Central and Southern California
Geographic area and background
Figure 1 . Mean percent fire return interval departure (PFRID) from Safford, Hugh D. and Van de Water, Kip M. 2014.
The Central and Southern California Region (CFSC-CSC) includes western California, south of the Bay Area, an area dominated by chaparral and sage scrub shrubland. This shrubland ecosystem is the “other California”, containing the state’s most extreme wildfire regimes and differing significantly from conifer forests. Except for some of the high elevation southern mountain tops, this region currently suffers from an unnatural increase in fire frequency (see Figure 1), The strong departure from the natural fire return interval (FRID) is driven by anthropogenic ignitions, seasonal drought, and extreme wind events and is one of the major threats to this fragile biodiversity hotspot.
Traditionally, fire managers charged with protecting natural shrubland areas in southern California have relied heavily on research conclusions from western US conifer forests. Although these studies rightly emphasize the value of pre-fire vegetation management to reduce fire risk in some conifer forest types, (e.g., prescribed burning, for both resources and public safety), those same fuels management tools aren’t generally appropriate for shrublands.
Our goal is to present shrubland managers with the information to better reduce fire risk, preserve biodiversity, improve ecosystem resilience and conserve ecosystem services. To do this, we have focused on providing publication briefs and synthesis papers of both classic and current California fire research papers and collaborating on special symposia that focus specifically on shrubland management in California. In 2017 we hope to increase our outreach by organizing field trips to see innovative solutions for fire management and conservation problems in our region. We also hope to get public, private, and agency feedback about how to better meet the science needs of the central and southern California fire community.
Need to reach someone?
Central and Southern California Coordinator
Ecologist
U.S. Geological Survey
ahpfaff@usgs.gov
Central and Southern California Lead
Province Ecologist
Forest Service
nicole.molinari@usda.gov
Central and Southern California Co-Lead
Fire Advisor
UC Cooperative Extension
South Coast Research & Extension Center
carmignani@ucanr.edu
Central and Southern California Region Lead
Research Ecologist
USGS Sequoia and Kings Canyon Field Station
Three Rivers, CA
jon_keeley@usgs.gov
(559) 565-3170
Upcoming Events Related to Central and Southern California
If blank, there are currently no upcoming events for this region.
The fourth California Chaparral Symposium (Cal Poly SLO; May 7-9, 2024) will focus on science, management, and conservation of chaparral ecosystems.
Central and Southern California Research Briefs & Synthesis
This study investigates Bishop pine's unique fire ecology, seed bank dynamics, and the impacts pine pitch canker infection has on stands.
In Southern California, native bunchgrass communities dominated by Stipa pulchra are widely distributed in the state but often share dominance with non-native annual grasses. Restoration of these grasslands is focused on altering the balance of native to non-native grasses to favor the native perennial grasses. This study investigated the impact of burning on vegetation recovery.
A new paper by USGS and partners investigated why some California wildfires are destructive and others are not.
In a new study, USGS scientists and partners have found extensive drought-caused dieback in Southern California shrublands that subsequently burned in large wildfires.
To demonstrate where resources might be better allocated across the state, these authors examined the distribution of area burned and structures lost across five different California vegetation types and how the distribution of fire has changed in these landscapes through time.
In this important concept paper, Pausas and Keeley (2021) outline the mechanistic flow of complex drivers of wildfire for fire prone ecosystems. In brief, with ignitions, fuel continuity, and drought saturation points simultaneously lowered by the right weather, wildfire will be triggered.
This paper provides statistical comparisons of wildfires and Rx burning in the three Sierra Nevada NPS parks and six adjacent USFS forests for the period from 1968 through 2017.
A variety of terms are applied to changes in ecosystems around the world to describe some aspect of long-lasting changes in plant communities. Here we evaluate a representative list of analogous terms for processes and patterns involved in vegetation type-conversion, highlighting similarities and differences.
Two years after the 2015 Wragg Fire burned the Reserve, a restored public trail was reopened for use. The authors used surveys to determine public perceptions of fire in this chaparral ecosystem.
In our changing world, community change may be a resilience response indicating a process of adaptation rather than of failure. Falk and colleagues (2019) argue that resilience goals should be updated to better apply to 21st century ecosystems.
