Balancing Wildfires and Chaparral

Maureen Cavanaugh: During an interview on These Days about the recent Santa Barbara fire, there was a mention about overgrown chaparral on the hills. Well, one of our listeners took exception to that report and as it turns out, when it comes to chaparral, he knows what he's talking about.

Richard Halsey says referring to chaparral as overgrown is a basic misunderstanding of this plant system and could lead to land management mistakes. In fact, Halsey says chaparral, which is a native California plant community, gets dismissed too often as nothing but wildfire fuel, and that threatens both the California wilderness and our overall fire safety.

Guest

Rick Halsey, biologist and director for The California Chaparral Institute.

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