It seems to me manzanita on some slopes is a real mess. I know there are some areas (above Bass Lake over on the west side) where the stuff is over 8 feet tall, and so thick you can't get through it.
And it is growing in an area (Central Camp) where I read some history.... Around 1920, a group of people rode horseback right into the Central Camp area. There is NO way one could ride there now (without using the access roads) due to all the manzanita. They clear-cut the area, and on the lower slopes, the manzanita took over.
Before the logging, I am assuming the area was burned regularly, because the sugar pine grew to 3 and 4-foot diameter trees, and the fires keep the undergrowth down (You can still see the old logged stumps in places.) I believe I read (or heard) that the Native Americans would set fires every fall as they moved to lower ground.
