CHAPARRAL

Where is Chaparral?

Area’s of Chaparral in California

(in acres)

San Diego 1,003,441Los Angeles 553,789Riverside 499,160Santa Barbara 440,645San Luis Obispo 417,718Monterey 369,345Ventura 326,447San Bernardino 276,010San Benito 246,623Santa Clara 188,427Orange 111,550Marin 37,566San Mateo 36,152Santa Cruz 32,328

• Chaparral is a

shrub-land plant

community found

primarily in

California and in

the northern

portions of Mexico.

CHAPARRAL

What are characteristics

of chaparral shrubs?

• Sclerophyllous (hard-leaved)

plants commonly form the

foundation of this plant

community.

They have small, hard leaves,

that roll up, under, or fall off

during the normal summer

drought

CHAPARRAL

CHAPARRAL

• Fire is a major factor in

the dynamics of this

Chaparral plant

community, and plants

are adapted to fire

ie. crown-sprouting

shrubs, and annual

fire-followers

CHAPARRAL

Fire

Followers

• Normal fire frequency should

be about 100-400 years,

depending on the Chaparral

type and location.

• The presence of weeds, and

human carelessness has

increased the fire frequency

to as little as six months

CHAPARRAL

CHAPARRAL

• Some people feel that we

should remove Chaparral in

urban interface areas

What would happen if we did?

• If you remove Chaparral, grass

and weeds will grow

• Weedy fields burn faster than

you can drive. By the time you

figure out a grassy area is

burning, you could be in danger

• There is almost no erosion in clean

Chaparral;

• there are large mud slides in areas

of Chaparral that have been

converted to grass.

• Removing brush would lead to

enormous erosion problems.

What would happen if we did?

Chaparral usually covers the rocks but when it rains like January

2006, the chaparral

slides away and the

geology is exposed…rock

slides! Topanga Canyon 1/9/06

Results of erosion

Fires benefit the Chaparral

• Burns release valuable nutrients into

the soils.

• Fire can replace old growth with

younger plants that will continue to

release nutrients into the soil.

• The chaparral does not “need” fire to

survive however, as some areas of

old growth are thriving today..