March 25, 2008

LA JOLLA INDIAN RESERVATION, CA - Wildflowers bloom among trees that burned in the Poomacha Fire when wildfires of historic size and intensity swept across southern California in October 2007, as the arrival of spring brings new growth on a scorched land on March 25, 2008 on the Rincon Indian Reservation in northern San Diego County. The spraying of hydromulch along highways and freeways as resulted in an unnaturally abundance of yellow flowers. Flowers that grow in the areas unaltered by the roadside hydromulching are spaced farther apart and dominated by purple flowers such as lupines. After years of drought and a bone-dry rain season, a series of massive wildfires swept across hundreds of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of homes and killing at least nine people in late October 2007, surpassing the destruction of the state's previously largest firestorms of 2003. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)