Brush Fire Stumps Eastern California desert near Mono Lake 20110925-160812 C4

Captured this image as we were driving the dirt road from the volcanic craters near Mono Lake in Eastern California to get to the highway leading back to the town of Lee Vining. This sight was on the left side of the road while the right side was heavily populated by scrub brush. In the next slide you can see the overview from high on a crater to the mountains in the far background. These burned bushes imply that they grow far apart while, in fact, the lush ones on the other side of the road are sometimes difficult to walk through because they are so full and close together. Brush fires may not be extremely dangerous but I would not want to be fleeing one that was sucking the oxygen out of the air. Chances are the fire that devastated the sage and scrub brush in this part of the desert may have actually be a controlled burn in order to encourage indigenous grasses to reclaim their place in the desert to provide vegetation to wildlife.

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