Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve Reopening After Wragg Fire
WINTERS (CBS13) — Nearly a year after the Wragg fire, the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve is set to open to the public once again. Volunteers hope new changes to the area will go along way with the visitor experience.
"Really quickly it swept through," said Jeffrey Clary, Reserve Director. "It burned a total of 8,000 acres."
638 of those acres were in UC Davis' Stebbins Cold Canyon Natural Reserve. In happened July 22, 2015. In the scorching summer heat, the Wragg Fire ripped through the brush, burning every cottonwood and blue oak in its path.
Just 30 miles from UC Davis, the Reserve is a natural training ground and outdoor classroom for those studying the environment.
"All of the UC Davis campus and Berkeley campus folks have been really engaged with the site to learn what they can about climate change in California," Clary said. "it's here, it's now and this was a perfect illustration of that."
The area has been closed off to visitors since last summer. But it's that slowdown in traffic that has given volunteers the time to make necessary changes to the area.
"I'm pretty excited because this is a real step up from people who were used to this place with basically no improvements," he said.
Now, new steps and signs will lead visitors from a new parking area to the tunnel. The goal is to keeps visitors from crossing the busy road to get down to the trail.
For now, the reserve's recovery is going to be mainly hands off, as the researchers watch nature take its course.
"We're hoping people can come out and see the landscape in this new way because for those who have been here before, it's going to look very different," Clary said.
With so many of the trees gone, there isn't a lot of shady area left near the reserve. So Clary recommends that visitors come early in the morning and prepared for plenty of sun.
The Reserve will be open on Sunday May 15 from sunrise to sunset.