Volunteers cleaning up trails at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park after Glass fire

Lurching up a dirt road at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in a pickup truck, John Roney and Jason Mills rise above thousands of acres of cherished parkland that have been transformed in recent days and years by wildfire.

Where oak woodlands, chaparral stands and flower meadows once stretched for miles, smatterings of scorched trees and brush now cover the hills and valleys of the 4,900-acre park east of Kenwood, exposing hiking, biking and horse-riding trails to direct sunlight.

One of the few hikers at the park this morning describes the fire “damage” greeting her on her trek. But Roney, the park’s manager, sees “stark beauty” in the view, while Mills, a fire ecologist, touts the restorative effect of flames on the park’s flora.

“Some of what looks the most bleak will come back with the most diversity,” Mills says from the backseat of the pickup.

From almost any angle, Sugarloaf has undoubtedly undergone dramatic transformation, with long-term implications for the park’s recreational uses, ecology and funding for programs and operations. Immediate concerns include repairing damage from September’s Glass fire and preparing for winter rains to prevent damaging erosion across the denuded hills. And there’s still a pandemic to contend with.

A month after the Glass fire ripped through the park, visitors are being welcomed back, and 3 miles of the park’s 30 miles of trails have reopened. Overnight campsites are being booked at a fairly brisk pace. But there’s no doubt that the park experience has changed.

Work left to do

On this morning, yellow tape prevents Bill Stone from continuing his bike ride from the popular Meadow trail to Grey Pine trail, which climbs along the park’s eastern boundary. Instead, the 69-year-old hiking and biking enthusiast from Santa Rosa, who has been visiting Sugarloaf regularly for 30 years, is forced to turn around.

“We all understand that fire is part of the natural ecosystem and you have to accept that,” Stone says, snapping photos for his blog, bike365.org. “But to my eye, it (the park) is more beautiful when it’s verdant.”

In 2017, the Nuns blaze roared into Sugarloaf from the southeast and southwest, while this fall’s Glass fire marched across the park’s northern flank. In three years, roughly 90% of the park has been touched by wildfires.

The stunning result is evident from atop Bald Mountain, the park’s highest point, where Roney stops the truck and he and Mills hop out. Looking west, the Glass fire’s path is clearly traced in the charred landscape funneling toward Oakmont, where firefighters made a courageous stand to save the senior living community. Eastward, the brown and blackened mountainside stretches toward the city of St. Helena in Napa County.

Sugarloaf once again proved a vital place for Cal Fire, which used the park to make a stand against flames advancing farther into Sonoma Valley. But the effort came at a cost.

Bulldozer tracks and brush piles are visual reminders of where firefighters carved in fire breaks. Some hiking trails hastily converted into fire roads will have to be repaired. The hills around the visitors center are blackened, mostly by defensive backfires lit to clear out fuels and prevent hot uncontrolled fire from encroaching on the park’s most visited areas.

The campground and Robert Ferguson Observatory were spared, but the historic 1906 Old Red Barn at the top of High Ridge trail was lost to flames. Staff had been preparing the site as a base for hike-in camping and biking when the Glass fire erupted, Roney said.

Like others, he still expresses shock over the fact the fire, which started the night of Sept. 27 across the Napa Valley on an eastern flank of Howell Mountain, made it to Sonoma Valley.

Sugarloaf is operated by the nonprofit Sonoma Ecology Center. Richard Dale, the center’s executive director, checked in with Roney the morning of the 27th, a Sunday, from Bodega Bay where he and his wife were enjoying an anniversary getaway. Roney recalls telling Dale not to worry, that it didn’t seem likely a fire burning on the east side of Napa County could make the leap into Sonoma Valley. But when that did happen, Dale rushed back from the coast to help evacuate the park.

At the time the Glass fire struck, a significant amount of restoration work from the Nuns fire was still underway. That blaze caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to the park, not counting lost revenue, according to Roney. He said damages from the Glass fire are still being assessed.

Park staff will have to recalibrate their forest management plan in the wake of the fires, including how to clear invasive plant species, such as thistle, which are sure to return after winter rains. Retaining walls, bridges, signs and other structures will need to be repaired.

Volunteer workdays are scheduled at the park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays up until the Thanksgiving holiday. Sign up at bit.ly/352zHBS

Wildlife, wildflowers

On the upside, the fires have done a good job of lessening fuel loads in the park, thereby reducing future fire risk. Douglas firs, which are a particular wildfire hazard if left to proliferate, have to a large degree been wiped out at Sugarloaf by recent blazes.

Mills, the Ecology Center’s restoration program manager, said the fumigating effects of wildfire smoke could lessen the threat of plant diseases, including sudden oak death. But he worries the intensity and frequency of recent fires could threaten the return of some native species.

Oaks, in particular, have a long “fire return interval,” the time it takes the trees to mature and thrive again following fires. The process that had begun in the wake of the 2017 Nuns fire has restarted in significant areas of Sugarloaf, notably in areas that have burned twice.

But observers point to the spring following the 2017 fire, after winter rains brought to Sugarloaf an explosion of wildflowers, including the first sighting of the rare whispering bells in a half-century. Not coincidentally, that’s thought to be around the last time a major wildfire struck the park.

“It’s pretty exciting to see what’s in the seed banks,” Mills said. “As botanists, we like to go out after fires and see the biodiversity.”

The fires have taken a toll on the park’s wildlife, killing untold numbers of animals that were unable to escape the fast-moving flames. But staff have seen evidence of bears, mountain lions and other predators roaming the park, as well as falcons and other birds of prey. This morning, a rafter of wild turkeys visited the campground.

“Nature will come back just fine,” Mills said. “It’s our influence on nature we need to mitigate.”