Recent rain causes boost of greenery. How this could impact us in the coming months
COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) – Driving around the Coachella Valley, you may have noticed some extra greenery growing recently. Recent rain has spurred early growth of brush, weeds, and other plant life along center medians, local hillsides, and the open desert.
Landscapers have noticed the change, too, and say the growth is coming earlier than normal. According to those experts, this growth isn't typically seen until February.
"It hasn't got as cool as other years throughout this time. It kind of feels like it's kind of spring," said David Macias, one of the managers at Macias Nursery in Thousand Palms.
Among the growth: annual grasses, pesky weeds, but also, native plants indicative of a healthy ecosystem.
"You get like a growth of, like smoke trees. You get creosote bushes growing, you get verbena growing, you know, like the native stuff," Macias listed.
It's a treat to look at – and could be indicative of a bigger bloom in the springtime. But with more plant life comes more fuel for brush and wildland fires.
Captain Brian Steiger, of Riverside County Fire Department Station 35 in Thousand Palms, explained, "Ignition, obviously is easier with the finer grasses and the finer fuels. People that are mowing their lawns later in the afternoon, you get a rock strikes, get a spark, and you end up with, you know, a fire that starts."
"I would say it would be more of a convenience for the person that's having to pull the weeds. If you start now, it's going to make it a little bit easier as you go into the spring because it is it is starting earlier," he said, encouraging homeowners to start sooner rather than later before it all piles up.
Ahead of the dry season, firefighters with CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department want to remind homeowners about resources available online about weed abatement, clearing brush, and how to prepare and evacuate from wildland fires. That information is available at readyforwildfire.org.
