At least it wasn't a state forest

On February 2, the Carbon Canyon Chronicle ran a post that began as follows:

A press release was issued at the end of last week announcing that Chino Hills State Park was officially reopening yesterday after being closed two-and-a-half months since 90-95% of the park burned in November's Triangle Complex Fire.

Which means that the park is probably seriously denuded - or with what passes for "seriously denuded" in this part of the country.

You see, southern California is a desert, and therefore our flora do not exactly look like the flora you'd find in other parts of the country, or even in northern California. Once we took some visitors from the East Coast through the Cajon Pass, and the visitors saw the signs for the San Bernardino National Forest. "What forest?" they asked.

Back to Chino Hills State Park. This is what Neil Nisperos of the Daily Bulletin said on January 31:

Park Superintendent John Rowe said 90 percent of the trails will now be open, though five of the less visited trails would remain closed because of burned bridges....

The park is still missing many trail signs, so Rowe advises only those familiar with the park to venture into the backcountry.

About 95 percent of the 14,000-acre park, which spans three counties, was consumed by the inferno.

Despite the loss of most of the park's habitat from the fire, park officials are hopeful for the return of wildlife. They have observed signs of vegetative regrowth, with green hillsides and trees growing back from their roots.

The one hidden blessing from all this is that as life renews in the park, new animals will start to populate the park, and the whole (for lack of a better term) circle of life will circle around again.