Who we are
We are a group of Conejo Valley residents (City of Thousand Oaks, CA plus unincorporated areas) who live in neighborhoods designated as Very High or High Fire Severity Zones.
2025 is an important year for California’s effort to harden homes and neighborhoods against ember spread firestorms.
The new Fire Severity Map changes the zones for many homes in SoCal suburban and urban neighborhoods that are close to open space. Even more important, the long awaited Zone 0 property risk mitigation requirements will be adopted by the Board of Forestry, and three years later, enforced by local fire jurisdictions.
You should know your home’s zone and what it could mean for your risk mitigation responsibilities/expenses, insurance costs, property enjoyment, and resale value.
The science behind the zone 0 regulation proposals is controversial. The potential cost, damage to the environment, and loss of enjoyment, wildlife habitat, and cooling during hot summers is not being shared with homeowners by the state and local fire agencies.
Local fire jurisdictions and fire safe councils are busy getting the word out to communities about the benefits of creating an ember resistant 5 foot zone (Zone 0) around their homes.
At public information events and home assessments, few residents are told that the final risk mitigation requirements will be expensive for homeowners and could impact their enjoyment of their home as well as its resale value. Mostly they are told that no one knows what the regulations will require. That’s just not true. Drafts are published every month and on December 31st, the final draft will be the final regulation. Homeowners aren’t told that the science behind removing well irrigated plants from zone 0 (or zone 1 or 2) is controversial. (click link)
Click on the link to look up your home on the 2025 Fire Severity Map. Scroll down the page to the - Explore Fire Hazard Severity Zones – click on ‘view map on cell/tablet device' link if needed. It’s not easy to find. Look for the little gray box.
Start entering your address and select it when it appears in the drop down.
Red is very high, Orange is high, and Ventura County elected to include both colors in the soon-to-be-adopted mitigation requirements.
When you enter an address, the map will zoom in on that neighborhood and show a black icon for the address. You can zoom out and move the map around to see other neighborhoods.
The text will provide your responsibility area and the fire hazard severity zone the property is in based on the 2025 fire hazard map (FHSZ). [see example below] The current draft of the Zone 0 requirements is here
Thousand Oaks population is 134K. We have around 40,000 single family homes and around 10,000 units in multi-family buildings. Close to half of the parcels are in a very high or high fire severity zone. In Ventura County, both red and orange zones will be subject to the BOF Zone 0 regulations.
We want up-to-date science, regulations that take into account risks to health and safety that occur when vegetation is removed - Heat, Pollution, Financial Burdens from soaring costs for electricity as communities lose shade and the cooling benefits of irrigated vegetation. Added to these harms are the acceleration of climate change consequences -drought and extreme weather events.
The BOF portrays this as Safety vs. Esthetics. That's a false construct. There are other ways to protect communities that don’t do the harm that mandated plant removal in Zone 0 will do.
The basic facts:
In 2020, California enacted Assembly Bill 3074, mandating the creation of an “ember-resistant zone”—referred to as “Zone 0”—within five feet of structures in designated high fire hazard areas. This initiative aims to reduce the risk of homes igniting from wind-driven embers during wildfires, a leading cause of multiple-structure fires.
Despite the law’s passage, implementation has faced delays. Originally set to take effect in 2023, the regulations have not been finalized, leaving fire control districts, municipalities, builders, and homeowners uncertain about compliance requirements for new construction and remodels.
In response, Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-18-25 in February 2025, directing the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to expedite the adoption of Zone 0 regulations. The intent is to have these regulations in place by the end of 2025.
Key Aspects of Zone 0:
Scope: Zone 0 encompasses the area within five feet of a structure, including courtyards, attached decks and stairs.
Requirements: The regulations could limit or prohibit combustible materials such as wooden fences, mulch, and vegetation within this zone. Exceptions for certain vegetation and trees depends on the final language of the regulations.
Applicability: Once finalized, the rules will apply immediately to new constructions - and permitted improvements - in State Responsibility Areas and Local Responsibility Areas with Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone ratings. Existing structures will have three years to achieve compliance.
This is an unfunded mandate with no assurances given for enforcement costs, municipal expenses, low-income assistance, or tax breaks for homeowners.
Stakeholders:
The development of Zone 0 regulations has involved collaboration among certain stakeholders, including CAL FIRE, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, local fire agencies, insurance lobbyists, electricity generators, and government/industry funded fire nonprofits. This approach was supposed to ensure that the regulations were practical and considered the diverse needs of California’s communities. What’s missing from this list? Homeowners! and Wildland ecologists!
Addressing Concerns:
Many experts have raised objections to the accuracy of the science behind the recommendations. Homeowners have expressed concerns about the potential costs and quality of life impacts of complying with Zone 0 requirements. To address these concerns, community members here and elsewhere are asking to have concerns taken seriously.
Our Take: (Zone Zero-Conejo Valley)
A one-size-fits-all approach fails to recognize the vast differences between homes in rural and forested environments and the relatively small lots found in suburban communities which are often close to brush and grasses of the chaparral open space. The new risk mitigation regulations should reflect these differences.
The Board of Forestry wants homeowners and communities to accept the Zone 0 regulations as a necessary sacrifice. They are minimizing the harms, ignoring scientific input that interferes with their goals, and hoping to push these regulations through before the public understands what is happening.
We are questioning the science behind the mandated removal of well irrigated, high moisture plants from Zone 0. Videos circulated by CAL FIRE and insurance companies were conducted using very low moisture vegetation, creating the impression that well irrigated plants are a major reason for ember ignited house fires. It appears that millions of Southern California homes will be forced to make expensive, potentially harmful modifications to their properties if these regulations are adopted.
Moving Forward:
Implementation of common sense Zone 0 regulations is an important step toward enhancing community fire resilience. Homeowners will cooperate if they are included in a process that has good science behind the mandates and flexibility in implementation that takes costs, protection of the environment, enjoyment of nature, and reasonable use of property into account.
We want up-to-date science, regulations that recognize risks to health and safety when vegetation is removed - Heat, Pollution, Financial Stress from soaring costs for electricity as communities lose shade and landscape removal costs, all added to the climate change consequences of drought and extreme weather events. The BOF portrays this as Safety vs. Esthetics. That's a false construct. There are better ways to protect communities.
Explore this website for more information about common sense approaches to managing fire risk in the Wildland Urban Interface. Start with the Speak Up! Page
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