Chaparral Wisdom
To celebrate the magic and beauty of Nature & the chaparral
Category: Climate Change
The 2017 Wildfires – How We Think About Nature and Fire
After the massive 2017 firestorm that hit northern and southern California, it is important to take a look nature’s relationship to fire and how nature has been characterized in the wake of what has happened. For this discussion, we will be focusing on the… Continue Reading “The 2017 Wildfires – How We Think About Nature and Fire”
A Plea to Journalists – Wildfires in California: please investigate poor land planning rather than denigrating the region’s iconic, native ecosystem
Many in the fire science community are disappointed by the recent reporting in High Country News (HCN) by Elizabeth Shogren on the tragic fires in northern California (Shrub-choked wildlands played a role in California fires, HCN 10/24/2017). Portraying the ecology of the region as… Continue Reading “A Plea to Journalists – Wildfires in California: please investigate poor land planning rather than denigrating the region’s iconic, native ecosystem”
Something is odd about Cal Fire’s state Tree Mortality maps
We examined a place near Santa Ysabel, off Highway 78 in San Diego County that we know well. What we found was disturbing. 1. Much of the area designated as having 40 – 15 dead trees per acre is either California sage scrub or… Continue Reading “Something is odd about Cal Fire’s state Tree Mortality maps”