News & Events

Upcoming Event: Fire Follower’s Tour

Sedgwick Reserve is hosting a Fire Follower’s Tour Saturday, April 4th 2026. After three successful Prescribed Burn Training Exchanges and a VMP burn at Sedgwick, we would like to welcome you back to see how the plots are recovering. Please click the link to sign up!

The 2025 VMP Burn was a Success!

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department recently completed a prescribed burn covering approximately 110 acres of coastal sage scrub and oak woodland in the southwest corner of UC Santa Barbara’s Sedgwick Reserve, adjacent to Woodstock Ranch. The burn marks an important milestone in the Reserve’s 10-year Vegetation Management Program (VMP), which aims to reduce wildfire risk, advance research into prescribed fire behavior and effects, and provide valuable training opportunities for fire professionals. Overall, the prescribed fire was moderate in severity, though conditions varied widely between habitats. In the coastal sage scrub, most shrub patches burned completely, while areas of oak woodland showed a mosaic of effects.

Researchers collected detailed pre- and post-burn data to examine how vegetation structure and fire behavior influence ecosystem recovery. Pre-burn fuel characteristics were quantified on the ground and paired with LiDAR data to characterize three-dimensional fuel structure and vegetation composition. During the burn, thermocouples, data loggers, and pyrometers recorded fire temperatures and heat flux, while cameras documented flame height and rate of spread. Post-burn monitoring now focuses on assessing how differences in fuel structure and fire intensity translate into variation in plant community recovery. Ultimately, the research aims to determine whether specific combinations of fuels and fire behavior promote greater post-fire plant diversity across foothill ecosystems.