Chaparral Fires

Chaparral Fire Basics

Chaparral Wild Fire Causes

Prescribed burning
Arson
Primarily by weather, like multi-year drought
Accidents, such as cooking fires

Fires in Chaparral

Chaparral fires burn with high-intensity , crown fire regime. This means that when a fire burns, it burns everything leaving nothing but an ashen landscape.
These fires have always been a natural and unavoidable part of this kind of landscape

Example of Crown fire regime

Chaparral Fire Ecology

Chaparral fire intensity is depended on a mix of different plants. A fire of vegetation causing much destruction. Numerous plant and animal species are found in the chaparral woodlands ecoregion. Chaparral fire brings big changes to species composition and density of plant and animal populations in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Most of the pines were largely eliminated, however the brush stands were reduced be nearly 90%, and there was an increase of grass and forbs. Many of the foreign birds reduced a lot following the fire.

Fighting Fire in Chaparral

Fighting fire in chaparral, you can use water, retardant or prescribe burn areas to stop the fire from spreading. Sometimes it's best to just let the fire burn in its natural course of action. While many people think fires burning the chaparral are good, they are not. They do not help the chaparral in any way. So it's best to put the fire out as soon as possible.

Living with chaparral fires:

Chaparral map in California

Chaparral

In the never ending community of chaparral, fire plays a key role in development. Shrubs are very flammable because of woody stems, resinous foliage, standing dead branches and accumulated litter. Over time the flammability of chaparral increases because of deposition of leaves infused with volatile oils.

Unlike forests that benefit from ground fires to clear up fallen needles and leaves on the forest floor, the chaparral does just fine without fire. When fires do occur, invasive species have the opportunity to get a foothold in an area. The new increased frequency of chaparral fires has not generally been a good thing for the health of Southern California's chaparral ecosystem.

Chaparral plants have 4 survival mechanisms to respond to a fire. These 4 are...

Obligate Resprouters - survive fires by only resprouting.
Obligate Seeders - full grown adult shrubs die in the fire. Seeds then germinate after receiving a fire cue.
Fire Followers - Plants that are annual have to have a fire cue to germinate
Facultative Seeders - An adult plant grows back but the fire cue enhances the germination of the seed.

Animal species in the chaparral

Sage Sparrow
Costa's Hummingbird
Red Diamond Rattlesnake
Red-Tailed Hawk
Coast Horned Lizard
Western Spadefoot Toad
Cooper's Hawk
Western Fence Lizard
Mountain Lion

Sources

Kayla H. ('21) and Julia B. ('21)

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