Increase Fire Safety, Beauty and Return on Investment
By Cassy Aoyagi: Our understanding of what puts homes and properties in danger is evolving. We now know that flying embers are most often responsible for home ignition and that homes can burn while nearby foliage remains intact. We also know that steps we took to save water in drought have made us more vulnerable to fire, flooding and mudslides. So where do we go from here?
Here are 10 steps we can take to protect lives and property. (As if that weren’t worthwhile enough, each step will increase beauty and can even deliver higher home values!)
Plant Natives
The same qualities that help native plants stay lush and leafy in drought serve us well in fire season. As they are well-adapted to our climate cycles, native plants tend to retain hydration through our hot, dry summers. While no plant is fire-proof, well-hydrated plants have an advantage in resisting fire. As homebuyers seek low-maintenance, low-water landscapes, planting natives also delivers dividends at sale.
Tip: Click the photo above to see a gallery of our favorites native plants. While natives will consistently maintain hydration better than non-natives, there are a few that are particularly fire resilient.
The Calscape database is a wonderful resource for getting to know native flora. Native nurseries offer both foliage and abundant know-how and educational programs. See El Nativo Growers (Wholesale/Trade), Las Pilitas Nursery, and Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery.
Remove Invasive Plants
Several popular plants marketed as “drought tolerant” like Pampas, Feather, and Fountain grasses, and Pride of Madeira, are easily ignited. These plants travel from our gardens to wildspaces on the breeze and our hiking boots. As they are not well-adapted to our climate, they quickly dry out without supplemental water, increasing our fire danger.
Tip: Do not plant invasive plants in home or community gardens. See the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) for help removing invasives from public spaces. Visit Plant Right for lists of invasive plants and native replacements with similar aesthetics.
Space and Place Plants Carefully
All foliage needs room to grow to it’s full, mature size, particularly trees and shrubs. This action will not only increase fire safety, it will result in greater long-term design integrity and significantly reduced brush clearance and overall maintenance demands. Planting small and allowing foliage to mature in place will deliver additional benefits. Foliage will be healthier, less expensive, and appreciate in value as it grows.
Tip: Research the mature size of the foliage you intend to plant. The amount of space needed by a Coast Live Oak (82H x 35W) will be substantially bigger than that needed by a Western Redbud (20H x 20H), for example. Create a design plan to ensure foliage has room to grow. As you plant, look up and around to ensure the full sized tree or shrub will be far from structures, wires and will complement other plants.
Plant and Protect Trees
Healthy tree canopy at a safe distance from rooftops can act as catchers mitts for flying embers and shield a home. This is really lovely news, as treeful landscapes provide so many other benefits, from decreasing energy costs and increasing home value to shading outdoor spaces and attracting birds.
Tip: Native trees including Coast Live Oak, Palo Verde, and Western Redbuds are particularly beneficial and appropriate to our urban spaces. As with native plants more generally, native trees have advantages in resisting infections, diseases, and maintaining hydration in drought.
Remove Palms
LA’s iconic palm trees greatly increase fire danger. They ignite easily, become explosive, and help fire travel. This is particularly true for those that have dried beards of fronds. Where much native foliage is protective, this is not true of LA’s native palm trees.
Tip: Avoid planting new palms. Check to see if your municipality offers incentives for removing palms. If you have a palm tree you simply can’t imagine taking down, invest in aggressive maintenance. Take great care with hydration, hand watering where necessary.
Reduce Ember “Bowling Alleys”
While gravel and decomposed granite paths and patios provide fire breaks and defensible space, gravelscapes and intensely hardscape areas create free-space for embers to roll into homes. This is more dangerous than having low, well-hydrated foliage that may catch embers at a distance from the home.
Tip: Maintain or plant low-growing, ideally native, foliage rather than gravel or hardscaping large areas. In addition to increasing your safety, it will save energy and therefore save money!
Hydrate!
Well-hydrated objects do not burn. This includes both foliage and homes. Smart irrigation paired with mulching is a great way to ensure foliage and the soil itself maintains hydration through LA’s hot and dry months.
Australians in fire-prone regions have tested rooftop sprinkling systems that, likewise, make homes too wet to burn. We are starting to see these systems marketed here as well.
Tip: Check irrigation systems monthly to ensure proper functioning. Use all organic wood chip mulch – avoid combustible rubber mulches.
Clean and Store
Keeping your landscape tidy and healthy helps your home resist fire. Debris, dry weeds, dead plants, cushions and curtains, even un-stored tools and furniture become places where embers can catch. This is true on hardscapes and in gutters – everywhere. Knowing this step protects and improves home value definitely makes it easier to whistle while you work!
Tip: Readily accessible storage for flammable objects, for example, in-furniature storage for cushions, reduces these dangers and increases the likelihood that items will often be away when not in use. Here, your investment in native plants will save time and reduce waste.
Inspire Your Community
Particularly at the Urban Wildland Interface, public property impacts the safety of our private property. It is in our best interests to work together to reduce this danger. Communities that come together to reshape common ground, removing invasives, and stabilizing slopes (like Sunland, La Crescenta, and Sierra Madre) increase their luck and resilience.
Tip: Resilience hubs and Fire Safe Councils, supported by fire agencies, are great places to start and have incredible impacts. Other possible steps include encouraging local nurseries to carry more natives and to cease offering invasive foliage. Evaluate the condition of nearby open and vacant spaces. If you see problems, bring community together to improve the space.
Develop Outside Fire Paths
While we’ve long thought locating within a city would protects us, the impact of recent fires on Santa Rosa and Paradise show the limits of that protection. The fact is that we have built communities within known fire pathways. Those homes are simply in greater danger than those located in areas that burn less frequently.
Tip: As we work to create more housing, policy makers, planners and developers must consider fire-safety as a criteria for assessing and locating new developments. As citizens, we can encourage them to do so.
Visit Examples
Examples of fire wise landscapes can be seen at LAFD Station 74, the Sunland Welcome Nature Garden, the Fire Station Garden in the Authentic Foothill Gardens at Sierra Madre City Hall, the Rosemont Preserve, and the Fire Wise demonstration garden at Theodore Payne Foundation.
authentic foothill gardens 