SPRING'S EARLY START; SOUTHLAND'S LUSH LANDSCAPE IS GIFT FROM EL NINO; ALLERGY SUFFERERS, FIREFIGHTERS SEE PROBLEMS.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

St. Paddy's Day might still be two weeks away, but everywhere you look, it's green, green, green.

The usually dry, pale brown hills of Los Angeles are alive with the colors of wild grasses and blooming wildflowers. After a record series of super-soaker, tropical-like storms courtesy of El Nino, some say the landscape itself is becoming tropical.

``If we keep having rain like this, we are going to turn into Hawaii,'' said Brooke Bateman, general manager of Malibu Canyon Landscape and Maintenance, which is based in Thousand Oaks.

Lawns green enough to make even White House gardeners weep, shrubs shooting up like adolescents, flowers in magnificent bloom - all this comes from the double-the-normal-rainfall that's doused Los Angeles in the past few months.

And that early spring spectacular could be double trouble: the allergy season already has started weeks early and could be far worse than normal and, even worse, when all that vegetation dries out in the searing winds of autumn, it could produce highly dangerous fire seasons for at least the next two years.

Since the rainy season's start in October 1997, more than 22 inches has fallen on the Los Angeles Civic Center, setting a new record for this century.

Without a doubt, storms triggered by the global weather phenomenon known as El Nino have been disastrous, claiming lives and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

But the tempests also have transformed this typically barren region into something of a spring wonderland weeks before the season officially begins.

``Spring is early this year,'' said Milt Stark, conservation chairman of the Sierra Club's Antelope Valley chapter.

Plants like dune primrose, sand verbena, brown-eyed primrose and pepper grass are popping up across the Valley at a time when the wildflower expert didn't expect them for another few weeks.

What's more, Stark said the rain, which usually doesn't give the east side of the Valley as good of a soaking as the west, hosed it down just fine.

``The flowers out there are coming up just beautifully,'' Stark said.

In the San Fernando Valley, all the watering from above has put the flora on the city's more than 8,000 acres of parkland into growth overdrive, forcing groundspeople to work weekends to catch up.

``We have had about two months of constant watering,'' said James Ward, principal grounds maintenance supervisor of the Valley region for the city's department of Parks and Recreation. ``The weeds are getting very tall.''

Business hasn't picked up yet for Bateman, but he said he's ready for a busy year.

``We're anticipating a lot more clients,'' Bateman said. ``They're having an excessive amount of growth.''

The wet weather also has tinkered with the usual cycle of seasons in the state's desert areas, resulting in a gift to hikers and wildflower enthusiasts.

A big storm in Death Valley National Park in late September 1997 led to the premature blooming of native plants including desert gold and indigo bush, said Kevin Emmerich, a park naturalist.

Flowers all year

``We have had flowers blooming all winter, even when we had temperatures below freezing,'' Emmerich said. ``It has been a very unusual year in that respect.''

Emmerich said nature lovers have been flocking to the park's Web site to learn about the latest flower sightings. With the park already logging 2.8 inches of rain this year when average annual rainfall is 1.9 inches, rangers are bracing for a crush of visitors seeking the flower bonanza.

``It's going to be a very good year,'' Emmerich said.

In Joshua Tree National Park, the scene was nearly as remarkable. Bladder pod, verbena and dune primrose came out in early January - nearly eight weeks before they typically appear, park officials said.

The Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley has established a 24-hour wildflower hotline to provide information on the best places to see flowers over the next few months. The number is [phone].

Allergy alert

While a banner year for wildflowers can mean bliss for amateur botanists, it can spell ACHOO! for the more than 10 percent of the population that suffers from asthma, hay fever and other allergies.

``There is no question that we are heading into one of the worst allergy seasons on record in Los Angeles,'' said Dr. Jacob Offenberger, a San Fernando Valley allergist. ``We have had so much rain coming down that every seed in the ground is practically going to flower or bloom.''

The allergy sufferer's public enemy No. 1, though, is the pollen that comes, not from wildflowers, but from trees and weeds, Offenberger said.

Due to the rain and warm weather, pollen-laden trees like olive trees and oaks started blooming in January as opposed to March or April, starting off this probable whopper of an allergy season early.

``A lot of people have allergies already,'' Offenberger said. ``The sneezing and sniffling have already begun.''

When it comes to the fire season though, firefighters say the monster storms that have been pounding the region could actually delay its start.

The ground and shrubs are so saturated that it will take a while for plants to dry out, a fact that could postpone the typical May opening by a month of so, said Henry Rodriguez, a Los Angeles County Fire Department inspector.

Rodriguez predicts grass fires this season could be more troublesome than most. But he said firefighters won't face the full effects of the storms until 1999, when the brush, which provides such powerful kindling to wildfires, will have grown substantially.

``Don't get me wrong, we are still going to have brush fires this year,'' Rodriguez said. ``But next year is probably when it is going to get really big.''

WHERE TO SEE WILDFLOWERS:

From the purple lupines blooming along the Ventura Freeway and Malibu Canyon Road to the white and pale blue mountain lilac blooming along the windy roads of the Santa Monica Mountains, wildflowers are brightening up the Southern California landscape.

Milt McAuley, author of ``Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains,'' said there should be good wildflower viewing in this area through April and into May.

``There's a lot of green right now - grass all over the place. This will be a great wildflower season,'' McAuley said. ``You could hardly lose in the next six weeks or so.''

For people going out to see wildflowers today or within the next week, he recommends a drive along Pacific Coast Highway between Point Dume and Point Mugu where it is prime time to see the vibrant yellow blooms of the giant coreopsis.

These flowers, which bloom on the Channel Islands, can be found on Point Dume at the southern end of Zuma Beach and along the highway at Point Mugu, particularly in the La Jolla Valley area.

Another area of spectacular wildflowers right now is in the upper Hondo Canyon area along Saddle Peak Road, about three-quarters of a mile east of Stunt Road, McAuley said. This area has acres of yellow bush poppies in full bloom.

Bush poppy plants are eight to 10 feet high. Hondo Canyon rises up through Topanga State Park land to Saddle Peak Road from Old Topanga Canyon Road.

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, box

PHOTO (1 -- color) Little Leaguers head for practice at Reseda Park on Monday afternoon. Recent storms have left the field green, but soggy in spots.

(2 -- color) A rabbit feasts on grass at Pierce College.

(3 -- color) A view north toward Porter Ranch shows how green is our Valley. Rains have turned the region into something of a spring wonderland.

David R. Crane/Daily News

(4 -- 5) no caption (orange poppies)

Jeff Goldwater/ Special to the Daily News

Box: Viewing wildflowers (see text)