This research suggests that collaborative learning among stakeholders (aka knowledge coproduction) would be a good way to develop context specific resiliency metrics and goals, making the term more useful by operationalizing it.
Although the causes of the fires vary by ecoregion and require location- and driver-specific management tools, there are effective ways to reduce both structure exposure and structure sensitivity to fire across all of California.
This research brief provides an example of easy-to-understand conceptual modeling framework as applied to a Mediterranean-type ecosystem.
This research brief adds evidence that plant consumers (i.e., fire and vertebrate herbivory) are key evolutionary drivers for shaping global vegetation patterns.
This California Fire Regime Ecoregion classification map (i.e., using clustered driver variability layers) aims to devise a fire regime classification that better aligns with ecosystem types.
This paper contrasts the two most important factors driving large fires: fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated wildfires.
Hardening homes was strongly correlated with structure survival in the Wildland Urban Interface. The best ways to “harden homes” are to: enclose eaves and use multiple pane windows; use fire-resistant exterior siding, composite deck materials, and fine-mesh vent screens.
After a fire burned through a stand of Tecate cypress, researchers observed that prefire stand age was the most significant factor for recovery after the disturbance.
For many fire-adapted ecosystems, prescribed fires and managed wildfires are valuable tools for mimicking and maintaining natural fire’s full assortment of invaluable Ecosystem Services.
If the fire has characteristics that do not fit the historical fire regime with which the fire-adapted ecosystem has developed, then it may impact resilience and cause a shift in ecosystem characteristics.
The authors show how live fuel moisture content in chaparral shrub species is highly variable. This brief offers new recommendations on how to best use live fuel moisture content as a measure of fire risk.
Unlike the well-studied, large conifer forests of the northern Sierra Nevada, southern California conifer forests are less-studied and represent only about 8% of the landscape. But much like the forests to the north, these valuable ecosystems are at risk of type-converting to other vegetation types.
To test the Interval Squeeze Model concept on real, fire sensitive woody species, these authors created a process-based model of a plant population that could be used for any serotinous, fire-killed species.
The impacts of mechanical mastication fuel treatments on chaparral vegetation are discussed in this brief.
This paper builds our understand of how the spatial distribution of different ignition sources have varied over time and space.
By mastering the art of prescription burning over thousands of years, native California tribes sustainably maximized chaparral ecosystem services like food, medicine, and building materials.
The authors show a direct connection between a diverse set of drivers and type-converted chaparral in Southern California. Example drivers include high frequency fire, land-use disturbance, moisture availability, and site flatness.
Discussions of successes, struggles, and failures with partner-specific tools are vital to the successful implementation of “translational ecology” a formal term for biological conservation partnerships.
The rugged, chaparral dominated Angeles National Forest (ANF, California) is a beautiful and popular recreation destination. However, it is being damaged by a combination of overwhelming anthropogenic stressors, including climate change-induced mega-droughts, unnaturally shortened fire intervals, very poor air quality (e.g., high levels of nitrogen deposition), and the invasion of non-native groundcover plants.
The ecosystems within the South Coast bioregion have accumulated very different sets of modern fire management problems that are vegetation, weather, and location specific.
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Publication Lists
The briefs bibliographies are publication lists of all the briefs related to Central and Southern California region. They include the title of each brief with the original reference (i.e. a journal article citation).
View Research Brief Publication List produced by the USGS >
View Research Brief Publication List produced by the California Fire Science Consortium >
Here's a citation list of all original references we've made into briefs for the CFSC. All the bibliographies are in .xml format, which is compatible in Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero, and most other citation software programs.
Download* .xml file for CFSC publication list >
* IMPORTANT: To download the below .xml bibliographies, right-click the link and click "Save link as" - a regular click will not download the file.
Past Presentations and Conference Materials
Do you have any idea just how valuable chaparral is? Most of us don't realize that these often overlooked lands provide essential benefits worth billions of dollars. The four southernmost forests in California actually contain more chaparral shrubland than forest. This animation describes the benefits and values of these often under-appreciated lands.
View on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-8KFNr1c9o
Presenter: Janet Franklin (UC Riverside)
View Powerpoint PDF >
Presented at the 3rd California Chaparral Symposium: Global Change and the Vulnerability of Chaparral Ecosystems. May 14-16, 2018. Arcadia, CA.
