FIRE PREVENTION IS EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY As owners in Big Trees Village, we share an appreciation for the beauty and tranquility of our mountain life. Accompanying that pleasure is a shared responsibility to protect the community from wildfires which could destroy all that we and our neighbors enjoy. Each of us has an important role to play in wildfire prevention. Creating defensible space is both the law and a proven way each of us can protect our property. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (now Cal Fire) is responsible for enforcing fire safety standards on improved lots. Ebbetts Pass Fire District (EPFD) has the same responsibility for unimproved, i.e. undeveloped lots. If you have specific questions about what you need to do, call the Cal Fire Station in Arnold at 209/795-1542 or the Calaveras-Tuolumne Unit in San Andreas at 209/754-3831 (for improved lots) or EPFD in Arnold at 209/795-1646 (for unimproved lots). Following are some general guidelines:
IMPROVED LOTS As you may know, the rules for clearance around our homes and other structures were changed in 2006. Whereas for many years the rules called for clearing only an area of 30 feet immediately surrounding the house and any other structures, the regulations now require 100 feet of protection. This means a 30-foot “clean” area immediately surrounding the structure(s) PLUS a “reduced fuel zone” of 70 feet (or to the property line).
Guidelines for the first 30 feet: • Create a lean, clean, and green zone by removing all flammable vegetation and any dead or dying plants. • You may keep single trees or other vegetation that are trimmed of all dead and dying foliage and are well pruned and maintained.
Guidelines for the next 70 feet, i.e. from 30-to-100 feet (or to the property line): • Remove surface litter (fallen leaves, needles, twigs, bark, cones, pods, small branches, etc.) so it does not exceed a depth of three inches. • Remove logs and stumps unless they are embedded in the soil; if they are embedded, remove nearby vegetation. • Depending on your lot's characteristics (slope, size and type of vegetation, grass, trees, etc.) you will need to be guided by Option 1 and/or Option 2 summarized below:
Option 1 • Ideally, grass should not exceed four inches in height; however, if the grass is isolated from other fuels or is necessary to stabilize soil, up to 18 inches of height is allowed. • Horizontal clearance for shrubs and trees. Because uncleared ground fuels provide an open freeway for the rapid spread and increased intensity of fire, clearance between shrubs should be 4 to 40 feet depending on the slope of the land and size and type of vegetation. Clearance between trees should be 10 to 20 feet depending on the slope. Shrubs and trees may be grouped if the grouping does not exceed 10 feet in width. • Vertical clearance for shrubs and trees. Because low branches create ladders from the ground fuels to the trees, vertical clearance between the tops of shrubs and the lowest tree branches needs to be established. A good rule of thumb is to create a minimum vertical clearance of three times the height of the shrub.
AND/OR . . . Option 2 • If your lot has a continuous tree canopy, you will need to prune lower branches to a height of six to 15 feet from the top of the vegetation (or the lower one-third of branches for small trees). • If ground fuels are greater than four inches in height, prune trees to a minimum of 15 feet or 50% of tree height. If ground fuels are less than four inches in height, prune to a minimum of 6 feet. While these are guidelines, compliance with California Law (PRC 4291) and Cal Fire Regulations is required.
UNIMPROVED LOTS EPFD has stated it will use the same standards for clearing on unimproved lots as Cal Fire has developed for the 30-to-100-foot zone when portions of the unimproved lot are within 100 feet of a structure on an adjacent improved lot (see above, starting with “Guidelines for the next 70 feet”).
A CONCLUDING NOTE . . . Both Cal Fire and EPFD realize that the new regulations, in many cases, will require significant additional clearing. While they understand that this clearing is necessary to protect Big Trees Village from catastrophic wildfires, they are committed to working in a spirit of collaboration with those property owners who are actively working to accomplish the 100' perimeter clearing. | ||
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