Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan

Seeding a Forest
with Fire

By Charles Post

They say you could see the walls of fire from San Francisco. Four days of flames and smoke billowed from that torched sea of coastal prairie, scrub and forests dressed in autumn hues. The Mount Vision Fire of 1995 burned hot like a desiccated tinderbox, one brimming with sixty-eight years of fuel.


Long before Native Americans, Sir Francis Drake, Spanish missionaries, and Mexican rancheros arrived on these verdant grounds and began using fire as a way to clear land, lighting strikes, though rare, triggered a cascade of fire-born repercussions that trickled through the ecology of Point Reyes. With time, plants and animals became dependent on fire, their life histories entwined with its destructive and regenerative nature.

Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan

The first known humans to harness the power of fire here in Point Reyes were the Coast Miwok, a peaceful people who lived in harmony with the wax and wane of the seasons. Assumptions may suggest that the Native Americans did not intensively manage the land, but instead lived in passive co-existence with the natural landscape. This could not be further from the truth; Native American’s were active in managing and modifying their environs. The Coast Miwok used fire as a tool to shape their environment in ways that enhanced hunting grounds and promoted the growth of certain target species, some of which were harvested for basket weaving materials or food. Fire has always been an element, both natural and anthropogenic, of Point Reyes—with a trained eye it becomes strikingly clear fire’s signature remains omnipresent.


Serotiny is an ecological adaptation that describes an age-old alliance between fire and certain plants; wherein the fire causes the plant to release their seeds. In the case of Point Reyes, this alliance ties the Bishop pine to fire’s transformative hand. The fire proliferates by burning plant matter, while the Bishop pine, enveloped in fire and smoke, responds by opening its cones to release the seeds. A barren understory rich with newly nourished soil ensures the seed germination will take place uninhibited by competition.

Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan

Contributors /
Resources

Photographer
Emily Nathan
WRITER
Charles Post
Illustrator
Sharon Hwang
Production Stylist
Nikki Grattan
Hair & Makeup
Trica Turner
Models
Michelle Moeller and
Wesley Powell
Activities
workshops
hikes
hikes
Tiny Atlas Quarterly, Point Reyes, Emily Nathan