EARTH, WIND & WILDFIRE! EXAMINES THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRE, NATURE, AND PEOPLE

San Diego, CA, July 12, 2004--The San Diego Natural History Museum announces the creation of Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE!, a comprehensive exhibition that explores the powerful forces that shape the landscape of southern California: fire, nature, and people. Opening October 16, 2004, and continuing through October 2005, this exhibition is a testimonial to the splendor of nature, the power and inevitability of fire, the responsibility humans have for living with nature and fire, and the inspiration of recovery in nature and the community.

"We hope visitors will come away with a sense of awe for both the splendor of nature and the power of fire, and with a sense of responsibility for living in this fire-dependent place," explained Exhibition Curator Dr. Anne Fege. Designed to raise awareness of the history and inevitability of fire in southern California's arid and diverse wildlands, Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE! employs objects, videos, photographs, and interactive displays.

San Diego is a "hotspot." San Diego is a "hotspot" in every sense of the word. People love it here--where else might residents or visitors, on a summer day, walk in the desert shadows as the sun rises, hike in the cool shade of pine trees in a mountain meadow at noon, and stroll on the beach as the sun sets?

San Diego County is among the top ten "hotspots" for biodiversity in the U.S.; more species have been reported here than in any other county in the U.S. More than 2200 plant species and 490 bird species have been recorded in these diverse habitats--coastal terraces, inland valleys, mountains, and deserts--each with significantly different topography and climates.

San Diego is also literally a "hotspot" with fire being part of this landscape for thousands of years. Fires are inevitable in San Diego County--the weather is warm, sunny, dry, and sometimes windy. When driven by Santa Ana winds, fire will burn until the winds stop blowing.

Nature adapts to normal fires. Many plants and animals are adapted to fire, with many different responses: some can escape and may recolonize later; some can regenerate from seeds or resprout; while others may be wiped out. Chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats burn as high-intensity crown fires, and regenerate naturally when fire-return intervals are more than 15 to 20 years. In oak and pine forests, frequent low-intensity fires are common, burning the undergrowth and hardly affecting the trees.

It is difficult for nature to recover from frequent fires. Our southern California ecosystems face threats to their health, even survival. Fires have become more frequent with growth in human population, creating a situation in which habitats cannot recover and are changed dramatically. When burned too frequently, whether by wildfires or prescribed burns, chaparral and coastal sage scrub will be taken over by highly flammable, weedy, non-native grasslands that burn even more often.

Fires take on a life of their own. When Santa Ana winds are not blowing, these fuel- or topography-driven blazes are quickly suppressed, credited to the world's most experienced wildland firefighters. However, when these fierce winds create 60-mile-per-hour gusts and humidity is almost zero, wildfires burn out of control and quickly outstrip the firefighting resources until the weather changes.

People can learn to adapt to the inevitability of fire. Wildfires cannot be prevented, but we can prepare for them, as we do for earthquakes and floods. Loss of life and property can be minimized by planning low-fire risk communities, building survivable structures, and maintaining defensible space.

The purpose of Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE! is to explore the powerful forces that shape our region-nature, fire, and people-and to ask, "How can we co-exist with fire and nature?" Curator Anne Fege suggests that visitors will leave the exhibition with four "take-home messages:"

1. The biodiversity of San Diego County is unparalleled, and uniquely adapted to low rainfall, rugged topography, and wildfires.

2. Fires have become more frequent with growth in human population. When fire is too frequent in coastal sage scrub and chaparral ecosystems, habitats cannot recover and are converted to dramatically different types.

3. With fire-wise planning and design of communities and structures, we can reduce risk to human life and property and preserve native biological communities.

4. As humans, we can reduce our vulnerability to large fires by understanding and respecting the power of fire and the value of nature, and by adjusting our developments and our lifestyles to the setting we choose to live in.

Dr. Anne S. Fege is Curator of the exhibit. She is currently a Botany Research Associate at the San Diego Natural History Museum and Curator of Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE! Dr. Fege retired on May 15, 2004, as the Forest Supervisor of the Cleveland National Forest, where she was responsible since 1991 for managing 450,000 acres in Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties for watershed values, habitat for native plants and animals, recreation and other uses, wildland fire management, and open space. She is widely known as a co-founder of the San Diego Partners for Biodiversity and San Diego Fire Recovery Network, and recently earned a Masters in Business Administration at San Diego State University.

The San Diego Natural History Museum is located in Balboa Park at the intersection of Village Place and Park Blvd. Open daily for discovery from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; it is only closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Free Tuesday at the Museum is the first Tuesday of every month. Admission in $9 for adults, $6 for seniors, active military and their spouses and college students; and $5 for children from 3 - 17 yrs. old. Members are free. Website: www.sdnhm.org. Phone: 619 232.3821.

Exhibits | Events Calendar | Museum News
Search | Site Index | Home