The flames appeared last weekend, near the northern section of the Sedgwick Reserve.

The staff held their breath, hoping the slow-moving fire would stay north of Figueroa Mountain Road. Like others across Santa Barbara County, they turned to maps and apps to keep track of the Lake Fire’s progress.

“We started to see red dots showing up at Sedgwick, and that was really scary because we didn’t know if that was accurate,” said Nikki Evans, the outreach and communications specialist for Sedgwick Reserve.

Evans confirmed that the wildfire had reached Sedgwick, and that 3,000 acres of the nearly 6,000-acre reserve was burning.

The reserve was created in 1997 when it was purchased from the Sedgwick Estate by UC Santa Barbara. It entered the UC Natural Reserve System that same year.

Since then, the reserve has built a reputation for research, education and community classes.

The Lake Fire, which started burning near Zaca Lake on July 5, had burned more than 36,000 acres as of Friday. It is the largest wildfire in California so far this year and the largest in Santa Barbara County since the 2017 Thomas Fire.

The flames are currently spreading in the northern and northeastern sections of the reserve. Most of the staff’s field stations are in the southern section — where fire crews are currently stationed.

Staff are waiting to see the status of their equipment staged in the northern section, including various trail cameras used to monitor wildlife and the meteorological space telescope.

“We’re worried about damage to the actual equipment,” Evans said. “And then there’s the plots … where they’ve been manipulating conditions to study different ecological factors.”

She said there will be ones “that are in the fire’s path and unusable at this point if they’d been burned. And so, there’s potential for a lot of long-term research to be impacted.”

The northern portion of the reserve is comprised of woodlands that researchers use to study soils, vegetation and wildlife across different plots of land.

The habitat’s unique ecosystem makes it ideal for manipulating soils and plants to understand how they react in different environments, Evans said.

Staff members are also concerned about the loss of oak trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. Research on these trees goes back over 27 years, to the beginning of the reserve.

“It’s going to go on, but they’re going to have to factor in all these wildfire impacts, and then a lot of those trees are going to be lost,” said Evans.

Because of the reserve’s unique ecosystem, there are often more than 50 projects going on there each year.

Even though many of the research projects are run by students from UC Santa Barbara, researchers regularly come from universities across the world to conduct experiments.

Sedgwick scientists publish between 10 and 25 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts each year, according to the reserve’s website.

Evans stated that one of the biggest advantages of a reserve like Sedgwick is that it allows for long-term research. The land is protected from development or other things that could impact the natural environment.

Besides the loss of valuable research, the staff is also worried about the animals in the northern part of the reserve­, which includes black bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes.

Sedgwick is also home to various animals that are considered threatened, including the California red-legged frog, the western pond turtle, and tri-colored blackbirds.

As of now, the hope is that the fire is slow enough that the animals in the northern portion of the reserve can escape the flames, but staff will not know until the wildfire is extinguished.

Sedgwick Right Now

As of now, a few members of Sedgwick staff are working alongside fire crews to combat the flames.

Evans said that the staff is providing updated maps of roads across the reserve, giving officials information on the landscape and environment, and anything else they can do to help officials.

As fire crews have begun creating containment lines to stop the flames, Sedgewick staff also have worked with officials to preserve natural resources and projects where possible.

The people Evans credits with the effort are Lyza Johnson, the director of operations for the reserve, and Frank Davis, the director of the La Kretz Research Center.

“They’re [trying to] find that balance of ‘where can we best (bull)doze that’s going to cut this fire off without destroying some of the important things out there,’” Evans said.

Besides its scientific side, Evans said, the reserve is an important part of the community, where it offers classes, programs, nature hikes, and ways for people to learn more about the local ecosystem.

“It’s a really loved and really special place in the community, in addition to being a world-renowned research hub,” Evans said.

“So, we’re really anxious for what’s to come. [And] hopeful that at least some of the reserve will be spared at this point.”