…Southern California’s native shrublands are famously tough. Conservationist John Muir celebrated them as Mother Nature at her “most ruggedly, thornily savage. They evolved along with long, hot summers, at least six rainless months a year and intense wildfires. But not this much fire, this often. …Burn maps show the astonishing extent of the wildfires that have seared the southern portion of the Los Padres forest and adjacent lands. …The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection plans to clear 14,000 acres of shrublands a year as part of a statewide fuels treatment program. “Every Cal Fire person I know … wants to cut it down wherever they possibly can,” D’Antonio said. “[But] every time they cut a new fuel break, they put another strip of grasses on the landscape.”