[from the text] Natural recovery of vegetation following wildfire in chaparral watersheds leads to changes in microtopography. Because chaparral does not regrow uniformly, a mosaic pattern results. This regrowth often forms barriers to sediment delivery from uphill bare sites (Heede 1988). Soils derived from coarse-grained granites, which contain very little binding materials are highly erodible. Thus, relatively large volumes of sediment are deposited at the uphill edge of the vegetation barriers, or buffer strips. Since these mounds and other ground surface undulations remain uncompacted for relatively long time spans, at least three decades in our case, their stability depends on the soundness of the buffer strips.