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| Not saying the guy on the you tube is completely wrong, but he is missing much. California Chapparral is a mix of short growing brush. Google up a picture of the Hollywood sign it is surrounded with chapparal and annual grass mix. Perfect things to burn fast, not that hot in comparison with forests with much old dead wood. The way the nature evolved the chapparal plants adapted to fire it is part of their renewal. In the first 10 years after a fire the plants are mostly green, and don't burn well. As the plant grows it shades out the lower portion and become wooder and not of interest to deer, rabbits, or other browser animals. As rainfall is limited the lower parts other than major stems die off. The dead material just keeps building up until a fire happens. The natives understood this and would lite it before it got so high the browser animals they hunted could not reach the younger parts they wanted to eat. Under this way the plants that survived the best grew back out of the roots within weeks of the fire. So I would term it an environment born in fire growing to burn again.
Since southern California was never a great home for beavers his whole use of the beaver dam does not apply. The trees that adapt to the low rainfall, such as the native Live Oak trees (never loose the green leaves) has waxy surfaces that helps keep water in. But this wax burns very easily. If there is not too much of a build up of other dead wood, they burn fast. The heat will not be enough to kill the tree, and it will also regrow soon. Some of the imported species like eucalyptus grow much the same way. But with the build up of burnable materiel will make a hotter fire that can kill the trees off.
So safety for the most people would come from burning all the brushy areas every 10 years or maybe a bit more or less as per high and low rainfall years. But burning can never be 100% controlled so there may be a few houses damaged under this way of doing thing. But so much better than having it happen in conjunction with the high wind speeds that come ever fall/winter in southern California. As well as 20 to 100 years of build up of the old dead parts of the brush.
Of course building in the brush was never a real good idea. But the brush has never produced a income through agricultural use, so very cheap land. By this time to be up on hill looking down on your neighbors has made it very high priced.
With regulations from all sides who knows when or even if the burned homes will be rebuilt. | |
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Interesting video Calif. fires and preventative solutions