Presenter: Stephen Davis (Pepperdine Univ.)
View Powerpoint PDF >
Presented at the 3rd California Chaparral Symposium: Global Change and the Vulnerability of Chaparral Ecosystems. May 14-16, 2018. Arcadia, CA.
View recorded presentation>
Presented at the 3rd California Chaparral Symposium: Global Change and the Vulnerability of Chaparral Ecosystems. May 14-16, 2018. Arcadia, CA.
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA
This presentation shows detailed examples of the types of activities done in Spain and Mediterranean following a fire to restore the desired ecological conditions and values. Factors that go into the restoration decision process and desired outcomes are also discussed.
Presenter: V. Ramón Vallejo, University of Barcelona & CEAM-Valencia.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA
This presentation discusses the different types of post-Fire rehabilitation on federal lands: 1) Suppression rehabilitation; 2) Emergency stabilization (a.k.a. BAER) 3) Rehabilitation & restoration. For each, examples of management actions, responsibilities, and costs are noted.
Presenter: Jan Beyers, USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station.
View Presentation PDF >
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA.
Follow the restoration process in this step-by-step, highly visual story from the Angeles National Forest. This post-fire restoration story discusses challenges including invasive species, environmental conditions, and more.
Presenter: Katie VinZant, USFS Botanist.
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Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015.
This presentation discusses the educational campaign to share the "5 truths of chaparral" through awareness, curiosity, and shared learning.
Presenter: Rick Halsey
View recorded presentation > (please skip to the following time stamp: 01:33:00, low sound quality)
View presentation PDF >
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015.
The benefits and drawbacks of recreation in chaparral ecosystems are evaluated in this presentation. Social and environmental considerations are discussed and recreation-use survey results on the National and Angeles National Forests are presented.
Presenter: Pat Winter
View recorded presentation > (please skip to the following time stamp-01:01:00)
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Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015.
This presentation explains the basics of carbon sequestration in drylands and Mediterranean ecosystems in addition to a basic overview of the carbon cycle. A major question discussed is "what influences rates of emission and organization of soil carbon?"
Presenter: Darrell Jenerette
View recorded presentation > (please skip to the following time stamp-0:30:24)
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Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. This presentation covers a wide range of potential impacts and considerations for erosion in chaparral ecosystems. Topics include hill and stream erosion processes, post-fire erosion and impacts to ecosystem services caused by erosion.
Presenter: Pete Wohlgemuth
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. Watersheds in chaparral regions have many potential impacts from events like fire, climate, human-use, and invasive species. These impacts are explained in detail in this presentation and opportunities to address them are presented.
Presenter: Chris Solek
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Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. This presentation discusses the basics of flood control and sedimentation with an emphasis on how fire influences these processes. Images and examples of projects are included to showcase the possible actions and impacts.
Presenter: Keith Lilley
View Recorded Presentation>
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Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. Shurblands like chaparral support (either directly or indirectly) numerous animal species. This presentation discusses the diversity of shurbland ecosystems, challenges to biodiversity, and has numerous photographic examples of animal diversity.
Presenter: Megan Jennings
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. Chaparral is a highly diverse ecosystem in many ways. In this presentation, the evolutionary, physiological, and ecological differences are explained.
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. By examining chaparral characteristics and known life cycle traits, the impacts of a possible mega-drought are discussed.
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium, 2015. This presentation discusses the direct and indirect drivers that are threatening chaparral landscapes in Southern California.
This visual presentation goes through the historical relationships between Euroamericans and chaparral to provide background for our current relationship with this ecosystem.
Presenter: Char Miller, presented at the 2nd annual southern Chaparral Symposium 2015.
Presented at the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium. Presenter: Jon Keeley
This presentation discusses the impact of Native Americans on chaparral ecosystems.
Hugh Safford presents the introduction to the 2nd Annual Southern Chaparral Symposium.
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. Considerations for seeding chaparral postfire and recommendations are discussed.
Presenter: Bruce Berlin, S&S Seeds.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. This presentation outlines the basic ecology of chaparral and demonstrates how the disturbances of fire, drought, and freezing (among others) influence this unique ecosystem.
Presenter: Stephen Davis, Pepperdine University. Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. Is there a role for fuels management in chaparral restoration? The trade-offs to this question and recommendations for this answer are explored in this presentation.
