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Fire and California Native Plants
| I would like to know what criterial you
use for rating the flammability of plants. For example, you call White Alder a "fire bomb" while you rate Coulter Pine and Sargent Cypress as "possible fire barriers with water". You rate California Walnut and Douglas fir as "roughly equivelant"...you rate Catalina Cherry and Holly Leaf Cherry as having the same flammability as Douglas fir....you rate California Juniper as having the same flammability as California Black Walnut (one-point difference). While I applaud any effort to help people select plants in a fire safe manner, in my 30 years as a fire ecologist, I find this list to have some serious flaws and I wanted to bring this to your attention. |
it's based on what they do under full water rationing, no
extra water. That's happened twice in this county in recent times. a lot of the riparian species don't die for awhile and leave a very dry fuel mass up in the air It is not meant to be a scientific list, it is based on my fire experience(volunteer in brush country, 30 minutes ahead of engine) and knowledge of landscape/plants. I wrote the original one after trying all night to back fire about three miles of brush, we couldn't light it, we could light the weeds, during that same year we keep seeing burnt up homes with classic Mediterranean plants around them, torched, oaks and natives still intact. planted 'drought tolerant' landscape gone along with house. We're hearing from customers in places like downtown Modesto afraid to plant manzanita, and others removing acres of rare plants because the fire departments are telling them it's highly flammable. We replaced the species list with a more effective hygiene and "how to do" page, but the architects demanded the fire/plant be list put back up. (it's behind the main fire page) We're trying to stop the removal of all natives species and the planting of weeds in their place, while making the sites safe enough to evacuate in place. We've tested some of the plants with a blow torch during burn days, most natives need a fuel ladder, most non-natives don't. Also some of the natives that are on the 'safe' lists floating around have not been fire safe when tested here, Baccharis 'Twin Peaks' comes to mind. I've not looked at the list for awhile(years), I probably need to knock down some of the species, and raise others. Your area is much wetter than the rest of the state, the fire list is targeting mostly Southern California. |
| Greetings Mr. Wilson, I have a request for a few names of fire-resistant trees. We have a 2.3 acre property in Ojai, California that we plan on building on and we are taking out a few oak trees. The county is requiring us to replace those trees with others. We don't necessarily need to use oaks and being that we are on top of a about 30 foot slope with flat areas in other places I would like to plant trees that will not turn into firecrakers when there is a fire. Do you have any suggestions? Also I appreciated the fire landscape info on your web site, I plan on using it. Thanks a ton. |
it the weeds, they do not turn into firecrackers unless there
is something feeding them. Anything that grows up burns. If you're really worried about it, fruit trees near house and permanently watered trees like sycamore and cottonwood away from house. But if you're under water rationing and can't water, the oaks are more fire resistant as long as the low density landscape is keep clean. Low fuel load(a mininal planting) and hygine is the key. Weedy landscapes burn real good. |
| I am building a free
informational website to assist the public and Fire
Departments. I have a fire background and I am currently working with L.A City Fire and CDF on this project. I was impressed with your website and linked to your site but feel i should have your approval. |
link away |
| I'm looking for an appropriate
succulent (or very fire resistant native plant) to use for a fuel modification zone in the San Gabriel Mountains (coast side) at 1,830-2,500 feet. I thought about O. littoralis, but its upper elevation range is only 1,300 feet. Do you have any ideas? |
look at Salvia 'Gracias' Baccharis 'Pigeon Point' Zauschneria mix and match |
| I found your website while
searching for the susceptibility of jojoba to fire. I though you'd like to know what a colleague told me about the subject. I think that jojoba chaparral during drought would carry fire very well. I know of one small abandoned jojoba field which caught fire, and within rows (where plants touched), the fire moved down the row and burned plants to the ground. Most plants were not killed, but re-sprouted from the crown. This field did have dry bermuda grass growing up within some plants which no doubt helped feed the fire. I definitely wouldn't put it on a list of fire-resistant plants! Perhaps it resists fire when well-hydrated, but it burns fast when dry. |
Jojoba is not adapted to fire as it has little idea what it is, if there is a flashy fuel like dead grass, then it will burn. In the desert there should be bare ground between bushes by early June. Again, KILL the weeds and get them out of there. |
| My family has a cabin with 22 acres
