Chaparral ( SHAP-ə-RAL, CHAP-) is a shrubland plant community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California, part of the California floristic province. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intensity crown fires. Many chaparral shrubs have hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought-deciduous, scrub community of coastal sage scrub, found often on drier, southern-facing slopes. Three other closely related chaparral shrubland systems occur in southern Arizona, western Texas, and along the eastern side of central Mexico's mountain chains, all having summer rains in contrast to the Mediterranean climate of other chaparral formations.
Bell Homestead National Historic Site
Alexander Graham Bell made the world's first long-distance telephone call from his father's homestead in Tutela Heights, just minutes from West Brant. The Bell Homestead National Historic Site preserves the farmhouse and coach house where Bell conducted his early telephone experiments in the 1870s. Open seasonally for tours.
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