Presenter: Alexandra D. Syphard, Conservation Biology Institute; Tess Brennan and Jon E. Keeley, USGS Western Ecological Research Center.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. This presentation discusses the goals, opportunities, and limitations for restoration within the US Forest Service. It also discusses a developed template for postfire restoration plans.
Presenter: Hugh Safford, Regional Ecologist, US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region.
View Presentation PDF >
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA.
This presentation discusses a project that explores different potential methods for restoring chaparral to an area that was converted for grazing. Methods explored included herbicide, planting seeds or seedlings, and using the available seed bank.
Presenters: Megan Engel and Kimberly Williams, Cal State University San Bernadino.
View Presentation PDF >
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA.
Available ecological restoration technology allows for reintroducing native plants and recovery of critical ecosystem functions for many Mediterranean lands. These tools and their pros and cons are discussed in this presentation.
Presenters: V. Ramón Vallejo & J.A. Alloza, University of Barcelona & CEAM-Valencia.
View Presentation PDF >
This presentation reports findings from a restoration project of Sage Scrub. The projects objective was to assess potential for long-term restoration success of Riversidean sage scrub (or inland SS) invaded by exotic annual grasses and forbs, under anthropogenic nitrogen deposition, and subject to frequent fire.
Presenter: Edith B. Allen, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences Center for Conservation Biology.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. This presentation uses examples of post-fire monitoring in the Mediterranean to demonstrate an effective monitoring process and presents recommendations for similar projects.
Presenter: V. Ramón Vallejo & J.A. Alloza, University of Barcelona & CEAM-Valencia.
View Presenation PDF >
Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. This presentation discusses the elements of effective monitoring and treatments using on-the-ground examples in Santa Monica Mountains of numerous species.
Presenter: Christy Brigham, PhD, Chief of Planning, Science, and Resource Management, Santa Monica mountains NRA.
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Presentation from the June 2013 Chaparral Restoration Workshop in Arcadia, CA. Consideration of native plant genetics is a cornerstone to managing biodiversity in a number of projects. This presentation discussed 4 major genetic considerations to review before making planting decisions.
Presenter: Arlee M. Montalvo Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District.
Past Events and Webinars
The 2017 fire season saw the highest number of deaths by wildfire in Portugal’s history. With similar ecosystems as California, and similar social issues, this webinar will offer international insights on wildfire issues.
Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT) and Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants (TPF) are hosting a timely and innovative, self-guided tour to show how native plant landscaping can help protect properties in high-risk fire areas. The tour features three Calabasas homes, each with at least 50% California natives. Docents will be on hand to discuss design and maintenance techniques that minimize danger to the home, including plant selection and home preparation.
California's leading voices will come together to share information and answer post-fire questions. Learn how to prepare and protect your property in this workshop, hosted by Senator Anthony J. Portantino.
View Event Flyer here>
Speakers at this half-day conference, organized in collaboration with the California Fire Science Consortium, will give a broad view of wildfire in Southern California, its effects on plants and animals, and on the human communities affected by these events.
More information and registration information here >
The JFSP California Fire Science Consortium invites you to participate in a dialogue with the purpose of engaging local researchers and managers on fire science/management issues relevant to ecosystems common to the South Coast Region. Space is limited to the first 25 individuals.
Event Announcement/Conference materials
This Symposium is dedicated to highlighting the importance of chaparral landscapes to the ecology, resources, and people of southern California.
Other Resources
Resource Bibliographies by topic related to Central and Southern California
These bibliographies are in .xml format and can be downloaded into a reference manager (i.e. Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero, etc. )
Visit page to download >
This resource introduces Sustainable Defensible Space (SDS) as the area around the home extending 100 feet from the home itself. The condition of this space is critical not only to increasing resistance of structures to wildfire loss and safeguarding firefighters’ lives but also to improving conservation values and protecting California’s natural heritage.
Visit the platform >
At the La Kretz Center, we help preserve California’s biodiversity and ecosystems through research, education and public programs. We supply the scientific research needed to inform management actions to protect and restore California’s fragile biodiversity resources.
The information and file links on this webpage contain a data set of historical and recent fuels treatments conducted across Southern California.
Event Announcement