Firescaping: Do It Now!

Recent drought brings attention to firescaping.

Perovskia atriplicifolia
Item # 76613 		Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Blue Spires'
Blue Spires Russian Sage

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Agave parryi
Item # J2753 		Agave parryi
Parry's Century Plant, Flagstaff form

each $18.99
Clematis scottii
Item # 37163 		Clematis scottii
Sugarbowl Clematis

each $7.99
3 or more $7.79
  • Topic: Xeriscaping
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: drought, climate, fire, firescape, fire resistant plants, Maintenance
  • Date: March 2003

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The Southwest seems to have five seasons now: spring, summer, fall, winter and unfortunately the fifth is coming up fire season. For those of us who live in the mountains or foothills, the prolonged drought has changed our lifestyle. It now requires a keen eye to keeping property trimmed and cleared.

I live near the Santa Fe National Forest and three years ago had to evacuate twice. Last year two fires came within a miles and a half of my house; but I stayed. I dread the decisions this year might bring. Already I’ve started cutting branches, trees and taking pine needles. I live on a quarter of an acre, which isn’t much until you start raking it. But it’s worth the effort.

When talking with our nursery manager, Katherine O’Brien, she told me about a woman who lives in Los Alamos. “She said just before the big fire three years ago, she took eight pickup loads of pine needles to the dump. All the houses around her burned; and hers was left standing.”

Firescaping is a relatively new term in the field of landscaping. It means creating non-burn zones around your home. If a wildfire is coming through, it’ll take what’s in its path—including houses—unless there is no path for the fire to follow. The basic idea of firescaping is: the closer to your home, the less vegetation you want.

Ideally, there are three defensible zones that make up the principles of firescaping—

  • Zone One involves clearing a 30-foot area surrounding a house. This means cutting all trees and brush that could easily lead a fire to the front door. Concrete or brick patios in this area are ideal as well as low ornamental shrubs. If trees are to be planted in this first zone, they need to be deciduous. Remove ranches within 15 feet of chimneys and stovepipes.
  • Zone Two moves out another 70 feet, called the mid-zone. This area is for orchards, gardens. Lower limbs of trees should be pruned to 15 feet of the ground. On steep slopes the plantings need to be kept further apart to discourage a wildfire from limbing up a hill because fire travels fast uphill.
  • Zone Three is no closer than 100 feet from the house. Trees need to be thinned so that crowns are separated by at least 10 feet. Prune branches up from the ground to a height of 10 feet. The goal is to keep a fire from “laddering” up from the ground. This is where brush underneath ignites lower branches that climb up a tree then jump to the crown or tree tops. When this happens, fires are out of control.

In doing her landscape consultation work, O’Brien says she has learned, “When a fire occurs in town, firemen evaluate the homes and will work to save the defensible ones.” This means houses with over-hanging branches, dry grass up to the door and lots of combustible material nearby will not be first on their list to save.

Create fuel breaks wherever possible with such items as pools, mountains and non-flammable fences. Lay rock, gravel, brick and paving in wide-open areas. The types of plants near a home are an essential part of firescaping. Listed below are only a few plants and trees that have proved useful in slowing or stopping a fire from spreading.

  • Trees:
    Maple, Birch, Hawthorn, Ash, Honey Locust, Apple, Cottonwood, Aspen and Willow.
  • Shrubs:
    Agave, Four Wing Saltbush, Mountain Mahogany, Chamisa, Forsythia, Russian Sage, Dogwood, Serviceberry and Mahonia.
  • Vines:
    Clematis, Virginia Creeper, Grape and all varieties of Wisteria.

    We also have a handout that lists more fire resistant plants for northern New Mexico, which can be picked up at Santa Fe Greenhouses.

    Millions of acres have burned in the West in the past few years, and it doesn’t look good this year either. The facts are haunting. In Pinon-Juniper woodlands a fire can burn 500 acres in an hour. Ponderosa forests can burn 150 acres in an hour. What really needs to happen is serious forest thinning. But until that happens (and let’s hope future efforts don’t come in the form of fire), the next best thing that homeowners can do is ‘firescaping’, and do it now before it’s too late.