on Palomar Mountain. We are looking for plants that do not easily burn for landscaping purposes. Do you carry any and if not, can you direct us toward some literature. I can find fire retardant plants at lower levels but we need plants that will thrive in -10F weather as well as dry hot summers without rain. I would appreciate any advice you can give me. We, private property owners, have been cutting down dead trees and thinning the forest for about a year now. There is much more work to do. You have been very helpful with your suggestions. |
1. plant what is there, just less of it with
paths, 'trails' lowering the overall plant density. 2. Use boudlers as part of the landscape 3. DO NOT SEED IN GRASS 3. Control all weeds, bare dirt or the wildflowers that are native there. There are weed killers that can control just the grasses, leaving the wildflowers. 4. Use spots of color to create the illusion of landscape. 5. The key is low density and clean landscaping. see these also What to do if you are in a firearea. www.laspilitas.com/fire.htm - 28k - Nov 4, 2003 - Cached - A list of California native plants that tolerant of deer and fire... California Plants and Fire. - 29k - Cached - Similar pages Wildfire and California Native Plants, design, native landscaping www.laspilitas.com/easy/easyfire.htm - 8k - Cached - Similar pages |
| I am the Treasurer of the Friends
.... Canyon group. We are putting together a flyer to distribute that will not only include information on why you shouldn't reseed (your site has excellent information and with your permission we would like to point people to it) but how to care for shrubs and trees that have been damaged in the fires. Do you know of any resources we could quote for this? |
The only thing they have to pay attention to is
downpours and the resulting soil movement(the web page adresses that) and spot weed control. The bushes, trees and wildflowers need to be left alone for at least a year. Many, or most, will come back just fine, but you'll not know which for at least one year. Seeding, fertilizing, spreading hay all are bad to REALLY bad. The question that needs to be asked is, did the previous seeding/erosion control contribute spread and speed of the fires? As long as you quote us or the website, use any all you want, including pictures. The afterfire wildflowers should do it. |
I was directed to your Nursery by ... from The Xerces Society
in hopes that you might be able to help us.
I live in Santa
Clarita California where the Foothill fires have done
severe damage to our
nature center and wiped out our population of
Milkweed thistle and
many other plants. The ... Nature center has
asked us to see if we
can locate 5 live Asclepias Californica - felt leafmilkweed thistle and
5 Asclepias Fascicularis - narrow leaf milkweedplants to help
regenerate what was lost in the fire and bring back some of the
indigenous butterflies and plants. I was wondering if you might know
where I can get some.
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we have Asclepias fascicularis Narrow-Leaf Milkweed, Narrowleaf Milkweed. californica is not available the milkweeds should crown back within a month with no action sorry, no donations, the problem is not the burnt plants, it's the weeds and possible erosion on the first rains no seeding, but look at debris dams and any possible weed control see Planting seed or plants for erosion after a wildfire. again don't get excited about the sort term, fires do happen, and the wildlife survive. The complete replacement of the site with weeds is a much bigger problem that completely eliminates the habitat long term. I gave up on donating, there are just too many worthy causes and we have too few plants and staff. |
| appreciate your opinion. can you train the manzanita? the ones recovering from the fires are flat and groundcovers instead of shrubs can you trim or train them, to a small tree or shrub what time of the year?is summer ok? thanks oaks show the same ground cover growth instead of devoloping a main trunk can you\i train them? now? | no, leave them alone, they do not have enough
reserves to take the pruning they'll form 'normal' shrubs later |
| Good Morning, I am having a devastating problem with our baby Oaks. I live on Paradise Mountain in Valley Center, north east of Escondido. My wife & I have been to your nursery off of 395 shortly after it opened. (Nice place - Thanks!) During the October 2003 fire a very native (natural) area of our land was burned and most of the smaller Oaks were lost. By smaller I refer to the trees with diameters of one to five inches. Around the base of these hundreds of small shoots are coming up - beautiful! Now almost all of the ends of these shoots are being eaten by an unseen bug/pest. They start by eating the little flower - like tip, or more accurately it might be they are eating there stems just below the tip. The tip appears to still be there dried & shriveled up. There does look like small egg sacks (or something - I don't know) all over the top few inches of every sprout. Does this sound familiar to you? Could you offer a suggestion as to what this might be, or more important, what would I use to get rid of them? Any help would be so appreciated, |
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