Parma Park rebounds from Tea fire devastation

By ERIC LINDBERG — Feb. 3, 2010

One of Santa Barbara’s largest city parks is making a strong recovery after being devastated by the Tea fire more than a year ago.

Parma Park had been reduced to a moonscape of scorched earth and leafless trees when the wind-whipped blaze tore through the hills above Santa Barbara in November 2008. But with funding from disaster grants and the Parma Park Trust, the city has made significant headway on a major restoration project at the 200-acre site.

“I think we got lucky in part because we didn’t have a significant storm event last winter,” said Jill Zachary, assistant parks and recreation director.

Vegetation has returned to the slopes and creek banks, and crews have spent countless hours removing non-native species and clearing out debris following the fire.

City officials approved additional work in the park yesterday by authorizing a $139,000 budget for 2010 — consisting of $55,764 from a federal disaster grant and $83,236 from the park trust.

Fund will be used to plant native trees and shrubs, remove non-native plants, restore and maintain trails, and repair any storm damage. The park, located in the Sycamore Creek watershed off Stanwood Drive, is characterized by steep slopes and tributaries featuring oak woodland and riparian habitats.

“About 95 percent of the park was completely burned,” Zachary said.

In the weeks following the blaze, crews removed debris from creekbeds, spread mulch, cleared a large debris basin and installed a debris rack.

City officials also began long-term restoration planning, a process that had already been underway with smaller projects.

“We had been chipping away at it through the years,” Zachary said, adding that the fire presented an opportunity to tackle the project all at once.

Using a grant from the federal labor department, the city hired 11 hourly workers. The additional staff support enabled the city to remove trees from a burned eucalyptus grove and collect eucalyptus seeds, a labor-intensive process that took roughly 2,300 hours.

Workers also removed metal left from a ranch that used to utilize the parkland, including barbed wire and irrigation pipes, and restored five miles of trails.

A 100-year-old olive grove planted by the Parma family had been significantly damaged during the fire, and the crew managed to salvage much of the wood, which has been milled and fashioned into trail signs in the park.

Benches and picnic tables crafted from the salvaged wood are also in the works, Zachary said, adding that the olive grove is undergoing rehabilitation as well.

Although pleased with the restoration efforts, Councilmember Das Williams lamented the city’s inability to keep the same crew of workers due to constraints mandated by the federal grant that only allows workers to earn up to $12,000 each.

As a result of those requirements, Zachary said the city would have to hire a new set of hourly workers this year.

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Living up to his reputation : 2/3/2010

The best part of this item at the city council meeting was when Das Williams whined aloud to the staff that these many jobs paid by outside grants to fix up the park were not high-wage union jobs.

Eugene Debbs

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Rejuvination feels good... : 2/3/2010

Thank you fellas for the effort to salvage what you can. I hope this type of enthusiasm can spread throughout the burn ares...Outstanding Job! Keep up the good work.

Boycott Boy

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: 2/3/2010

Too bad the feds don't let them keep the same work crew. Just when the crew really knows their job, they're laid off and new people are hired. That's terrible! It's like the seasonal workers for the USFS, USFWS, Cal Fish and Game. No wonder govt., doesn't get much done, they lay off most of their work force every year. Bad system. Other countries don't do this to their work force.

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Parma Fire Fuel : 2/3/2010

There are many burned and/or dead trees and shrubs visible in Parma Park along the hillside above Stanwood Drive but there seems to be no work being done to clear out this fire fuel. A Fire Department rep said that the city had no intention to clear the fuel as the park is classed as "open space." It seems to me that the city should take the same actions regarding cleaning up Parma Park that they make individual homeowners do.

Art

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Parma Park : 2/4/2010

It really bothers me that no one ever seems to mention that the park was donated by Harold Parma with a sizable trust to keep it going.

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