Douglas iris was among the first to show its colors, followed by fields of scarlet Indian paintbrush.

``To see the vibrant colors up against the bright green grass up against charred black branches was almost too much for the eyes,'' Dell'Osso recalled.

Toss in the blue- or silver-hued ocean and migrating whales close to shore and it's easy to understand how the park draws 2.5 million visitors a year.

Even as dry, hot summer weather turns grasses golden brown, some flowers still bloom. They include orange-colored monkey flower, yellow and purple tarweed and blue or yellow lupine.

Park officials say the fire, part of nature's cycles, will only benefit Point Reyes. Before people began suppressing fires decades ago, Marin's coastal hills probably burned every 15 years or so, Dell'Osso said.