Читать книгу 101 Hikes in Southern California. Exploring Mountains, Seashore, and Desert онлайн

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The most dramatic change taking place in the high mountains of Southern California—especially the San Bernardinos —is a massive die-off of coniferous trees. The high-elevation areas in Southern California have been receiving less precipitation in recent decades. A string of very dry years beginning in 1998–99 triggered an acute infestation of bark beetles, which eventually resulted in sudden death for millions of drought-stressed pine, fir, and cedar trees. Wildfires in October 2003 and 2007 destroyed millions of these dead and dying trees, and many others are being removed by logging operations in an overall effort to thin the forest to attain a more healthy level of tree density.

The Mojave Desert

North and east of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains lies the vast, arid sweep of the Mojave Desert, a zone only partly included in this book. The Mojave, sometimes known as the high desert for its generally high average elevation, becomes far less populated and more diverse in its natural features as we move toward eastern California. A few of the hikes in this book explore the transitional region between high mountain and high desert.