Westmont ecologist Laura Drake Schultheis shares her research about plant flammability and defensible spaces in the face of climate change in a Westmont Downtown Lecture, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11 at Keith Center, 29 W. Anapamu St.
The talk, called Rooted in Resilience: Adaptive Planting Strategies in Wildland-Urban Interfaces, is free to attend. No tickets are required, but the limited seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I will share examples of native plant restoration and efforts to improve community defensibility in fire-prone areas like Santa Barbara,” Schultheis said.
“I hope people are encouraged by the conversation and empowered to get involved in the work being done to restore our native ecosystems and reduce fire risk in our own communities,” she said.
A Westmont alumna who earned a master’s degree in ecology and a doctorate in plant ecology from UC Santa Barbara, Schultheis has played an integral role in the restoration of a fire-resilient oak woodland west of Westmont’s campus.
Schultheis, a Westmont assistant professor of biology, and her students have planted about 60 native coast live oaks where Montecito Fire removed dead and dying eucalyptus trees in the summer of 2023.
“Anytime you can plant an oak, you create another potential way to stop a spreading fire,” she said. “While no plant serves as a complete barrier to fire, there is some evidence that healthy, mature oak canopies can slow the spread of fire compared to non-native species like eucalyptus.”
Last summer, Schultheis and student Isabella Garcia (’25) presented a paper, “Purposeful Planting: Characterizing Plant Flammability Using Functional Traits for Defensible Space,” at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, one of the largest ecology conferences in the nation.
Other research has analyzed the structural and functional traits that contribute to the flammability of 20 Santa Barbara native plant species. This summer Schultheis and a team of Westmont undergraduates will expand on this work through a collaboration with researchers at UC Santa Barbara.
Schultheis has also published a paper on the effects of drought and opportunistic fungi on big berry manzanita shrubs.
The Westmont Foundation sponsors the talk, part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter.
Parking for the lecture is available at either Santa Barbara City Parking Lots 4 or 5.
For more, call 805-565-6051.