If you saw smoke over the North Coast of Santa Cruz County on Thursday, it was planned. Cal Fire's San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit, known as CZU, carried out a prescribed burn of roughly 48 acres at Swanton Pacific Ranch near Davenport, Lookout Santa Cruz reports.
The ranch is a 3,200-acre property owned and run by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which uses it as a teaching site for agriculture and natural resource management. The one-day burn targeted oak woodland, grassland and the understory beneath conifers. The goal was to remove "ladder fuels," the brush and small trees that let a ground fire climb into the tree canopy.
"Our goal is to implement low-intensity prescribed burns within oak woodland, grass, and conifer understory to improve habitats, enhance ecological health, reduce ladder fuels and mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire," Scott Bullock, Cal Fire and Santa Cruz County Fire's vegetation management coordinator, told Lookout.
Who was there
Hoodline, citing Cal Fire CZU's updates from the scene, reports that engines, water tenders, a dozer, a helicopter and hand crews from several stations and conservation camps worked the burn. About 20 Cal Poly agriculture students attended to see prescribed fire up close. Earlier coverage put the planned size at about 50 acres, slightly more than the final figure Cal Fire reported.
A ranch still recovering
The land burned in the 2009 Lockheed fire and again in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire, which scorched roughly 80% of the ranch and destroyed more than 40,000 square feet of learning space, according to Cal Poly figures cited by Hoodline. Since then the ranch has cleared brush, ground up vegetation with machines and even brought in goats to graze down overgrowth. Thursday's burn is the latest step in that work.
About the smoke
Lookout reported that smoke may have been visible from Highway 1, Davenport, Bonny Doon, Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond. Cal Fire coordinated a smoke management plan with the Monterey Bay Air Resources District, which posts active prescribed burns on its website. Residents sensitive to smoke can check that list before heading outdoors during burn season.