Landscaping for Wildland urban interface zones
While we brace for the Zone 0 regulatory battle, it seems reasonable to consider what is known about landscaping with fire risks in mind. If you find a decent source of information on fire resistant plants or landscaping for Wildland Urban Interface Zones, please let us know and we will link it to this page.
Greg Rubin is a landscape contractor specializing in California native plants. He is the founder of California’s Own Native Landscape Design, Inc. and has designed and installed over 700 native landscapes in Southern California. https://www.calown.com/index.html
https://www.kensingtonfiresafe.org/category/fire-wise-landscaping
Wildfires are burning over longer seasons and more intensely than ever before, and everyone living in a wildland-urban interface or wildland-adjacent area should take precautionary steps to mitigate the risk of property damage.
In Firescaping Your Home, Adrienne Edwards and Rachel Schleiger provide expert guidance and specific recommendations on how to harden your home against fire and create defensible space that is lush and attractive. They also provide in-depth native plant lists of hundreds of species that have evolved to coexist with fire in the West, and show how and why including these on your property sustains wildlife and can actually be your most powerful defense.
“Wildfire policies throughout the nation are based on a simple idea: eliminate vegetation to reduce home ignition during fires. But recent research led by fire ecologists challenges this outdated fire defense—and call for a science-based path forward.
When fire management policies commonly used in forests—such as vegetation clearing—are applied to urban landscapes, the results are destructive to the ecosystem and can actually increase fire.”
Fire-resistant plants are those that do not readily ignite from a flame or other ignition sources. These plants can be damaged or even killed by fire; however, their foliage and stems do not significantly contribute to the fuel and, therefore, the fire's intensity. There are several other significant factors that influence the fire characteristics of plants, including plant moisture content, age, total volume, dead material, and chemical content.
Fire Resistant California Native Plant Lists
