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Chico State students present post‑fire vegetation study, recommend prescribed burns and early spring weed abatement
Summary
Chico State professor Kristen Kosinski and students presented field sampling from Upper Bidwell Park’s Park Fire burn scar, finding low star‑thistle cover in prescribed‑burn sites and recommending continued prescribed burns, early spring weed abatement, and ongoing monitoring.
Chico State researchers presented on April 28 the results of fieldwork tracking vegetation recovery after the July 2024 Park Fire in Upper Bidwell Park and recommended continued, targeted prescribed burning and early‑spring weed abatement to reduce Yellow Star Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis).
Professor Kristen Kosinski introduced the students’ two projects: one quantifying Yellow Star Thistle cover across burned, unburned and prescribed‑burn sites, and a second surveying fire‑follower native species using crowd‑sourced iNaturalist records. Students said they established 25‑meter transects and used line‑point intercept sampling in three treatment categories and noted limitations: sampling was done in early March and may underrepresent peak season star‑thistle cover.
The student presenters reported the lowest percent cover of yellow star thistle in areas that had received consecutive prescribed burns (0.17% in their sampled prescribed‑burn plots), higher cover in unburned areas and a Park Fire scar that resembled unburned conditions in early‑season measurements. The presentation stressed that single large wildfires can temporarily increase star‑thistle presence and that repeated prescribed burns reduce its seed bank over time. The students also documented fire‑follower natives — notably bird’s‑eye gilia, wavy‑leaf soap plant and red larkspur — and recommended ongoing monitoring to track succession.
During questions, commissioners and staff pressed on how many years of repeated burns would be required, whether prescribed burning could be expanded into the Park Fire scar, and how management could be coordinated with Chico Fire. Staff said discussions with Chico Fire are ongoing and that staff resources and weather constraints will govern expansion of prescribed burns.
The presenters recommended (1) continuing prescribed burns in Upper Park where feasible, (2) early‑spring weed abatement for yellow star thistle before seed set, and (3) continued vegetation and reference‑site monitoring to document successional trajectories.
