Chaparral

Chaparral is a type of vegetation is mainly to be found in California and in the northern part of Mexico's Baja California.

The term chaparral comes from the Spanish word chaparro meaning " low, evergreen oak " back. The root of the Spanish word in turn is the Basque word txapar which has the same meaning.

Chaparral thrives in regions with a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Mediterranean climate is often found on the western side of the continents, as in the central Chile and in Western and South Australia, owing to bring in the winter westerly winds from the sea rain. Here sclerophyllous woodland form similar to the maquis in the Mediterranean with small, hard leaves that limit in the dry summer evaporation. Chaparral often grows so dense that it is impenetrable to large animals and humans.

The plants of the chaparral are adapted to periodic fires, the logs are protected by thick bark against smaller fire and after the fire seedlings germinate quickly in the nutrient-rich ash.

Through the decades of suppression of fires in the 20th century, however, has so much dead wood and other dry material accumulated in large regions that lightning and other causes of fire can cause major fire today. In addition, the hills have been since the 1970s, discovered as a desirable settlement regions and in many places urban sprawl. Therefore, fire jeopardize previously uninhabited regions of human lives and valuable material assets.