It's not only California. The entire west looks like this now. They used to go in and clear out deadfall. The forest service roads were well-maintained. Any hunter old enough to remember has seen the changes over the last 15-20 years. They stopped maintaining the roads and taking care of the deadfall.  There's cords upon cords of lumber lying on the ground in all of our state and national forests. It's government ineptitude and mismanagement writ large.