Grassland
Grassland may be tabula rasa, the starting point after wildfires, when most shrubs are burned to the ground. It frequently occurs in the most disturbed areas, either human agriculture or eroded slopes. No sprinklers here, these are a combination of perennial bunch grasses with deep roots and nonnative annuals, like cheat grass. The alien grasses increase fire risk: not as well-adapted to arid conditions, they often dry before the end of spring and leave dry leaves as readily combustible tinder. The presence of hemlock, pampas grass, ice plant, and rusting automobiles indicate significant modern human presence, which diminished with the establishment of Camp Cooke in WWII.
Black sage and other shrubs will establish themselves, and the grass may develop into Coastal Sage Scrub. A local study found that grasslands changed to scrub at a rate of 0.7% a year in the absence of disturbance from wildfires or livestock. Just a few centuries.
