News release: Water-starved shrubs likely intensified recent wildfires in Southern California
Native shrubbery that died during a severe 7-year-long drought helped spread the 2017 Thomas and 2018 Woolsey Fires, according to research published in the journal, Ecosphere. These wildfires were ignited by electric power line failures and spread through vast areas of dead vegetation, directly impacting communities in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Evergreen, densely packed shrubs cover much of Southern California. These shrubs, called chaparral, are adapted to California’s wet winters and dry summers, but when one of the driest and longest lasting droughts hit the state from the end of 2011 to spring of 2017, landscapes normally filled with living green plants were left with grey-colored drought-killed remains.
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