From north to south, California was historically covered by forests, endless seas of green. Yet in the past 150 years, since American expansion into the borders of the modern-day state, regions from the redwood forests on the northern coast to the alpine pine forests in the San Bernardino and Peninsular mountain ranges have seen drastic reductions in their size.
Only 5% of redwoods from before the California Gold Rush remain. Many of these trees were cut to fuel the growing lumber business in the Pacific Northwest, and their removal has posed many problems for the local temperate forest biome that dominates the region. Moreover, this trend is especially concerning because of the accompanied growing risk of wildfires, which prevents any new trees that sprout up from ever becoming old-growth forests like their pre-human contact predecessors, especially harming Native Americans and those in low-income communities that have fewer defense mechanisms against the poor air quality and infrastructure destruction that accompanies more frequent wildfires.
Historically, Native American tribes in the region, like the Karuk, would engage in a practice called controlled burning, in which small fires would be started periodically and intentionally to remove some of the lowland shrubs that would otherwise serve as wildfire fuel during the warmer summer months. However, deforestation, coupled with the isolation of local tribes from the homeland, has made this practice nearly irrelevant, as the removal of taller redwood trees that would otherwise keep the region moist with the nearby ocean has now created a hotter, drier environment due to greater sun exposure, amplifying the risk of wildfires exponentially.
In Southern California, the low-lying shrubs characteristic of the chaparral biome that dominates the region began to decline in abundance, particularly in the Los Angeles basin, with the expansion of urban areas as long-distance water pipelines and modern amenities like air conditioning made large populations in the region sustainable. A declining density of shrubs in the environment, coupled with ever-increasing heat waves due to climate change, has made the region ever more prone to devastating wildfires.
Successful initiatives include the aftermath of the Fountain fire that spread throughout Northern California in 1992, which spurred increased investment into reforestation in the region, which, sixteen years later, saw the advent of a novelly vigorous stretch of forest in the once-harmed region. In the south, efforts are being made to restore nature from within through the advent of more parks and urban green spaces. In the mountains, efforts are being taken through a multilateral plan involving an adaptable-by-region plan to combat wildfires, along with recovery outlines that involve collaboration with local landowners.