Disappearance of orange groves changed California forever and had an effect on all the natural patterns in the state. As mentioned in "Los Angeles Against the Mountains", "Housing developments had to be created. The land under orchards was an obvious choice, and a lot of citrus fell in war. After the war, it was readily apparent that agriculture and urbanization were not compatible" (McPhee 241).
Building houses and stripping mountains of chaparral often increases nature's destruction. People who live in San Gabriel Mountains do not even bother to find out the danger they expose their families to. Some of them do not even know that they live in the middle of chaparral. Just like everything in nature, chaparral has its purpose - to grow, burn every twenty five to thirty years, and renew itself. However, moving into a brand new, gorgeous house in the chaparral would convince anyone to try to stop the fires. But human beings do not seem to understand that the fires are inevitable, and they will happen no matter how carefully avoided. "In a sense, chaparral consumes fire no less than fire consumes chaparral" (McPhee 208). When the "old" chaparral burns, all the minerals go back into the soil, so that in a couple of years the "young" chaparral can cover the San Gabriel Mountains. The problem is - humans do not fit into the picture. When the environment follows its natural process, the fire does not go around the houses built in or around the burning plants. If the house does not burn down, the heavy rainfall and accompanying debris will eventually wash it away. As suggested by author McPhee, "After a burn, so much dry ravel and other debris becomes piled up and ready to go that to live under one of those canyons is (as many have said) to look up the barrel of a gun" (McPhee 212). Even though the subject of our battle against nature is striking, it is only a little part of the damage that might and eventually will happen if human beings will continue disrespecting, changing, and destroying nature.